Motivating Human Service Staff, 2nd Edition

Volume 3 of Behavior Analysis Applications in Developmental Disabilities Series.  This book presents strategies for enhancing work proficiency and diligence among direct support staff in human service agencies, while ensuring staff enjoy their work. In contrast to typical texts on worker motivation, this book does not focus on theoretical models or interpretations of worker motivation. Rather, the focus is on day-to-day strategies for ensuring staff effectively fulfill their job responsibilities. The strategies are based on over two decades of applied research on enhancing staff performance in human service settings as well as the supervisory experience of the authors and their colleagues.

The main body of this book is organized in three interrelated sections. The Introductory section provides a practical, working definition of motivation along with a brief summary of reasons for the widespread existence of motivational problems among human service personnel. The second section, Enhancing Diligent and Competent Work Performance, describes procedures for ensuring staff know how to perform their jobs, and routinely perform their jobs proficiently. The final section, Enhancing Work Enjoyment, details supervisory strategies for increasing the enjoyment staff experience with their day-to-day jobs, while maintaining competent and diligent work habits.