Personal Care Attendant Competency Development Guide

What is this guide?

The guide is designed to help members examine how personal care attendants work in their communities — and to equip workers themselves with the skills they need to be successful. The guide has descriptions and checklists of the skills, knowledge, and behaviors – competencies – to help personal care attendants deliver effective supports and services across a variety of positions and LTSS settings. The guide also includes a detailed table that breaks down specific tasks associated with performing the job.

Which skills, knowledge and behaviors are covered in the guide?

• Basic technical skills: e.g., providing services and supports, e.g., infection control, activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living, etc.
• How an employee would apply the specific skills to different settings, e.g., understanding how to prevent abuse, understanding dementia, understanding the aging process, etc.
• Interpersonal skills, e.g., taking responsibility for one’s own actions, using different ways to communicate, understanding how to work on a team, etc.
• Highest level skills, e.g., understanding how to provide culturally competent care, assisting in developing a care plan, etc.

How to use the guide:

• For continuing education: look through the different skills and identify the skills that are critical to your organization and where more training for your staff is needed.
• For performance evaluations: incorporate the skills into your community’s performance evaluations.
• On-the-job-training and coaching: urge frontline supervisors to use the guide to build the skills of personal care attendants — and coach their employees to improve performance in identified gaps.

Mid-Level Manager Competency Development Guide

What is this guide?

The guide is designed to help members examine how mid-level managers work in their communities — and to equip workers themselves with the skills they need to be successful. The guide has descriptions and checklists of the skills, knowledge, and behaviors – competencies – to help mid-level managers deliver effective supports and services across a variety of positions and LTSS settings. The guide also includes a detailed table that breaks down specific tasks associated with performing the job.

Which skills, knowledge and behaviors are covered in the guide?

• Interpersonal: e.g., builds and maintains trust relationships with staff, residents and families, demonstrates effective communication skills, seeks opportunities for professional development, takes initiative and helps teams increase capabilities, etc.
• Operational: e.g., puts community mission and vision into action, models best practices, understands long-term services and supports, etc.
• Financial-Legal: gathers budget information, implements standards and regulations, etc.
• Human Resources: develops strategies to recruit and retain staff, ensures worker safety, etc.

How to use it:

• For continuing education: look through the different skills and see which skills are most critical to your community’s success – and where more development may be needed.
• For performance evaluations: incorporate the skills into your community’s performance evaluations.
• Professional development: use the guide to develop professional development plans and select courses for skills development.
• Recruitment: Use the guide as a way to assess the qualifications of people applying for mid-manager jobs in your communities.