Of the multitude of strategies discussed this week for increasing work enjoyment for staff, what is your favorite/most preferred strategy discussed in this module? How will you integrate this strategy into your supervision practice in the future? What will it look like when you implement it with a supervisee/trainee? Are there any practices discussed that you will avoid in your supervision in the future, and why?
Please use the book attached as one of your resources they use TURN IT IN and AI detection RUBRIC ATTACHED
THE SUPERVISOR’S GUIDEBOOK
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dennis Reid, Marsha Parsons, and Carolyn Green each has over 40 years of experience supervising provision of services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. They have supervised services in residential centers, schools, adult day-support services, vocational programs, and community settings. They have also pub- lished over 140 applied research articles and book chapters in the human services. Their research has appeared in over 20 peer-re – viewed journals including the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Behavior Analysis in Practice, Journal of Organizational Behavior Manage – ment, American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, and Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions. Dennis, Marsha, and Carolyn have received numerous awards for their respective services from organizations such as the Association for Behavior Analysis Interna – tional, American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Organization for Autism Research, and the Office of the Governor of North Carolina. They are currently affiliated with the Carolina Behavior Analysis and Support Center in Morganton, North Carolina. Additional information about the authors and their work can be obtained at www.dennishreidau.com.
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2021001372 (ebook)
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Reid, Dennis H., author. | Parsons, Marsha B., author. | Green, Carolyn W., author.
Title: The supervisor’s guidebook : evidence-based strategies for pro- moting work quality and enjoyment among human service staff / by Dennis H. Reid, Marsha B. Parsons, Carolyn W. Green.
Description: Second edition. Springfield, Illinois : Charles C Thomas, Publisher, Ltd., [2021] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021001371 (print) | LCCN 2021001372 (ebook) | ISBN 9780398093600 (paperbook) | ISBN 9780398093617 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Human services personnel—Supervision of—United States. | Social work with people with disabilities–United States. | People with disabilities—Services for—United States. | Human ser- vices personnel—Training of. | Supervisors—Training of–United States.
Classification: LCC HV40.54 .R4553 2021 (print) | LCC HV40.54 (ebook) | DDC 361.0068/3—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021001371 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021001372
This book is dedicated to our parents: Charles and Margaret Reid, Reece and Rachel Bigham, and Charles and Lavada Worley.
If not for their personal devotion and natural abilities to teach and supervise, we would not have been in a position to write this book.
PREFACE
The job of a supervisor of direct support staff in the human services is one of the most important yet unheralded professions. Supervisors are
charged with ensuring support staff deliver quality services for people with disabilities whose quality of life is heavily dependent on how well those ser- vices are provided. Supervisors must ensure staff receive necessary training in their job duties, are actively supported to stay motivated to work profi- ciently and, at times, effectively assisted to improve their work performance. Supervisors have to overcome many challenges to fulfill these critical duties, often involving frequent changes in their staff work force and varying or lim- ited resources.
Complicating the job of staff supervisors is a lack of formal training nec- essary to perform their supervisory duties effectively. When supervisors do receive training in how to supervise staff work performance, the training is not always very useful. The training is frequently too general to equip super- visors with knowledge and skills to affect staff work performance on a rou- tine basis. The training also is commonly based on unproven means of pro- moting quality staff performance, stemming from current fads or ideology that has little if any hard evidence to support the training content.
Over the last five decades, a technology for supervising staff work per- formance in the human services has been evolving, derived from applied research conducted in many human service agencies. Such research has pro- vided a sound evidence base to support the effectiveness of the supervisory strategies constituting the technology to date. We have been fortunate in par- ticipating in research on effective ways to supervise as well as in applying the technology in our work as supervisors in the human services. However, most supervisors have not had opportunities to become aware of these evi- dence-based means of fulfilling their supervisory duties.
The purpose of The Supervisor’s Guidebook is to describe the existing evi- dence-based approach to supervision. Description of the approach is sup- plemented with practical suggestions based on our combined experience encompassing over 100 years of supervising staff performance in the human services. The intent is to provide supervisors with detailed information about
vii
viii The Supervisor’s Guidebook
tried and tested means of promoting diligent and proficient staff perfor- mance and to do so in a way that maximizes staff enjoyment with their work. It is sincerely hoped the book fulfills this purpose for the reader.
