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What is Performance Improvement?

As one reads the literature, it becomes immediately apparent that there are a number of similar terms related to performance. In addition, different authors characterize performance improvement as a goal, a process and a system, and describe frameworks, models and paradigms. What they all have in common, however, is a focus on performance.

Rosenberg (1998) presents definitions of the three most common performance expressions:

• Performance improvement is the goal or benefit of focusing on individual and organizational change and business results.
• Performance consulting is the service or practice of providing advice, leadership, support and direction to the performance improvement process.
• Performance technology is the process and tools used to solve human performance problems or to realize performance improvement opportunities.

"Although training and education are critical to increasing competitiveness, meeting the educational challenge is just part of the answer. An effective human resource system needs an outstanding learning system, but it requires more; it requires a focus on performance." Source: International Society for Performance Improvement (1999).

Examples of performance technology tools include performance analysis instruments, cause analysis processes, traditional and technology-assisted learning interventions, change management techniques, followup protocols and evaluation instruments. Performance technology is often referred to as human performance technology (HPT).

Clark (2000) defines performance improvement as:

A systematic process of discovering and analyzing human performance im-provement gaps, planning for future improvements in human performance, designing and developing cost-effective and ethically justifiable interventions to close performance gaps, implementing the interventions, and evaluating the financial and nonfinancial results.

Stolovitch and Keeps (1999) define HPT as "a field of endeavor that seeks to bring about changes to a system, and in such a way that the system is improved in terms of the achievements it values." Improving the quality of a country's reproductive health services must focus not only on healthcare providers, but also on the systems within which they work (e.g., policy, management, community, logistics, communication, supervision).

To develop a performance improvement strategy, it is essential to identify the components of the performance improvement process. Callahan (1997) writes that the performance improvement process involves applying HPT. She reports that there are a number of models, but that all share the following six key steps:

• Identify needs linked to performance gaps, which are based on a formal assessment.
• Establish desired performance goals that can be measured and that link directly to organizational goals.
• Decide on the type and level of performance needed to accomplish those goals.
• Determine potential obstacles to attaining desired performance.
• Identify the best solutions and performance interventions that can be used to remove or overcome those obstacles and to close the gap between real and ideal performance.
• Conduct an evaluation to make sure those goals have been reached and the performance gaps have been closed.

As Callahan (1997) points out, the first step in most performance improvement processes is an assessment of needs, with these needs being linked to performance gaps. Kirrane (1997), in describing the role of the performance needs analyst, points out that analyzing problems and opportunities to discover their cause or causes often indicates how to preserve and enhance what works—and to correct, replace or eliminate what does not.

Hutchinson and Stein (1998) write that although performance technologists use a variety of models, most contain some version of a five-phase process. These five phases, similar to the six steps outlined by Callahan, are:

• analysis and definition of needs or gaps,
• overall selection and micro-design of the intervention set,
• micro-analysis and design of the component interventions,
• integrated application of the set of interventions (implementation), and
• evaluation and feedback.

Finnegan (2000) describes the six parts of a performance system, which are summarized as follows:

• Feedback—Feedback needs to be frequent, balanced between the positive and the negative, easy to understand and directional, in that it specifies what to do.
• Procedures—Procedures, or entire processes necessary to an organization, must work by themselves, work at various times (time of day/night, week, month or year), work in the context of other things getting done and work while other situations change daily.
• Consequences—Consequences need to be in balance to help achieve the desired performance.
• Cues—Cues identify critical parameters of performance, such as when desired performance must be done, what exactly is required and how to do it.
• Skill—People at work need to demonstrate that they have the skill to do what is required and perform at the desired rate.
• Knowledge—People need to know what to do. If lack of knowledge is the main problem, training can be successful, though sometimes costly in time and money.

According to Chase (1998), "You send your employees to training to teach them new behaviors. But if you don't make the effort to encourage the transfer of those behaviors back to the workplace, you may as well be throwingyour training dollars out the window." Brethower (1998) also believes that instruction must be connected to the workplace in specific ways if transfer is to occur. Garavaglia (1998) agrees, and reports that the results of his research show that the greatest barriers to the transfer of learning are:

• a non-supportive organizational climate,

• lack of reinforcement on the job, and

• interference from the immediate work environment.

