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...

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…