Course:

MIT 502-Systematic Approach to Performance Improvement. Summer 2004

Instructor and Project Advisor: Dr. A. Murdock, UNCW

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Artifact Links:

 Project Report (pdf)

• Executive Summary / Background (pdf)
• Performance Problem (pdf)
• Performance Gap Analysis (pdf)
• Recommended Strategies and

             Implementation Plan.(pdf)

  IT Competencies Demonstrated

• Domain of Design
• Domain of Management

Situation:

Local home healthcare company serves approximately 50 clients whose care requirements demand a staffing of approximately 200 nurses and certified nursing assistants (CNA).  The staffing levels vary according to changing client base and workload availability of individual nurses/assistants

Problem Issue:

The management of the company was concerned that their annual hourly nurse turn over rate is 35% which negatively impacted care quality as well as creating significant costs related to recruiting, and training of 70 new nurses per year. A nurse not working for maxim during last 180 days is considered a new employee

Desired Performance:

Management wanted to reduce turnover of  nurses by at least 50% to 17% of all nursing employees within 6 months, in order to improve profitability.

Solution:

Developed a detailed plan to meet turnover targets which provided specific management strategies and tactics at the organization, environment, work and worker levels. Implementation would result in significantly increased profit within 6 months.  

Role: Working solely as a performance technology consultant, I planned and performed all activities related to analysis and plan development. Project was done on no-charge basis in 8 weeks as part of MIT coursework.

Project Summary:

I was offered the challenge of developing a performance improvement plan by management. In order to effectively analyze a complex situation, my approach was to combine Rossetts (2002) training needs analysis model with Rothwells (1996) multi level human performance approach. The result was utilization of multiple information gathering techniques focused on the organization, environment, work, and worker levels. A performance gap analysis along with a detailed list of solutions including cost and impact was generated. After analyzing each solution based on cost and feasibility to implement along with potential impact, a final detailed report was provided. This report listed interrelated performance goals, strategies, and tactics for management to consider only a few of which were training related.

Results:

Recommendations were presented to management. Adoption or implementation status unknown.

Reflection:

Working on this project late in my MIT coursework allowed me to incorporate several previously learned performance analysis models and techniques. The result was a very in depth and well structured analysis of a complex situation. In facing similar situations in the future, I would take the same approach combining Rossett (2002) and Rothwell (1996) models for performance needs analysis. What I would do differently would be to include in my proposal a change management plan supporting organizational and environmental level recommendations.