As I discussed in Part 1 of this article, the traditional Corporate Training model does not go far enough to improve the performance of the organization. Training, education, and development should be a tool in the “Performance Improvement” toolbox. In order to set your business apart from your competitors, you need to take the organization’s performance to a higher level by implementation of a formal Human Performance Improvement (HPI) program.

First, I think a definition is needed. HPI is a systematic process of discovering and analyzing important human performance gaps, planning for future improvements in human performance, designing and developing cost-effective interventions to close performance gaps, implementing the interventions, and then evaluating the results to determine a return on investment (ROI).

The HPI process begins with a careful and in-depth analysis of the vision of the business unit called the Business Analysis. The Business Analysis helps to identify the vision and mission of the business unit or project. The Business Analysis also helps to determine how specific and measurable the goals are. Once the Business Analysis is completed, the goals and objectives are developed and communicated to all of the team members.

Next, there is a comparison of the present and the desired levels of individual and organizational performance to identify the performance gap. A Performance Analysis clarifies the problem or performance gap by focusing on three (3) areas: the desired performance state, the actual performance state, and the gap between the two. The purpose of the Performance Analysis is not to point out problems, but rather to identify factors in the work environment that support performance improvement.

After the performance gap has been determined, a cause analysis is then performed to determine what impact the processes (work environment, information,resources, and incentives) and the people (motives, individual capacity, and skills) are having on performance.

Once the performance gap and the causes have been determined, the appropriate interventions are designed and developed. The Intervention is the action taken to correct the Performance Gap. There are multiple interventions that can be utilized to help improve performance on a single project. Most improvement plans will consist of multiple intervention types.

There are three (3) primary types of interventions:

• Motivational-Based Interventions

These are the most commonly required interventions, since the primary cause of low performance is a lack of motivation or desire. Frequently used Motivational-Based interventions include coaching / feedback, recognition programs, and incentive / reward programs.

• Process-Based Interventions

Process-Based intervention looks at the entire work environment. Items that are considered include the work environment itself (i.e., equipment, resources, etc.), work-flow redesign, and improved processes / policies and procedures.

• Knowledge-Based Interventions

Knowledge-Based interventions include training, education, and development. These are the most widely misused interventions, since most performance can be more efficiently improved through motivation and process improvement.

Once the interventions are selected and developed, the interventions are implemented. Since this is usually represents a new way of doing things, the change process must be properly managed to increase the chance of success, and to reduce the stress of implementation.

Finally, each phase of the process is evaluated. Initially, Formative evaluation looks at the entire process to identify what could have been done better. The Summative evaluation focuses on the immediate response of employees and their ability and willingness to do the desired behaviors. The final evaluation, or Confirmative evaluations, measures the long-term effects of the intervention. Overall, the evaluations are centered on the improvement of business outcomes(such as quality, productivity, sales, customer retention, profitability, and market share) as well as determining the ROI for the intervention.

By implementing a formal HPI program, an organization can help to efficiently improve the performance of the human resources of the business. This increased performance will help to create a strong competitive advantage. Try it and see.