Front End Analysis (FEA) 

Attempts to resolve performance problems often fail to achieve their intended goals because they are selected to treat only visible symptoms rather than underlying causes.  

Solution:
When the root causes of a problem are uncovered and eliminated, the probability of eliminating problems is greatly enhanced. FEA is thus the critical link between performance gaps and their appropriate interventions and is a major strength of the Human Performance Improvement (HPI) approach. Powerful performance design tools, based on identified performance needs,

This Front-End Analysis (FEA) workshop presents a detailed process for analyzing and optimizing human performance in the workplace. Optimizing Human Performance is the most complete and useful tool for analyzing human performance needs. The approach taken in this workshop is unique in that it directly ties your work to improved performance by determining the effective design of interventions most appropriate for each specific situation. 

The formula for worthy performance, the performance equation, is the basic building block of the FEA workshop. Simply stated, it is:

The purpose of the performance equation is to provide a means by which HPI technologists may engineer an environment so that a particular performance will occur. When the workforce leave work, what is left behind is the accomplishment. The performance equation includes the four ways HPI engineers can help clients improve their productivity which include; information, instruction, incentives and implementation. 

A critical and valuable skill in the process is observation of exemplary performance.

Rely on observation and information as the only way to accurately assess and design cost-effective interventions to improve human performance. Appropriate intervention selection involves a systematic, comprehensive, and integrated response to performance problems and their causes as well as to performance improvement opportunities. More often than not, the optimum response is a combination of interventions, representing a multifaceted approach to improving performance.

How a response is constructed is based on the overall value benefit and investment requirement for the organization. The evaluation of its success is directly tied to the reduction of the original performance gap, which is measured in terms of performance improvement and organizational results. Comprehensive interventions result in significant improvements in the organization. 

The implementation of any performance intervention must pay careful consideration to ever changing management issues to ensure acceptance and support at all organizational levels. The assessment and evaluation of those changes provides new information to help achieve and sustain improved performance. HPI is about people in the workforce and how-to improve and sustain their productivity and competitiveness.

Today the competitiveness challenge and human capital issues are at the top of the business agenda. With the proven effectiveness of the FEA workshop, Front-End Analysis is fast becoming the HPI tool of choice.

This workshop is presented in-house at your facility.

Course Goals:
Upon completion of this workshop and given the job aids included, participants will be able to:

• Decide when training is truly the best solution to a situation, and when other interventions would be most appropriate.  

• Conduct a Project Alignment Analysis to establish buy in and support for the Front End Analysis process. Establish up-front which criteria to use in measuring the effectiveness of your analysis. Identify the organization's business goals, identify targeted job and job accomplishments, determine behaviors that will lead to the job accomplishments. Select the best Front End Analysis tool for a given situation. 

• Conduct a New Performance Front End Analysis when dealing with new goals, new processes, new technologies, and/or new workers. Determine the new goal the organization is trying to achieve. Determine what jobs are affected. What is/are the new accomplishments? What are the new behavior/tasks will be required in order to achieve the accomplishment?  What influences need to be developed? Select the influences that will encourage the appropriate behaviors.

• Conduct a Diagnostic Front End Analysis when current workers in current work environments are not meeting organizational goals. The process of diagnostic FEA is a process of investigation, much like physician's process for determining illness in a patient, naming the problem, gathering evidence regarding the symptoms, identifying the causes, and only then determining solutions.  In diagnostic FEA, determine which goal is currently not being achieved. Determine the general problem, what the value of solving the general problem is, what general accomplishment is deficient, what task is deficient, why is it deficient and what you do about the deficiency. Select the influences that will encourage the appropriate behaviors.

The biggest return-on-investment received from the Optimizing Human Performance Workshop is the savings from implementing training only when it is clear that training would solve the problem.

Participants have the opportunity to perform a simulated Front-End Analysis on examples of actual projects and receive individual consultation. In addition, participants take home practical job aids to use for each aspect of a highly successful Front-End Analysis at their organization. 

Duration: 4 Days.