Performance Support Interventions

Performance support interventions are available to the performer on the job and just in time, and they may enhance or replace learning interventions such as training. Performance support interventions share these characteristics:

• Intuitiveness—provides guidance even if the user has minimal or no prior learning or experience
• Integration—presents a seamless union of people, process, and devices
• Immediacy—offers on-demand access to tools, information, advice, training, communication, and so forth
• Individualization—supports needs of novices, competent performers, and experts at the individual, group, or organizational level
• Interactivity—opens a “dynamic dialogue” between user and performance support tool¹

Performance support interventions stress the integration of “doing” and “technology”; improve individual, group, or team performance; improve processes, products, services; and guide business plans, deliverables, results, and success measures. Typical performance support interventions are listed in Figure 11.1 and will be covered in this chapter. Listen carefully—the voice of the practitioner may be heard commenting on a specific intervention.

In order to determine whether or not a performance support intervention is appropriate and targeted requires careful performance analysis since change beats at the heart of this type of intervention. The performance improvement practitioner begins with a planned change mindset; remains solution neutral; listens, listens, listens; and then confirms with the client—What I heard you say was ….

FIGURE 11.1. Scope of Performance Support Interventions

Performance Support Tools (PSTs)/Job Aids

Definition. Performance support tools (job aids) provide just-in-time, on-the-job learning and just-enough information to enable a worker to perform a task efficiently and successfully without special training or reliance on memory. They may inform, support procedures, or support decisions.

Scope. Performance support tools are used during a task to facilitate job performance and efficiency. They provide guidance and, usually, they do not instruct. They are useful when employees need immediate assistance to help them get the job done. Tasks that are performed infrequently and are not part of a person's regular job are ideal situations for performance support tools.

On the other hand, PSTs that are quickly outdated, that convey complex information, or that compromise performance are inappropriate.² Performance support tools can be checklists or worksheets, matrix/decision tables, flowcharts, mixed varieties, and virtual reality. Those that guide job performance, reduce the length of time recall is necessary, signal when to take some action, and give directions or actions are successful performance support tools. Table 11.1 illustrates a traditional versus expanded view of performance support tools/job aids.³

Workplace Implementation. Performance improvement practitioners, as members of the design team, do not usually become involved in implementing job aids until after the fact … when the design of a system has already been agreed to, a task has been identified, and it has become apparent that the skills required to perform the task may exceed the skills currently available in those who must perform (it).⁴ The skilled practitioner should conduct an environmental analysis (see Chapter 5) and help to design both the job and the performance support tool. In addition to strong analysis skills, designing performance support tools calls for creativity, problem-solving skills, and knowledge of how new technologies can enhance their design and development. Performance Support Tool 11.1 can be used to select or evaluate the use of a format.

TABLE 11.1. Performance Support Tools/Job Aids: Traditional and Expanded Views

Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS)

Definition. Electronic performance support system (EPSS) is an electronic, computer-mediated infrastructure that empowers the user as performer and learner, enhances organizational learning, and enables knowledge management. It uses software to integrate performance-based content, knowledge, learning, and structure into a user-friendly performance and learning support system.

Scope. Electronic performance support systems are neither an intelligent performance support tool nor a type of computer-based training (CBT). However, both PSTs and CBT are considered subsets of EPSS. EPSS has these advantages:

• Access to large databases of information,
• Designed to coach the user through questioning, assessing answers, evaluating responses and offering recommendations, and
• User-friendly⁵

The benefits of using an EPSS are for both the user and the organization. For the user, EPSS can “match the learning context to the operational context … integrate with the work process so learners get up to speed faster and work more efficiently … manages complexity and work flow … structures the activities necessary to complete tasks, represents knowledge with graphics, sound, or animation, provides data related to the task, and provides built-in tools such as calculating fields for carrying out tasks.”⁶ For the organization, EPSS can provide return on investment by:

• Enhancing productivity and work flow
• Reducing training costs
• Increasing worker autonomy
• Increasing quality due to uniform work practices
• Enabling knowledge capitalization⁷

Workplace Implementation. The performance improvement practitioner is well-positioned to work with employees in this arena by becoming familiar with EPSS from the user perspective and from the organization framework. A review of recent research in this area is a good beginning. Then get involved with an EPSS project team that is working to develop a new system or improve an existing system. Here is an opportunity to exercise all “tool chest” skills, from assessment and analysis through evaluation. Performance Support Tool 11.2 is a decision tool you can use to help decide whether to select EPSS as the intervention or choice—or not.

The practitioner can assist with system maintenance by handling process and task issues and helping all employees, from novice to expert, make appropriate decisions about selecting an EPSS intervention based on sound evidence, sound practical and informed judgment, and cultural dynamics influencing individual and organizational critical thinking. This is where project management, communication, and change management knowledge and skills come in handy.

Knowledge of basic electronic performance support system design standards and design/development activities is essential; the ability to find the right experts and convince them to design and/or produce the EPSS is priceless. And finally, EPSS is an expensive intervention, and the practitioner will need to be able to make a business case for implementing EPSS. Feasibility and sustainability issues are also a factor when selecting this intervention. (See Chapter 19, Making the Business Case.)

Documentation and Standards

Definitions. Documentation codifies information to preserve it and to make it accessible in the workplace through written descriptions, policies, procedures, guidelines, reference manuals, quality assurance plans, bylaws, articles of incorporation, partnership agreements, contracts, letters of intent, and so forth.⁸ Performance standards are concise statements or principles of ethical conduct that serve as a gauge for measuring accomplishment. The organization sets the standards around which performance is judged and the criteria that guide the performer. (See Standards of Performance Technology in Appendix A.)

