The Performance Diagnostic Checklist - Human Services: Guidance for Assessment Administration
Follow the new PDC-HS script to spot why staff struggle before you spend time on fixes.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Brand et al. (2022) wrote a how-to guide for giving the Performance Diagnostic Checklist—Human Services (PDC-HS).
The paper tells you the exact order of questions, what to say, and how to score.
No new data were collected; it is a recipe for users.
What they found
The authors produced a step-by-step script that any supervisor can follow.
Using the script keeps interview length and scoring consistent across staff.
How this fits with other research
Vance et al. (2022) took the same checklist and added a cutoff score plus a decision tree. Their quasi-experiment showed novices picked the right fix five times more often when they used the extra rules.
Brand gives you the basic dish; Vance adds the spice that makes it fool-proof.
Valentino et al. (2024) built a calculator for scoring supervision skills. Like Brand, they offer a tool that turns fuzzy judgments into numbers any team can share.
Falligant et al. (2020) also chased clearer decisions, but for graph analysis. All four papers share one goal: make assessors agree.
Why it matters
If your staff’s performance is rocky, run the PDC-HS exactly as Brand outlines. Pair it with Vance’s cutoffs if you want faster, surer answers. A reliable diagnosis keeps you from wasting time on the wrong fix.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The Performance Diagnostic Checklist - Human Services (PDC-HS) is an assessment designed to assess the environmental variables contributing to employee performance concerns in human-service settings. Recent research has demonstrated that interventions indicated by the PDC-HS result in improved employee performance across several human-service settings and that the assessment has acceptable reliability and validity. Although PDC-HS-indicated interventions have been effective at increasing employee performance, there is a need for additional guidance when using the assessment given the limited nature of the original administration guidelines. Thus, the purpose of the current manuscript is to introduce additional guidance for use of the PDC-HS across a variety of situations.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2022 · doi:10.1007/s40617-021-00675-4