Human Performance Improvement (HPI)

 

What is human performance improvement (HPI)? Talking about performance, we may think about performance in a test (to pass the test), performance at work (to please the boss and customer), performance of a team (to win the game)….. Well for improvement, it is about to make things better. HPI has become a field of practice aiming to improve human performance in the workplace. As a field, I can imagine how people wish to master the magic button to get the performance improvement in our work settings. Sometimes people also use human performance technology (HPT) for the field. In a way I think improvement is the goal we wish to achieve, and the technology is the means we use to achieve it. I have been digging definition of the HPI/HPT field from various resources:

A few definitions about HPI/HPT as below. Human performance is systemic, meaning composing multiple factors and factors are intercorrelated. HPI requires systematic approaches, meaning framework structured and repeatable.  

• “human performance is a system that comprises a network of elements that work together to produce repeatable outcomes. The system encompasses organizational factors, job-site conditions, individual behavior, and results…” DOE (2009) Human Performance Improvement Handbook

• “Human performance improvement (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 and ethically justifiable interventions to close performance gaps, implementing the interventions, and evaluating the financial and non financial results.” Rothwell, W. J., Hohne, C., & King, S. (2000). Human performance improvement: Building practitioner competence. Houston, TX: Gulf.

•  “HPT is a systematic approach to improving individual and organizational performance” Pershing, J.A. (2006). Handbook of Human Performance Technology: Principles Practices Potential. San Francisco: Pfeiffer. ISBN 0-7879-6530-8

Performance can be viewed as the outcomes of human behaviors (Thomas Gilbert, Behavioral Engineering Model and Worthy Performance). HPI targets the improvement of performance. It focuses on the system-valued outcomes, accomplishments or achievements. To achieve performance improvement, it has to effectively and validly measure the performance, i.e. whether human behaviors truly have impacts on the process and the system. Using system theory, performance measurement can be classified in following areas: INPUT (taken resources such as work capital and materials), THROUGHPUT (the process), OUTPUT (the quality and functionality) and OUTCOME (whether the behavior makes a different on the system).

Performance measurement requires statistical modeling to determine the result. Strategic performance measures monitor the implementation and effectiveness of an organization's strategies, determine the gap between actual and targeted performance and determine organization effectiveness and operational efficiency. The technology used to achieve performance improvement must first have impacts on human behaviors. As for the results, the improvement of performance shows that the behaving/performing individual’s environment truly gets better as a result of his/her behavior.