An Evaluation of the Performance Diagnostic Checklist—Human Services (PDC–HS) Across Domains

Abstract

The Performance Diagnostic Checklist—Human Services (PDC–HS) is an informant-based tool designed to assess the environmental variables that contribute to poor employee performance in human service settings. Although the PDC–HS has been shown to effectively identify variables contributing to problematic performance, interventions based on only two of the four PDC–HS domains have been evaluated to date. In addition, the extent to which PDC–HS-indicated interventions are more effective than nonindicated interventions for two domains remains unclear. In the current study, we administered the PDC–HS to supervisors to assess the variables contributing to infrequent teaching of verbal operants and use of a timer by therapists at a center-based autism treatment program. Each of the four PDC–HS domains was identified as contributing to poor performance for at least one therapist. We then evaluated PDC–HS-indicated interventions for each domain. In addition, to assess the predictive validity of the tool, we evaluated various nonindicated interventions prior to implementing a PDC–HS-indicated intervention for two of the four domains. Results suggest that the PDC–HS-indicated interventions were effective across all four domains and were more effective than the nonindicated interventions for the two domains for which they were evaluated. Results are discussed in terms of the utility of the PDC–HS to identify appropriate interventions to manage therapist performance in human service settings.