3.2 Managing and Training Your Workers
Job Description
Performance Appraisal
Training Policy
You may be able to provide a high-quality service at present, but this may be due to the particular skills of individual staff. As all agencies experience turnover in both paid and unpaid staff, you will need a detailed procedure relating to staff recruitment.
A job description details the skills, knowledge and experience required of all staff. It also covers the tasks they are required to perform.
A performance appraisal system for staff and volunteers allows you to measure performance against an individual’s responsibilities and objectives. You should introduce a means by which you can act upon these appraisals.
Your agency meets service users through your staff. The quality of an individual’s work and his/her skills should be regularly assessed. Appraisal, linked to regular supervision, can be a positive tool that not only gives you a regular overview of how someone is performing, but can also help you to look at future training needs and areas of personal development.
Disabled people highlighted negative staff attitudes as one of the key reasons why they chose not to use certain agencies. Dealing with these attitudes is a management issue that can be identified through appraisal.
You should have a written training policy that ensures the following:
- advisers are trained to a level of competence appropriate to their work,
- training and development needs, which are regularly reviewed, are assessed for each person in the agency against service objectives,
- written training records are maintained,
- a budget is identified and maintained for this purpose,
- in the event of new legislation, you should have a contingency plan that affects the areas of advice undertaken.
To continue delivering a quality service, the skills and knowledge of new and existing staff should be updated. Your training policies and training needs should be considered as part of your planning process. Overall training areas should be identified for planning purposes under a number of headings:
- induction training,
- ‘on the job’ training,
- specialist skills training,
- core skills training,
- personal development training.
Core training areas should include the following:
-
agency awareness - the aims and values of your agency,
- interviewing skills,
- analytical skills,
- disability equality,
- cultural awareness,
- customer care.
Disabled people can often make a valuable contribution to disability equality training. UPDATE or Inclusion Scotland will be able to suggest appropriate organisations to assist in this area. A list of contact details can be found at the end of this handbook. It should also be noted that the type of staff recruited can transform the culture of an agency. As part of the process of getting rid of discriminatory practices, you should recruit disabled people as information and advice providers.
Go to the next page: Standard Three - Managing Your Service to Ensure Accessibility
(c) Scottish Accessible Information Forum, 2007
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