Organizational Readiness: Understanding Your Data

Evaluating the readiness of your organization is essential to the successful implementation of new initiatives. Determining if your organization has the foundational skills to support and sustain new initiatives will lead you to the most appropriate starting place for organizational change. 

Several organizational factors influence trends in low performance among the direct support workforce. For example, organizations that provide direct support report challenges in maintaining high job performance expectations of direct support professionals (DSPs) while balancing the increasing demands for delivering supports. There are various strategies that must be incorporated on multiple levels for organizations to address the challenges in the direct support workforce. One of the most integral strategies involves development and implementation of high quality competency-based training programs. Job satisfaction is related to the competence and confidence of DSPs in their ability to do the job.  DSPs who experience high morale, teamwork, participation in decision-making, and recognition have greater commitment to the organization. These factors result in greater retention, fewer job vacancies, and decreased turnover of DSPs. Several organizational processes have been identified as best practices in direct support workforce development.