Pd Needs Assessment E4

Welcome to the OCASI Conference! The Heart of the Matter – Conducting a Needs Assessment Faed Hendry Manager – Training and Outreach Findhelp Information Services – 211 Toronto 416-392-4544 [email_address]

Session Objectives
To review and examine in detail the information, assessment and referral process.
To understand the importance of how to ask the right questions in the right way.
To review the AIRS Standards as they relate to conducting and assessment.
To polish our interpersonal and communication skills

What is an assessment?
In simple terms, an assessment is the process of helping an inquirer identify, analyze and prioritize his or her needs.
People contact your settlement service because they need help getting the information they need to help themselves. They have a reason for contacting you and they are the ones initiating the inquiry. Your job during the assessment is to find that reason – which is often not as easy as it sounds.
Assessment involves understanding the nature and extent of a client’s situation.

What an information and referral assessment isn’t!
A clinical evaluation, an aptitude test, a language proficiency assessment, a health diagnosis, a legal opinion or instructions on what the client should do.
It is important for settlement workers to understand the limitations of their knowledge, skill and authority.

What the AIRS Standards say
I&R specialists shall:
Identify themselves and their program per agency guidelines.
Establish rapport with the inquirer and use active listening skills to discern the presenting problem;
Respond to each inquirer in a professional, non-judgmental and culturally-appropriate manner; 􀂾
Make an accurate assessment of the inquirer’s problems and needs asking relevant questions to elicit information necessary for an accurate referral;
􀂾

What the AIRS Standards say
Present the client with various approaches to addressing the problem;
Explore the client’s own resources (e.g., friends, family, faith-based community);
Effectively utilize the resource information system to identify resources to meet the client’s needs
Recognize the client’s right to make his or her own choices;

Understanding your clients and their expectations
Some people may be able to clearly state their situation.
Others may struggle to describe why they are contacting the service, especially if their predicament is complex, serious, painful or recent.
The initial stated reason for contacting a settlement agency service may not even be the ‘real’ or ‘eventual’ reason for the contact, as depending on the flow of the process, the underlying reason may or may not emerge.

Understanding your clients and their expectations
The following are some typical types of questions that settlement workers encounter:
I am looking for employment. Can you help me?
What type of language training is available?
I am looking for affordable housing?
What type of health services are available?

Icebreaking Exercise: Draw a diagram of the I&R process in the space below!
Break up into groups of 8 to 10 people.
Spend 10 to 15 minutes to discuss and clearly identify all of the steps in the I&R process from the start of the inquiry to the end of the inquiry.
Clearly label each step. Step 1, Step 2 etc.
What specific questions would you ask? Why?
Discuss the reasons for each of the steps your group identified.

Landscape of I&R Process Models
There are many different ways to describe the I&R process:
Flow-Charts and Decision-Trees
Complex written Step-by-Step Instructions
The 3C Model (Contact, Clarification and Closure)
The A to B Model

Anatomy of an Inquiry Identify Line Greeting Preparation Listen Gather Information Provide Information and Referral Summarize and Confirm Understanding Close Wrap Up

The Preparation Process: Are we ready?
Understand your tools
Understand that you can not predict the next inquiry
Understand the complexity of the human services system
Keep your-information up-to-date.
Know where to find information when you need it
Understand the limitations of your knowledge, skill and authority

What is Client/Customer Service?
Client service can be described as a series of activities designed to enhance the level of client satisfaction — that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the client’s expectation.
It involves responding promptly and accurately to client requests in such a way that each client feels valued, respected , and understood.

What Clients Value
Whether clients are shopping in a retail store or accessing settlement services, there are three key areas that concern them:
Product
Did I get what I needed?
Is it a quality product?
Process
Was it easy to get what I needed?
Did I get it when I needed it?
People
Were the people responsive, efficient, friendly?