D.R. M.P. C.G.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Numerous people have helped us learn about supervision, far too many to recognize individually. However, we have learned most from the ded-
icated and sincere staff we have been fortunate to supervise over the years. They have greatly facilitated our jobs as supervisors and significantly en – hanced our work enjoyment.
ix
CONTENTS
Page Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Section I
INTRODUCTION TO SUPERVISION Chapter 1. The Importance of Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
What is Supervision? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Successful Supervision Involves Promoting Staff Work Enjoyment . . . 7 Evidence-Based Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Purpose of The Supervisor’s Guidebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Intended Audience of The Supervisor’s Guidebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Organization of The Supervisor’s Guidebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Chapter Summary: Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Chapter 2. An Evidence-Based Protocol for Supervising Staff
Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Steps Constituting an Evidence-Based Approach to Supervision . . . 13 Implementing Steps of the Supervisory Protocol in Ways to
Enhance Work Enjoyment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 A Practical Concern with Evidence-Based Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Chapter Summary: Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Section II
CRITICAL SUPERVISORY SKILLS
Chapter 3. Specifying Staff Work Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Three Criteria for Specifying Staff Performance Responsibilities . . . 27
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xii The Supervisor’s Guidebook
Strategies for Specifying Performance Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Specifying Performance Responsibilities in Ways Acceptable
to Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Chapter Summary: Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Chapter 4. Training Work Skills to Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Basic Goals of Staff Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Behavioral Skills Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Two Main Formats for Training Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 General Considerations When Conducting Behavioral Skills
Training with Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 A Qualification with Staff Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Chapter Summary: Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Chapter 5. Monitoring Staff Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Formal Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Informal Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Special Considerations with Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Promoting Staff Acceptance of Performance Monitoring by
A Supervisor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Chapter Summary: Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Chapter 6. Supporting Proficient Work Performance: Positive
Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 The Power of Positive Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 An Evidence-Based Protocol for Providing Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Special Considerations When Using the Evidence-Based
Feedback Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Different Ways of Providing Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Chapter Summary: Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Chapter 7. Supporting Proficient Work Performance: Special
Recognition Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Special Recognition Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Special Recognition Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Using Money for Special Recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Chapter Summary: Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Contents xiii
Chapter 8. Correcting Nonproficient Work Performance . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Prerequisites for Corrective Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 A Serious Misconception About How to Correct Nonproficient
Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Common Reasons for Nonproficient Staff Performance and
Supervisor Corrective Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Performance Problems Due to Reasons Outside of the
Workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Chapter Summary: Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Chapter 9. Promoting Staff Work Enjoyment: Making Disliked
Work Tasks More Enjoyable to Perform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 General Considerations for Making Work Tasks More Enjoyable
for Staff to Perform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 An Evidence-Based Approach for Making Disliked Work Tasks
More Enjoyable to Perform: TEMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 An Example of How TEMP Has Been Used to Make A Disliked
Work Task More Enjoyable to Perform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Special Considerations for Addressing Highly Disliked Work
Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Chapter Summary: Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Section III
RESOLVING COMMON PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS
Chapter 10. Resolving Common Performance Problems: Overview . . . 187
The Basic Premise of Supervisor Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Supervising in Difficult Situations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Chapter Summary: Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Chapter 11. Reducing Absenteeism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Reasons for Frequent Absenteeism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Specifying Acceptable and Unacceptable Absenteeism . . . . . . . . . . 204 Absenteeism-Reduction Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Two Final Considerations for Reducing Absenteeism . . . . . . . . . . . 214 Chapter Summary: Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
xiv The Supervisor’s Guidebook
Chapter 12. Resolving Problems with Staff Provision of Client- Teaching Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Improving Formal Teaching Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 Promoting Naturalistic Teaching During Routine Activities . . . . . . 231 Special Considerations for Overcoming Performance Problems
with Teaching Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Chapter Summary: Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Chapter 13. Reducing Frequent Nonwork Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Special Considerations in Applying Certain Steps of Evidence- Based Supervision to Reduce Nonwork Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . 244
General Considerations for Reducing Frequent Nonwork Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Chapter Summary: Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Section IV
SUPERVISING FROM A DISTANCE (TELEHEALTH) Chapter 14. Supervising from a Distance With Telehealth . . . . . . . . . . 259
Supervision via Telehealth: An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 Telehealth Specifically for Implementing Evidence-Based
Supervisory Procedures from a Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 Chapter Summary: Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Section V
SELECTED READINGS
Selected Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
THE SUPERVISOR’S GUIDEBOOK
Section I
INTRODUCTION TO SUPERVISION
Chapter 1
THE IMPORTANCE OF SUPERVISION
The most significant determinant of the effectiveness of human ser- vice agencies is the quality of work performed by direct support
staff. Direct support staff spend more time with agency clients and provide more services that affect client welfare than any other agency personnel. In turn, a major determinant of the proficiency with which support staff fulfill their roles is the quality of supervision they receive.