Garavaglia's assessments have identified the following factors as being the most critical to overcoming these barriers and establishing an effective climate for transfer:

• trainees need to discuss anticipated objectives with their manager before training,
• trainees need to discuss progress toward achieving objectives with their manager after training,
• managers need to identify and remove obstacles to transfer,
• trainees should meet with trainers to discuss post-training performance, and
• trainees should be paired together to reinforce post-training performance.

In addition to a component for transfer of training or learning, it is essential that the strategy also involve key individuals with interests in performance improvement. Brethower (1998) writes that performance improvement initiatives work better if they are connected to the interests of, and championed by, key stakeholders. Developing expertise in building stakeholder consensus must be reflected in a performance improvement strategy.

All performance improvement models contain an intervention step. An intervention is an activity, process, event or system that is designed to correct the problem or change the situation and improve performance. Hutchison and Stein (1998) present 20 classes of interventions. Although not all of these would be appropriate for an organization's performance improvement strategy, these intervention classes are helpful in ensuring that those most relevant are included. Their classes are:

• Career development systems
• Communications systems
• Documentation and standards
• Ergonomics and human factors
• Feedback systems
• Financial systems
• Human development systems
• Industrial engineering
• Information systems
• Instructional systems
• Job and workflow design and redesign
• Labor relations systems
• Management practices
• Measurement and evaluation systems
• Organizational anthropology
• Organizational design and development
• Quality improvement systems
• Resource systems
• Reward and recognition systems
• Selection systems

Stolovitch and Keeps (1999) group performance improvement interventions into two main categories: learning interventions and non-learning interventions.

• Learning Interventions—These interventions include a range of actions or events designed to help people acquire new skills and knowledge. Following are examples of learning interventions commonly used by JHPIEGO.

  • Group-based learning. A learning method in which a group of participants receives training from one or more trainers.
  • On-the-job training (OJT). A form of self-paced, structured learning that allows the individual requiring training to acquire the necessary knowledge and develop the required skills while on the job.
  • Experiential learning. An approach to learning that actively involves participants and applies the use of new skills through a variety of instructional meth-ods (e.g., case studies and role plays).
  • Self-paced learning. A method in which learners progress through the instruction based on their individual learning capabilities. Self-paced learning occurs in structured OJT and computer-assisted learning.
  • Feedback systems. Means of communication whereby individuals receive information about their progress in mastering a skill or activity or achieving their learning objectives.
• Non-Learning Interventions—These interventions encompass actions and items not related to learning but still geared toward performance improvement. They can enhance the effectiveness of learning interventions and include:

  • Environmental Interventions. Adjustments can be made within the work environment, either by eliminating barriers that prevent performance or increasing support mechanisms for obtaining and enhancing desired accomplishments. Examples of environmental interventions are: providing tools and equipment to do a job, creating standards and policies to guide performance and strengthening a deployment system.
  • Incentives/Consequences/Motivation Interventions. Rewards for performance, consequences for lack of performance and perceived value of the work being undertaken all have an impact on performance. Examples of interventions in this category are pay for performance, recognition for superior performance and establishment of supportive supervisory systems to build confidence.
  • Job Aids. These "external memories" (charts, pocket guides), containing information that the individual is not required to learn and remember, can help improve performance.

The focus on performance improvement has implications for followup, measurement and evaluation. Gill (1996) indicates that performance is measured in terms of progress toward specific goals. In order to claim that performance has improved, there must be some sort of measurable change according to the standards or indicators that have been established. In discussing performance deterioration, Rosenberg (1998) says that performance will never improve by itself, and that once deteriorated, performance becomes increasingly resistant to improvement. It will only stay improved if there is support from the performance improvement system (e.g., supervisor support). The implication for a performance improvement strategy is that there must be clearly established goals and an evaluation component to determine how successful specific interventions have been to attain those goals.

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