Nonprofit Recruitment

Program Coordinator Performance Management Model Program Coordinator of Partners for a Healthy Baby The Program Coordinator of Partners for a Healthy Baby will have the challenge of implementing a program designed to facilitate positive health, growth, and educational development of teens and their babies. The position requires a strong background in social work, adolescent development, and health-related fields. The Program Coordinator will act both as an educator and a facilitator in conjunction with the performance expectations of this role.

Practices and theories in regards to recruitment and performance evaluation The character traits required for the Program Coordinator are strong interpersonal skills; the ability to multitask; yet also the ability to evaluate evidence-based research to be able to provide adequate scrutiny of the existing information on teenage pregnancy and to ensure the programming makes optimal use of all available data.

The Coordinator will work with the Program Chief to oversee administration-related issues and financing and also with members of the community such as healthcare organizations to ensure that Partners for a Healthy Baby is meeting its desired goals. For example, one of the components of the program involves driving girls to doctor's appointments, so they will not feel a need to choose between attending school and prenatal care.

This will require recruiting volunteer drivers as well as working with physicians to see girls at times which are convenient for them in regards to their school schedule. The ability to solicit volunteers, to work with healthcare professionals, and also to structure a program that will meet the needs of girls requires all of the various personal skills and character traits outlined above to be manifest in the person of the Program Coordinator. Thus, on a very basic level the program requirements for leadership are both personality-based and knowledge-based.

The ability to be extroverted and to work well with the community is required but there is also a need for technical knowledge, such as prioritizing specific types of care and meeting the developmental needs of the teens and children involved in the program. Personality assessments may be used for screening candidates such as the Myers-Briggs test, which rates candidates based upon qualities such as extroversion vs. introversion; feeling vs. thinking; sensing vs. perceiving; and judging vs. perceiving.

Of course, such tests can be extremely subjective in nature and should only be one component of the recruiting process for the prospective candidate. Knowledge, educational background, and past experience should all be considered. During the interview process it is essential that the prospective coordinator show a passion for the job and specific knowledge about the needs of the population for which the program is being designed. Past evidence of being able to exercise managerial supervision and policy-making at the program level is essential.

Multitasking, dealing with government and other forms of institutional bureaucracy, and healthcare-related experience related to adolescents are other qualities which would be desirable in a prospective coordinator. Of course, interviewing itself is a subjective process and having multiple interviewers and rounds of interviews is often useful, to give a full portrait of the candidates' weaknesses and strengths.

Asking tough questions about the tasks the candidate will likely be faced with on the job, such as program cuts and dealing with opposition from some school and parent groups who believe the program is overly tolerant of the phenomenon of teen pregnancy is also advised. The interview process must be rigorous because the program position itself is a challenging one. The standards of evaluation should also be clarified at the Program Coordinator's orientation, so there is no question about his or her duties.

These will include providing services for the at-risk population; minimizing the rate of dropouts; recruitment and retention of both volunteers and salaried staff; and also evaluations by the Program Chief as well as input from the other major administrative figures the Coordinator will deal with over the course of serving the program, including the high schools from which the girls will be recruited for the program.

Theories and practices for effective performance evaluation In the past, performance evaluations at many organizations were often carried out on an annual basis and were relatively perfunctory. This often caused dismay on both the part of the evaluators and the candidates. Supervisors were frustrated at having minimal input over the course of the year which resulted in little change in performance while supervisees were frustrated that they were only told that their performance was lacking after it was too late to make substantive improvements.

Feedback should ideally be given in an ongoing and engaged fashion, with dialogue between both manager and subordinate. For the Program Coordinator, this means working closely with the Program Chief and also underlines the need for the Coordinator to design an effective performance evaluation mechanism for all program staff members.

Mentorship of new employees can be a particularly valuable way to provide input in a less judgmental framework and to ensure that performance reviews do not contain any unpleasant 'surprises.' Behavioral 'checklists' have fallen out of favor as a method of performance evaluation (i.e., evaluating a candidate based upon meeting laundry list of objectives) (Elan 2014).

While it is important to keep track of data-driven metrics regarding program success and this must be a component of the evaluation, this should not be the sole determinant of success given the extent to which external factors can affect year-to-year success of the program beyond the Coordinator's control. A more useful method of appraisal for higher-level positions include 360 degree appraisal methods which involves feedback from an entire team of persons involved in the employees work. Feedback may come from: "the manager, supervisor, team members and any direct reports.

In this method of appraisal, [a] employee ['s] complete profile has to be collected and assessed. In addition to evaluating the employee ['s] work performance and technical skill set, an appraiser collects an in-depth feedback of the employee" from both lower-level staff members and higher-level staff members (Elan 2014). In a not-for-profit public service organization where volunteers are critical components of the program, their input regarding the Coordinator's ability to work well with them would be useful.

This 360 degree method is also useful because it more easily allows the review process to identify success factors as well as problems with employee performance. Thus far, the Partners for a Healthy Baby has been meeting its stated goals and objectives but there is always room for improvement. Since 2008, more than 133 teens have benefited from the program and 55 of the original members have successfully graduated from high school have been served by the program and 55 have graduated from high school ("DDS Success in School receives award," 2012).

Performance management plans in the public sector Just as in the private sector, effective.