Supervision, Training, and Performance Management of Technicians
What supervision must include
Supervision is more than a weekly meeting. Requirements typically include a minimum percentage of the trainee's total hours (commonly 5%), individual supervision, direct observation of the supervisee working with a client, and documented feedback. Supervision must fall within your competence and be formally agreed to through a supervision contract with clear expectations and evaluation criteria.
Training staff effectively
Behavioral skills training is the workhorse: describe the skill, model it, rehearse it, and give feedback until a criterion is met, then observe in the natural setting. Reading a manual or watching a video is not training. Task-analyze the technician's job (session setup, prompting, data collection, pairing) so each component can be measured.
Performance management
Pinpoint observable behaviors, measure baseline, set goals, and deliver feedback that is immediate, specific, and behavioral: "you delivered the prompt within 2 seconds on 8 of 10 trials" rather than "be more consistent." Reinforce improvement, and make corrective feedback describe the desired behavior rather than the person. Diagnose whether a problem is a skill deficit (train it) or a performance deficit (arrange consequences).
Traps
Questions often offer "meet weekly and discuss cases" as the supervision answer, but it omits direct observation and data-based feedback. Another trap is supervising outside your scope or letting a supervisee work independently before competency is demonstrated. Document supervision hours and feedback.
Worked example
A technician's discrete-trial data show only 40% accuracy in prompting. Rather than reassigning the case, observe a session, use behavioral skills training on the prompting sequence, and recheck the data: a skill deficit answered with training.