14.6 Performance Management, Performance Diagnostics (PDC-HS), and Evaluating Supervision
Key Takeaways
Empirically supported performance management procedures include task clarification, modeling, practice, feedback, reinforcement, goal setting, job aids, and reducing response effort (task I.7).
A function-based approach asks why a performance problem occurs before choosing a fix; the Performance Diagnostic Checklist-Human Services (PDC-HS; Carr et al., 2013) examines training, task clarification and prompting, resources and processes, and performance consequences.
Matching the intervention to the PDC-HS result is more effective than a default fix: training gaps call for BST, unclear tasks for task clarification, missing resources for environmental changes, and weak consequences for feedback and reinforcement.
Evaluate the effects of supervision with data on supervisee performance and client outcomes (task I.9; Standard 4.10), using designs such as a multiple baseline across supervisees or skills when possible.
Performance Management Is Behavior Analysis Applied to Staff
Performance management applies the same principles used with clients to the behavior of staff. Task I.7 names empirically validated, culturally responsive procedures such as modeling, practice, feedback, reinforcement, task clarification, and manipulation of response effort. Task I.8 asks you to use a function-based approach (performance diagnostics) to find out why a supervisee's performance falls short before choosing a procedure. Task I.9 asks you to evaluate the effects of supervision.
The Performance Management Toolbox (Task I.7)
| Procedure | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Task clarification | Specifying exactly what to do, when, and to what standard; often a written checklist or job description | A one-page checklist for setting up a session room |
| Job aids and prompts | Antecedent cues available at the moment of performance | A laminated card listing the prompt hierarchy at the work table |
| Goal setting | Specific, measurable targets, usually combined with feedback | "Enter session data before leaving the client's home on 95% of days this month" |
| Modeling and practice | Demonstration followed by rehearsal (core components of BST) | Role-playing a new error-correction procedure |
| Feedback | Information about past performance: verbal, written, or graphed; most effective when specific and frequent | A weekly graph of each RBT's data-entry timeliness |
| Reinforcement | Praise, recognition, preferred schedules, or other incentives contingent on performance | Recognition in a team meeting for meeting integrity goals |
| Response effort | Making the desired behavior easier and competing behavior harder | Keeping data sheets and timers in every therapy room |
Culturally responsive performance management means asking which consequences each staff member values, respecting differences in communication style (for example, whether public praise is welcome), and making sure expectations and opportunities are applied equitably.
A Function-Based Approach: Performance Diagnostics (Task I.8)
When a supervisee is not doing something correctly, the default response is often "retrain them." But many performance problems are not skill deficits. A performance diagnostic asks what is maintaining the current performance, just as an FBA does for client behavior.
The Performance Diagnostic Checklist-Human Services (PDC-HS), developed by Carr, Wilder, Majdalany, Mathisen, and Strain (2013) from Austin's original Performance Diagnostic Checklist, is an interview-based tool (supplemented by direct observation) organized into four domains:
| PDC-HS domain | Example questions | If "no" answers cluster here, consider |
|---|---|---|
| Training | Has the employee been trained on the task? Can they perform it accurately when asked? | Behavioral skills training |
| Task clarification and prompting | Does the employee know exactly what is expected and when? Are there job aids or reminders? | Task clarification, checklists, prompts |
| Resources, materials, and processes | Are the needed materials, time, and staffing available? Is the process efficient? | Providing resources, simplifying processes, reducing response effort |
| Performance consequences, effort, and competition | Does the employee get feedback? Is good performance reinforced? Do competing tasks take priority? Is the task effortful? | Feedback, reinforcement, adjusting effort or competing contingencies |
Example
RBTs at a clinic often skip the post-session cleaning protocol. Retraining would be the default, but a PDC-HS interview shows that RBTs know the procedure (training is adequate), cleaning supplies are kept in a locked closet down the hall (resources and effort), and no one ever checks or comments on it (consequences). Placing supplies in every room and adding brief graphed feedback addresses the actual causes. Carr and colleagues (2013) found that the intervention the PDC-HS indicated improved performance, whereas an intervention the PDC-HS did not indicate (training, in their study) did not.
Making Feedback and Goal Setting Work
Feedback is the most widely used performance management procedure, and a few features increase its effect:
- Specific and behavior-focused: name the exact step done well or missed ("You waited 3 seconds before prompting on 9 of 10 trials").
- Frequent and timely: deliver it soon after the observation rather than at an annual review.
- Graphed when possible: a simple graph of the person's own performance over time shows progress and makes goals concrete.
- Paired with a goal: feedback compared with a specific target is more effective than feedback alone.
- Delivered privately or publicly by preference: some staff value public recognition, while others find it uncomfortable, which is part of being culturally responsive.
If feedback and goals do not change performance, return to the diagnostic questions: perhaps resources, competing demands, or effort are the real barriers.
Evaluating the Effects of Supervision (Task I.9)
Standard 4.10 requires behavior analysts to evaluate their own supervisory practices using feedback from others and client and supervisee or trainee outcomes, to document those evaluations, and to adjust. Practical measures include:
- Supervisee repertoires: treatment integrity, skill acquisition on competency checklists, data accuracy, and maintenance of skills between observations.
- Client outcomes: progress on goals and reductions in problem behavior for the clients served by the supervisee.
- Supervisee feedback and retention: social validity of supervision and whether staff stay.
When possible, use single-case logic. For example, introduce a new feedback package with one RBT, then a second, then a third (a multiple baseline across supervisees). If each RBT's integrity improves only after the package starts, the improvement can be attributed to the supervision change rather than to time or other events. If supervision is not producing change, adjust it, just as you would revise a client's plan.
Common Exam Traps
- Defaulting to retraining. If the supervisee can perform the skill correctly when asked, training is not the problem.
- Feedback without a measure. Feedback is most effective when it is based on observed data and delivered specifically and frequently.
- Ignoring response effort. Small environmental barriers (missing materials, distant data sheets) often explain performance gaps.
- Assuming supervision works. Evaluate it with data on supervisee and client outcomes.
RBTs consistently complete session notes late. They write accurate notes when asked to do so during supervision, but there is only one shared computer, and late notes are never mentioned. According to a PDC-HS analysis, which intervention is most appropriate?
Provide additional behavioral skills training on writing session notes
Add computers or tablets and give regular feedback on note timeliness
Issue written warnings to RBTs whose notes are submitted late
Require RBTs to complete a continuing education course on documentation
A supervisor moves data sheets and timers from a central office into every therapy room, and data collection improves the next week. Which performance management procedure was used?
Reducing response effort by placing needed materials where the work happens
Goal setting, because the RBTs now have a clear target for data collection
Positive reinforcement, because data collection is followed by praise
Task clarification, because the procedure for data collection was rewritten
A BCaBA introduces weekly graphed feedback for one RBT, then two weeks later for a second RBT, and two weeks after that for a third. Each RBT's treatment integrity rises only after feedback begins for that RBT. What does this design allow the BCaBA to conclude?
That the RBTs' clients must have changed their behavior first
That feedback should be replaced with training because three RBTs were involved
That integrity would have improved anyway because all three RBTs gained experience
That the feedback package, not the passage of time, most likely improved integrity
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