Client Satisfaction
The Client Satisfaction Equation
Service Expectations + Experience/Process + Outcomes
= Client Satisfaction Level

Five Drivers of Satisfaction
The five “drivers of satisfaction” are the elements that most strongly influence citizens’ perceptions of service quality across the many services provided by government.
Timeliness
Knowledge/Competence
Courtesy/Comfort
Fairness
Outcome

The Assessment Process: Let’s Get started!
The Greeting
Check yourself and your tone
Understand the importance of introduction and agency identification.
Develop rapport and trust by showing empathy
Statistics show that you have anywhere between 5 to 30 seconds to make a first impression…..make it a good one.
Smile as you talk (it changes how you feel & sound)

Interpersonal Skills
It is important for all settlement workers to know that:
Each interaction is an opportunity to increase client satisfaction with your agency by providing excellent service and problem resolution.
Each interaction is an opportunity to solve the client’s problem and build the client’s trust and loyalty.
Each interaction is an opportunity for the settlement service to develop a better understanding of the needs and wants of its clients.

What are Interpersonal Skills?
Interpersonal skills refer to the mental and communicative processes applied during social communications and interactions in order to reach certain effects or results.
Simply put, interpersonal skills are how we relate to others.
Effective interpersonal skills include being able to support and encourage others, being able to give and receive constructive criticism as well as being able to negotiate. These skills and aptitudes also involve active listening, valuing others' opinions, and being able to convey your point clearly.

Listen
Without question, listening is the most critical aspect of any interaction that you have with your clients. Everything flows from your ability to listen carefully by giving the caller your undivided attention and focus.
There are a number of active listening skills and techniques that you can apply to interactions with callers as well as common pitfalls to avoid which we will be addressing later on in the training.

Active Listening
Listening is the single most important skill for a 311 CSR to have because it shapes our understanding, dictates appropriate responses and fosters a positive interaction with the client.
Actively listening to what the client is saying and “really hearing” them is absolutely essential to providing the client with quality service.
How well you listen has a major impact on your job effectiveness, and on the quality of your interactions with others.

Active Listening Techniques
Prepare to listen
Mirror
Paraphrase
Reflect feelings
Nonverbal cues
Minimal encouragers
Verbal Tracking
Validate
Empathy
Accept responsibility for understanding
Don’t tune out “dry” or familiar subjects
Be a physically involved listener
Summarize

Habits of Ineffective Listeners
On-Off Listening
Pseudo-Listening
Red Flag Listening
Rehearsing
Too complicated for me Listening
Open Ears – Closed Mind Listening
Interrupting
Don’t Rock the Boat Listening
Tolerating or Creating distractions

Listening Barriers – Pitfalls to Avoid
The Drift
Jumping to Conclusions
Interruptions
Overreacting to “push button” or trigger words
Rehearsing
Listening for a point of disagreement
Listening only to the easy material
How well do you really listen? Circulate the ABC Listening Exercise Sheet.

Exercise
Listen carefully to the following traffic report.
How many of the following questions would you be able to answer based on hearing this report.

3 Listening Modes
Competitive or Combatative Listening (We are more in promoting our own point of view than in understanding or exploring the customer’s point of view)
Passive or Attentive Listening ( We are attentive and passively listen. We assume that we heard and understand correctly, but stay passive and do not verify the information.)
Active or Reflective Listening ( In active listening we are also genuinely interested in understanding what the customer is thinking, feeling, wanting or what the message means, and we are active in checking out our understanding before we respond with our own message.)

Gather Information: The Art of Effective Questioning
In many service interactions, the settlement worker has to gather information from the client before they are able to give information to the client.
This involves asking the right questions in the right way
It is sometimes necessary to ask the client a number of questions to understand the details of their situation.
There should always be a reason for every question you ask the client and it is important to let the client know why you are asking .

Effective Questioning
Effective questions open the door to knowledge and understanding.
Effective questioning can also help you control the interaction to get the information you need. Rather than the client telling you their story at length (their control), they tell their story by responding to your questions (your control).
This helps you to get to the heart of the matter quickly and usually reduces the call time. This is part of the call control strategy.