The importance of supervision on the performance of direct sup- port staff has long been acknowledged in the human services. Such importance is due to a number of factors. Most apparently, the major- ity of people who begin employment in a direct support capacity have no previous training in how to fulfill their roles. Although newly em – ployed staff usually receive some agency orientation, most of the re – sponsibility for training new staff how to perform specific job duties falls on their immediate supervisors. Relatedly, as new work expecta- tions arise, such as implementing new teaching procedures with cli – ents or programs to reduce challenging behavior, supervisors must ensure staff learn how to perform the new duties.
Because direct support staff usually have multiple performance expectations to fulfill, supervisors are also responsible for ensuring staff know what should be done at certain times and that staff have the resources to do their jobs. Supervisors must likewise intervene with staff at times to correct problems with work performance. Addi tion – ally, supervisors must help staff stay motivated to perform their duties proficiently on a day-to-day basis.
5
6 The Supervisor’s Guidebook
WHAT IS SUPERVISION? As just indicated, supervisors of direct support staff have many
responsibilities to fulfill. In addition to the duties illustrated above, supervisors often have a variety of administrative tasks to perform, meetings to attend, work schedules to prepare, and documentation to maintain. However, from the perspective of actually supervising staff per formance, the job of a supervisor essentially involves two basic responsibilities. First, when staff performance is less than adequate, supervisors must take action to improve that performance. Second, when staff performance is of sufficient quality, supervisors must take action to support and maintain that performance.
Supervisors typically acknowledge the importance of actively working to improve inadequate job performance of their staff. It is usu- ally apparent, for example, that a supervisor must take action to re – duce frequent absenteeism by a given staff person, alter inappropriate staff interactions with agency clients, or resolve problems with incon- sistencies regarding how staff carry out client treatment procedures. In contrast, supervisors are not always cognizant of the importance of actively working to support appropriate staff performance.
Specific supervisory action is needed to support and maintain quality work among staff for a variety of reasons. In particular, a some- what common phenomenon in human service agencies is what is gen- erally referred to as staff “burnout”. Due to the effortful nature of pro- viding direct services for individuals with disabilities day after day, many staff lose their motivation to work diligently and proficiently over time—they “burn out.” In other cases, new staff begin their jobs highly motivated but gradually lose their motivation because they are criticized by more experienced and less motivated staff for their work efforts. The latter staff resent the apparent motivation of new staff be – cause it makes their less effortful performance more noticeable. Super – visors can prevent deterioration in the quality of staff work due to these and other reasons by actively supporting staff performance that is of high quality.
Taking action to improve inadequate staff performance and taking action to support and maintain quality performance represent the essence of supervision. These are the two supervisory responsibilities that have the most significant effect on what staff do in the workplace and correspondingly, the quality of services provided to agency cli –
- THE SUPERVISOR’S GUIDEBOOK
- ABOUT THE AUTHORS
- PREFACE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- CONTENTS
- Section I INTRODUCTION TO SUPERVISION
- Section II CRITICAL SUPERVISORY SKILLS
- Section III RESOLVING COMMON PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS
- Section IV SUPERVISING FROM A DISTANCE (TELEHEALTH)
- Section V SELECTED READINGS
- THE SUPERVISOR’S GUIDEBOOK
- Section I INTRODUCTION TO SUPERVISION
- Chapter 1 THE IMPORTANCE OF SUPERVISION
- WHAT IS SUPERVISION?
