Introduction
San Antonio Housing Authority was established in the United States to provide safe, decent, and sanitary housing for the low-income earners within the cities. The authority is committed to the mission of providing quality and affordable housing that is well blended with the status of the neighborhoods. It serves as a background for improving the lives of the people living in the cities by making them more independent. The San Antonio Housing Authority is considering developing a human performance technology plan to address the issue of human performance gap within its departments. Human performance technology plan is meant for striving to improve the human performance in the workplace since it provides the necessary tools for achieving valued human performance in the workplace.
The plan for the authority aims at addressing the numerous performance gaps that exist within its various departments. The main performance gaps of focus in this human performance technology plan include the communication barrier that exists between the first line, the middle, and the upper management level of the authority. The authority also has inadequately trained personnel for supporting the allocated responsibilities towards the attainment of the authority's mission. Most of the personnel within this authority are not certified, and they are allocated heavy workloads to cover within the stipulated period. The tools used to perform the tasks assigned are outdated, and the employees are not well compensated for the work they perform (Morrow, Mood, Disch & Kang, 2015).
The human performance technology plan seeks to address these performance gaps, which are measurable, observable, and capable of being improved to match the standards of the organization. The performance gaps that exist within this organization are clearly identifiable and can be responded to through the adoption of the human performance technology plan. The plan can address the issue of performance gaps through the adoption of more employee training programs, changing of the employee reward system, redesigning the work environment to make it more conducive, and implementing new technology to help improve the performance of the entire system (Morrow, Mood, Disch & Kang, 2015). The plan will focus on the human performance technology competencies needed, the models used to develop and design the plan, the selected intervention and approaches needed, changes in the management approaches, and evaluation of the human performance improvement at behavioral and results level.
Human Performance Technology Competencies Needed
The designing and development of the human performance technology plan require critical competencies that need to be developed and demonstrated during the process of developing the plan. One of the main performance gaps in San Antonio Housing Authority is a lack of good communication among the various levels of management within the authority. Therefore, one of the core competencies required in this development is communication so that the plan establishes and maintains effective communication strategies with every employee, which will establish a good working relationships with all the employees (Ford, 2014). Another core competence required in the development of the plan is the ability to measure the employee performance using the qualitative and quantitative measures that provide the necessary information needed for monitoring the employee performance within the authority.
Model used for Analysis
Cause and effect analysis model will be the most appropriate model for developing the human performance technology plan for San Antonio Housing Authority. It will enable the plan developers to explore the real causes of the performance gaps before they begin to devise solutions for the problem. The cause and effect model can be used as a tool for performance management and quality control since it can discover the cause of the problem, uncover the bottlenecks in the processes, and identify sections where the processes are not working effectively (Leng & Thornhill, 2015). The main causes of performance gaps in the operations of San Antonio Housing Authority include lack of good incentives and rewards, lack of skills and knowledge among the employees, lack of individual capacity for each employee, and lack of reliable data, information, and feedback for the performance of the employees.
The first step of the cause and effect analysis model is the identification of the problem whereby the first-hand problems in the systems are identified. The identification process should be detailed to ensure that all the details of the problem are clearly captured for developing a reliable human performance technology plan. The process involves identifying the employees involved in the problem, the nature of the problem, and the period of the problem occurrence (Leng & Thornhill, 2015). The second step of the model involves working out the main factors involved in the problem. In the case of San Antonio Housing Authority, the main factors that are involved in the development of performance gaps include the performance management systems adopted by the authority, materials and equipment used to execute their tasks, and external forces involved in the problem, such as the government, suppliers, and other related government authorities.
The third step is the identification of the possible causes of the problem identified. The process will involve the identification of the possible causes of each main factor identified in the second step to ensure that the possible causes are matched with their related factors. The possible causes of the performance gaps form the basis for the development of the human performance technology plan to address these problems. The last step of the model is the analysis of the diagram that shows all the possible causes of the performance gaps identified in San Antonio Housing Authority systems (Leng & Thornhill, 2015). This final process will provide a detailed analysis of all the causes of the performance gaps, identify the effects, and provide credible remedies for addressing the problems. The cause and effect analysis model will provide a cognitive solution to the performance gaps within the operations of the San Antonio Housing Authority systems.
Selected Intervention and Approach
The numerous performance gaps that exist in the San Antonio Housing Authority systems need to be addressed through the establishment of credible interventions, which will guarantee the complete improvement of the human performance. The possible interventions for the issues to be addressed by the human performance technology plan will either be instructional interventions or non-instructional interventions depending on the nature of the problem involved. For instance, for improving the knowledge and skills of the employees, there is a great need for instructional interventions (Ford, 2014). It will ensure that performance gaps, such as inadequately trained personnel and uncertified personnel, are well addressed by the plan.
On the other hand, the needs for improving the processes, systems, team performance, and plans for the organization, non- instructional interventions need to be adopted. It will ensure that performance gaps, such as communication barrier between the levels of management, lack of modern equipment for improved efficiency, and lack of good compensation plans are addressed. The interventions and approaches developed in the plan focus on addressing the lack of skills or knowledge among the employees, poor motivation and commitment among the employees, and poor work environment or infrastructure, which are not favorable for effective human performance development and management (Leng & Thornhill, 2015).
Change Management Approaches
The human performance technology plan for San Antonio Housing Authority embraces changes in management approaches with the aim of establishing management practices that can respond to the performance gaps experienced in the authority’s systems. Changes in the channels of communication within the organization will guarantee a more effective communication and build a strong relationship with all the employees at different managerial levels. The change will improve the level of employee motivation and commitment to work since there will be a well-established flow of information, which makes them fully aware of their roles and performance expectations (Ford, 2014). The other main change in the management will be the establishment of rigorous training programs to fill the performance gaps of unskilled personnel, uncertified personnel, and lack of enough skilled personnel.
Evaluation Process
The final section of the human performance technology plan for the authority is the evaluation process to ascertain the impact of human performance improvement at the behavioral and results level. Human performance improvement approach is used to analyze the performance problems of the employees and advance the systems to ensure good performance is attained. The human performance improvement concerning behavioral level can be evaluated through analysis of the human performance improvement in discipline through examining the new communication channels established within the authority operations (Morrow, Mood, Disch & Kang, 2015). The evaluation of the information network and the relationship between the employees at different managerial levels will provide a clear picture of the human performance improvement concerning behavior within the authority.
On the perspective of results level, the human performance improvement can be examined through evaluation of the effects of the changes in the operations of the systems and processes. The performance improvement of the employees can be measured by the results of the advancements in the processes. The evaluation of the system can be made to be results based to ensure that the performance gaps that existed are filled. The evaluation of whether the equipment and tools available are up to date to guarantee improved performance can be done by measuring the level of efficiency. The performance of the employees can also be evaluated through analysis of the level of skills and knowledge acquired by the employees to ascertain whether it is sufficient enough to guarantee outstanding performance within San Antonio Housing Authority systems (Ford, 2014).
References
Ford, J. K. (2014). Improving training effectiveness in work organizations. New York: Psychology Press.
Leng, D., & Thornhill, N. F. (2015). Process disturbance cause & effect analysis using Bayesian networks. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 48(21), 1457-1464.
Morrow Jr, J. R., Mood, D., Disch, J., & Kang, M. (2015). Measurement and evaluation in human performance, 5E. New York: Human Kinetics.
