Association for Behavior Analysis International

When embarking on the endeavor to design a successful behavior analysis private practice it is advantageous to examine different segments of the health care industry. Medical practitioners, as an example, experienced a momentous shift in their operating practices due to the introduction of universally accepted standards of practice and the involvement of third party funding sources. These key variables required practitioners to either join the ranks of large health care organizations (i.e., hospitals and medical research centers) or design and operate efficient private practices. Practitioners could no longer just deliver high quality health care in their community and expect their practice to survive. Just as the introduction of these variables required medical professionals to become knowledgeable of best business practices (e.g., finance, management, human resources), so too has the implementation of evidence-based practice guidelines for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and health insurance reform made similar demands on professional behavior analysts. This symposium will show recent applications of Human Performance Technology (HPT) and OBM tools used to identify and address critical business issues at CARE, Inc., a California-based human service agency. The audience members will leave with a rudimentary understanding of how HPT can help managers improve productivity, develop and train valuable employees, and realize opportunities related to the performance of people.

An objective and reliable performance measurement system is one of the most important components of a well-designed organization. Effective measurement systems track key measures across all parts of your company including financial, customer, internal-business-process, and employee learning & growth. They also help connect these organizational components, thus ensuring that they operate in concert with one another. This allows management to monitor, maintain, and improve performance on an ongoing basis. These measurement systems provide the basis for performance feedback at all levels of the organization. Being able to rely on your managers’ ability to support and guide your employees’ performance is of the utmost importance to the vitality of your company. In this presentation, we will describe how Optimal and CARE, Inc. partnered in the design and implementation of a performance measurement system that (i) pinpoints valuable employee performance, (ii) provides managers with objective and consistent performance measures of their direct reports, and (iii) guides managers through the delivery of data-based performance feedback. The audience will leave with an understanding of what is required to design and implement a performance measurement system that consistently and objectively provides valuable performance feedback to the employees at CARE, Inc.