- SUCCESSFUL SUPERVISION INVOLVES PROMOTING STAFF WORK ENJOYMENT
- EVIDENCE-BASED SUPERVISION
- PURPOSE OF THE SUPERVISOR’S GUIDEBOOK
- INTENDED AUDIENCE OF THE SUPERVISOR’S GUIDEBOOK
- ORGANIZATION OF THE SUPERVISOR’S GUIDEBOOK
- CHAPTER SUMMARY: KEY POINTS
- Chapter 2 AN EVIDENCE-BASED PROTOCOL FOR SUPERVISING STAFF PERFORMANCE
- STEPS CONSTITUTING AN EVIDENCE-BASED APPROACH TO SUPERVISION
- Step 1: Identify Client Outcomes
- Step 2: Specify Staff Performance
- Step 3: Train Work Skills to Staff
- Step 4: Monitor Staff Performance
- Step 5: Support Proficient Staff Performance
- Step 6: Correct Nonproficient Staff Performance
- Step 7: Evaluate Staff Performance
- IMPLEMENTING STEPS OF THE SUPERVISORY PROTOCOL IN WAYS TO ENHANCE WORK ENJOYMENT
- A PRACTICAL CONCERN WITH EVIDENCE-BASED SUPERVISION
- CHAPTER SUMMARY: KEY POINTS
- Section II CRITICAL SUPERVISORY SKILLS
- Chapter 3 SPECIFYING STAFF WORK RESPONSIBILITIES
- THREE CRITERIA FOR SPECIFYING STAFF PERFORMANCE RESPONSIBILITIES
- Criterion 1: Performance Responsibilities Must be Described in Terms of Staff Work Behavior
- Criterion 2: Performance Responsibilities Must be Described in Terms of Work Behavior That Can be Directly Observed
- Criterion 3: Performance Responsibilities Must be Specified as Observable Work Behavior Such That People Agree When the Behavior Occurs
- STRATEGIES FOR SPECIFYING PERFORMANCE RESPONSIBILITIES
- Performance Checklists
- Work Activity Schedules
- SPECIFYING PERFORMANCE RESPONSIBILITIES IN WAYS ACCEPTABLE TO STAFF
- CHAPTER SUMMARY: KEY POINTS
- Chapter 4 TRAINING WORK SKILLS TO STAFF
- BASIC GOALS OF STAFF TRAINING
- BEHAVIORAL SKILLS TRAINING
- Training Step 1: Describe Target Skills to be Trained
- Training Step 2: Provide A Written Summary of the Target Skills
- Training Step 3: Demonstrate How to Perform the Target Skills
- Training Step 4: Trainee Practice with Supervisor Feedback
- Training Step 5: Repeat Step 4 Until Staff Perform The Target Skills Proficiently
- TWO MAIN FORMATS FOR TRAINING STAFF
- Training Staff in a Group
- Training Staff Individually
- GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS WHEN CONDUCTING BEHAVIORAL SKILLS TRAINING WITH STAFF
- Reducing Time and Effort to Conduct Behavioral Skills Training
- Ensure Staff Competence During Role-Play Activities.
- Use of Media-Based Training.
- Pyramidal Training.
- Making Training Acceptable to Staff
- A QUALIFICATION WITH STAFF TRAINING
- CHAPTER SUMMARY: KEY POINTS
- Chapter 5 MONITORING STAFF PERFORMANCE
- FORMAL MONITORING
- INFORMAL MONITORING
- SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS WITH MONITORING
- Staff Reactivity to Monitoring
- Overt Versus Covert Monitoring
- PROMOTING STAFF ACCEPTANCE OF PERFORMANCE MONITORING BY A SUPERVISOR
- Follow Specific Guidelines When Formally Monitoring Staff Performance
- Use a Participative Approach When Developing a Formal Monitoring System
- Ensure Personnel Who Observe for Supervisors Monitor in a Way Acceptable to Staff
- CHAPTER SUMMARY: KEY POINTS
- Chapter 6 SUPPORTING PROFICIENT WORK PERFORMANCE: POSITIVE FEEDBACK
- THE POWER OF POSITIVE FEEDBACK
- AN EVIDENCE-BASED PROTOCOL FOR PROVIDING FEEDBACK
- Step 1: Begin Feedback with A Positive or Empathetic Statement
- Step 2: Specify What Staff Performed Correctly
- Step 3: Specify What Staff Performed Incorrectly, If Applicable
- Step 4: Specify What Needs to be Done to Correct the Behavior Identified in Step 3
- Step 5: Solicit Questions About the Information Provided
- Step 6: Inform Staff About Subsequent Supervisory Actions
- Step 7: End Feedback Session with a Positive or Empathetic Statement
- SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS WHEN USING THE EVIDENCE-BASED FEEDBACK PROTOCOL
- Feedback as a Unique Skill
- Providing Feedback in Difficult Situations with Staff
- Feedback Must Be Sincere
- Maintaining Privacy with Feedback
- A Reported Concern with the Feedback Protocol
- DIFFERENT WAYS OF PROVIDING FEEDBACK
- Informal Feedback
- Written Feedback
- Advantages of Written