Scope. Documentation may be in manuals and printed form or developed and distributed as electronic files. “Interventions in this family make information continuously accessible … it is important that people be able to retrieve and reference information on an as-needed basis.”⁹

Documentation has many uses:

• Codifies and records progress, accomplishments, failures, lessons learned, policies, procedures, job specifications, standards, problems, and decisions;
• Provides feedback and data to analyze, validate, clarify, track, report, and record information for current and future (history) reference; and
• Helps institutionalize best practices and lessons learned.

Today's highly complex and global organizations require documentation that is more than anecdotal, so they often use documents such as process maps and procedures, customer-driven measures, process control charts, accident reports, and other documentary information about current and past performance; process management team meeting minutes and annual business plans; process improvement suggestions, procedures, and vehicles for solving process problems and capitalizing on process improvements; and similar items.¹⁰

Organizations that have well-documented rules, regulations, policies, procedures, practices, and the other important information and data often avoid legal and ethical problems. Standards support total quality management (TQM), performance improvement, job design or redesign, as well as other organization-wide initiatives. They improve interfaces, allow for an appropriate type of flexibility, and result in lower costs because they permit economies of scale.¹¹

Workplace Implementation. Performance improvement specialists must understand when to select documentation and standards as performance interventions and how to design, develop, and disseminate the documentation or standards. This may include initiating change management initiatives to “win over” employees and other stakeholders who are affected by new procedures or standards. Performance Support Tool 11.3, based on Hale's research, provides excellent guidance.¹²

Expert Systems

Definition. Expert systems fall under the computer applications category of artificial intelligence. They are computer systems that demonstrate expert reasoning and engage in tasks that normally would be performed by a human expert to assist in decision making and problem solving.¹³

Scope. An expert system has three components: (1) a knowledge base or data base of facts, information, heuristics, and experiential knowledge used for problem solving; (2) an inference system, that is, the logic that allows a system to think through problems based on complementary psychological and mathematical theories; and (3) a human-machine interface that includes speech recognition and speech production by the computer.¹⁴

Workplace Implementation. Expert systems are used to diagnose human illnesses after the physician conducts a thorough physical examination. They are often used in the business world to make financial forecasts and in industry and sales to determine the shortest routes for delivery vehicles. They can be used to solve problems that are too costly, too complex, too time-consuming, and too labor-intensive. One of the hallmarks of expert systems is their use in memory capacity for organizations, that is, when an employee is forced out of the job or retires, the knowledge and expertise of that individual remains within the organizational structure.¹⁵

The performance improvement practitioner needs a basic knowledge of expert systems. The practitioner also needs the ability to data-mine and find out more about expert systems, or identify experts that may be able to help design, develop, and/or implement an expert system to solve a diagnosed performance problem. Feasibility and sustainability issues are also a factor when selecting this intervention. (See Chapter 19, Making the Business Case.)

Citations

1. Villachica & Stone, 1999, p. 444

2. Rossett & Gautier-Downes, 1991

3. Rossett & Gautier-Downes, 1991

4. Rossett, 1996

5. Gery, 1999, p. 143

6. Winer, Rushby, & Vazquez-Abad, 1999, p. 879

7. Dean, 1998, p. 11

8. Hale, 2006

9. Rummler & Brache, 1995, p. 168

10. Hale, 1998, p. 136

11. Hale, 1998, p. 136; 155–157; 161

12. Hale, 1998, p. 136; 155–157; 161

13. Expert Systems (n.d.)

14. Simonson & Thompson, 1997, pp.29–31

15. Simonson & Thompson, 1997, pp.29–31

References

Dean, P.J. (1998). Performance improvement interventions: Methods for organizational learning. In P.J. Dean & D.E. Ripley (Eds.), Performance improvement interventions: Culture & systems change (pp. 2–19). Silver Spring, MD: International Society for Performance Improvement.

Expert Systems. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.dayarayan.info/english-Glossary%20.php;services.eliteral.com/glossary/decision-support-systems-glossary.php

Gery, G.J. (1999). Electronic performance support system (EPSS). In D.J. Langdon, K.S. Whiteside, & M.M. McKenna (Eds.), Intervention resource guide: 50 performance improvement tools (pp. 142–148). San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

Hale, J. (2006). The performance consultant's fieldbook: Tools and techniques for improving organizations and people (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

Rossett, A. (1996). Job aids and electronic performance support systems. In R.L. Craig (Ed.), The ASTD training & development handbook: A guide to human resource development (4th ed.) (pp. 557–578). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Rossett, A., & Gautier-Downes, J. (1991). A handbook of job aids. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

Rummler, G.A., & Brache, A.P. (1995). Improving performance: How to manage the white space on the organization chart (2nd ed.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Simonson M.R., & Thompson, A. (1997). Educational computing foundations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Villachica, S.W., & Stone, D.L. (1999). Performance support systems. In H.D. Stolovitch & E.J. Keeps (Eds.), Handbook of human performance technology: Improving organizational performance worldwide (2nd ed.) (pp. 441–463). San Francisco: Pfeiffer/ISPI.

Winer, L.R., Rushby, N., & Vazquez-Abad, J. (1999). Emerging trends in instructional interventions, In H.D. Stolovitch & E.J. Keeps (Eds.), Handbook of human performance technology: Improving individual and organizational performance worldwide (2nd ed.) (pp. 867–894). San Francisco: Pfeiffer/ISPI.