NASHVILLE — A workshop on human performance, an issue executives are calling one of the workplace’s biggest challenges, is being offered throughout the state by the University of Tennessee.
Bill Stetar, of the UT Center for Industrial Services, is the featured presenter. Stetar, a leading expert in the science of human performance technology, has worked with many Fortune 500 companies, as well as international firms, to apply performance-technology methods. The resulting interventions have helped these companies compact the learning curve, reduce downtime, sustain process improvements, and increase capacity, quality, and productivity.
People or human capital, says Stetar, are a company’s most important but often underutilized asset. The science of human performance technology, he says, can help both public and private organizations improve performance and quantify their human capital investments.
“Human performance technology is not restricted to a specific industry or business,” Stetar points out. “This science has proven to be beneficial to manufacturers, service industries, non-profits, and high tech firms alike.”
Stetar says seminar attendees will gain a better perspective of how human performance can be more than just managed, but how it can be effectively engineered. Stetar will systematically examine the factors that influence human performance, pinpointing the systems and structures that can either facilitate or deter desired workforce performance.
The first session, cosponsored by the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce Quality Council and the Chattanooga Section of the American Society for Quality (ASQ), was held on Jan 17 at Cleveland State Community College and drew more than 70 participants.
Additional seminars are scheduled throughout the state. The next seminar, scheduled for late March, will be held in Chattanooga and cosponsored by the Chattanooga Chamber and the Chattanooga Manufacturers Association. In April, Stetar will present his information to members of the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce. June sessions are scheduled to be held in Nashville and Memphis, and an appearance in Knoxville is planned for the summer.