Effective Questioning can help you
get the facts
gather better information
connect with callers in a more meaningful way
guide the conversation in a particular direction
confirm that you’ve understood what the caller has said
get information about what the caller is thinking and feeling

The Art of Questioning in I&R
Settlement workers must know what questions to ask and how to ask them.
Avoid asking dichotomous or “Why” questions.
Questions should be presented or framed in context.
There should be a sequence to you questions that seems logical to the client.

Effective Two-Way Communication
Effective communication can be described as the process of understanding and being understood.
Effective communication exists between two people when the receiver interprets and understands the sender’s message in the same way the sender intended it.
Since settlement workers will be spending 75% or more of their time actively communicating with clients, effective communication is crucial.

Sources of Difficulty by the Speaker
Voice volume too low to be heard.
Making the message too complex, either by including too many unnecessary details or too many issues.
Getting lost, forgetting the point or the purpose of the interaction.
Paying too much attention to how the other person is taking the message, or how the person might react.
Using buzz words, jargon or slang.

Sources of Difficulty by the Listener
Being preoccupied and not listening.
Being so interested in what you have to say that you listen mainly to find an opening to get the floor.
Formulating and listening to your own rebuttal to what the speaker is saying.
Listening to your own personal beliefs about what is being said.
Evaluating and making judgments about the speaker or the message.
Not asking for clarification when you know that you do not understand.

Sensitivity to Different Accents and Languages
The aim of the settlement services is to serve everyone effectively regardless of the client’s background, language, race, religion or ethnicity.
It is important for the settlement worker try to focus on the content of the client’s message and not on the accent.
There is a difference between barely being able to understand someone and having to work hard to understand someone.

Referrals
Referrals involve assessing the client’s needs and directing them to one or more appropriate divisions or organizations capable of meeting those needs.
In some cases, the client may not be clear about what they need — they may not express themselves clearly or they may not really know what they need.
You can’t help a caller if you don’t know what they want.

Referrals
A referral involves:
􀂉
Identifying organizations and programs capable of meeting the inquirer’s assessed needs.
􀂉
Providing enough information about each organization to help an inquirer make an informed choice (and sometimes helping inquirers for whom services are unavailable to identify or explore alternative solutions).

Group Exercise: Eligibility Criteria
Identify 8 different types of eligibility criteria and identify specific programs or services that use that type of eligibility criteria to determine who is qualified to receive the program or service.
Example: Income Level is used as part of the eligibility criteria for the Ontario Works Program.

Closure: Develop an Action Plan
Carry out appropriate action by providing information and/or referral on available resources.
Summarize to ensure understanding
End on a positive note
Invite the client to reconnect with you if required
Document/Record Inquiry
Follow-up if appropriate

Exercises and Simulations
Let us process the following real-life situations. These questions have been taken and slightly modified from the Settlement.org Discussion Board.
How would you handle these situations?
What additional information do you require in order to get a better understanding of the situation?
What questions would you ask? How would you ask them?
What would be some possible referrals?

THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING!
Faed Hendry
Manager – Training and Outreach
Findhelp Information Services
543 Richmond Street West – Suite 125
Toronto, Ontario M5V 1Y6
Tel: 416-392-4544
[email_address]

Moments of Truth – A Telephone Call The person cut me off as I was explaining my problem. The person transferred me to the wrong place. The person listened to me. The person asked questions to get more information. The person will listen and respond to me in a way that lets me know s/he understands my problem. I had to call more than once to get through. I had to call two other places before I finally got what I wanted. The person who answered was able to help me . The person who answered transferred me to the right person to help me. I will have to call only once. I was put on hold for 20 minutes. I wondered if I’d been disconnected. My call was answered within 3 rings. My call will be answered within a reasonable timeframe. Experience Detractor Experience Enhancer Service Expectation

The Power of Attitude
The single biggest difference between an effective I&R Specialist and a mediocre one is attitude.
Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do….. But Attitude determines how well you do it!

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Pd Needs Assessment E4

by ocasiconference on Jan 13, 2010

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Pd Needs Assessment E4 — Presentation Transcript