Quality Systems and Evaluation Services

Multnomah County Department of Community Justice

501 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 250

Portland, OR 97214

Field Training Officer Program:

Staff Satisfaction Survey Results

August 2008

Charlene Rhyne, Ph.D.

Quality Systems and Evaluation Services

INTRODUCTION

Multnomah County Department of Community Justice has been involved in implementing evidence-based practices into the adult-side supervision practices since the early 1990s. As part of the continuous quality improvement efforts the training curriculum came under review. To that end, the Field Training Officer Program was part of this review. The purpose of the Field Training Officer Program has been to facilitate new trainees becoming competent in their responsibilities through their work with the Field Training Officer. This Program standardizes the process for training new Parole and Probation Officers to improve the quality of training and to reduce the time it takes for a new officer to effectively admininister the functions of the job. Staff input was solicited to obtain data that will inform the review of current practices to identify strengths and challenges. Further, information regarding the extent to which the program is meeting the needs of the staff and the department as well as aligning with best practices was sought.

METHODOLOGY

The Multnomah County Field Training Officer Program was assessed through a web-based Zoomerang survey sent out to PPO and Managers (N=184) in the Adult Services Division at DCJ. The first administration (available on online in early June 2008) yielded 53 respondents; a second request was sent out (June 25, 2008) with 40 additional surveys being returned for a total number of respondents equaling 93 and resulting in a 51% response rate.

Survey questions focused on satisfaction with the current FTO Program as measured by a five point Likert scale of strongly agree to strongly disagree. Open-ended questions were included to identify areas of most importance and areas of least importance and sequencing of programmatic activities. A copy of the survey instrument can be found in Appendix I.

Respondents’ demographics broke out as follows:

  • Job class: 70% line staff, 24% manager, 7% missing
  • Participation in Multnomah County FTO Program: 65% no, 29% yes, 7% missing
  • Participation in other FTO Program:74% no, 20% yes, 5% missing
  • Years at DCJ: average = 12.3 years
  • Years in community corrections: average 14.04 years

OVERALL SATISFACTION

The overall response to question 1 items can be seen above. Of note:

  • Overall for the most part, there was strong satisfaction with the FTO Program.
  • Areas with the highest endorsement of satisfaction include:
  • training consistent with department philosophy and direction (55% agree/strongly agree)
  • knowledge level of FTOs (52% agree/strongly agree)
  • accurate identification of areas new staff should be trained (49% agree/strongly agree)
  • feedback given to staff by FTOs is helpful (49% agree/strongly agree)
  • Areas with the lowest level of satisfaction include:
  • amount of time FTO spent with new staff (32% disagree/strongly disagree)
  • length of training program (25% disagree/strongly disagree)
  • FTO communication with CJMs (27% disagree/strongly disagree)
  • Approximately one-third of the responses were rated as neutral indicating that respondents had little knowledge or opinion of the FTO Program.

MANAGER SATISFACTION

Manager level of satisfaction:

  • Managers were most satisfied with:
  • the length of the training program (62% agree/strongly agree)
  • areas of instruction(59% agree/strongly agree)
  • FTO feedback given to staff (45% agree/strongly agree)
  • Managers were least satisfied with:
  • FTOs communication with CJMs (48% disagree/strongly disagree)
  • Recommending the program to others (43% disagree/strongly disagree)
  • A large number of items had a neutral response rate which limits generalizability.

LINE STAFF SATISFACTION

Line staff level of satisfaction:

  • Line staff were most satisfied with;
  • training consistent with departmental philosophy and direction (65% agree/strongly agree)
  • knowledge level of FTOs (62% agree/strongly agree)
  • areas of instruction being the right ones for new PPOs to receive (59% agree/strongly agree)
  • FTO feedback to staff (53% agree/strongly agree)
  • Line staff were least satisfied with:
  • the amount of time FTOs spend with new staff (25% disagree/strongly disagree)
  • FTO available and present to train (22% disagree/strongly disagree)
  • Approximately one-third of responses were neutral.

MANAGER AND LINE STAFF SATISFACTION COMPARISON

Satisfaction of mangers as compared to line staff:

  • Managers and line staff has exactly the same level of satisfaction with:
  • Areas of instruction are the right ones for new PPOs to receive (59% agree/strongly agree)
  • Materials generated by FTOs are helpful to new staff in learning job (50% agree/strongly agree)
  • Amount of time spent with new staff is sufficient (29% agree/strongly agree)
  • The areas of greatest discrepancy between manger and line staff level of satisfaction are:
  • Length of training is adequate (28 percentage point difference)
  • FTOs help to identify supervision priorities (27 percentage point difference)
  • Training is consistent with department philosophy and direction (27 percentage point difference)
  • The second and third areas listed above were more strongly endorsed as satisfactory by line staff than managers; mangers believe the length of training program to be adequate more strongly than line staff.

OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS

Respondents were asked the five most important items to be covered by an FTO program. Theme analysis yielded the following:

Train to the overall philosophy and practice of Probation/Parole supervision to include:

  • Evidence-based practices
  • Officer safety including threat assessment
  • Field activities
  • Office activities such as file management, report writing, computer applications
  • Sanctions including community resources
  • Communication skills, information gathering, investigative interviewing, motivational interviewing
  • Knowledge of other criminal justice systems such as courts
  • Policies and procedures, legal issues such as warrants, IRT, Compact
  • Help with prioritization, time management, caseload management

Respondents were also asked the areas of least importance as well as sequencing of curricular content area in a FTO Program. Responses were inconclusive.

SUMMARY

93 DCJ staff responded to the FTO Program survey. Overall the program was received well. However, in looking at the overall satisfaction with the program, approximately one-third of the responses were neutral. This limits the generalizability of the findings. It is important to remember that while only 20% of respondents had participated in the FTO Program, many had experiences with the program through their PPOs.

Not surprisingly, managers and line staff had different impressions and experiences with the FTO Program. Both liked FTO feedback to staff and areas of instruction being delivered. Managers were also satisfied with length of program. Line staff reported satisfaction with training alignment with departmental philosophy and direction as well as knowledge level of the FTOs. Interestingly, line staff wanted FTO to have more time spent with new staff as well as having FTOs available and present to train. This is in contrast to managers being satisfied with length of program. Of concern, almost half of managers expresses dissatisfaction with FTO communication with CJMs and would not recommend the program to others.

If we look at the differences in satisfaction between managers and line staff we see that there is agreement in level of satisfaction in the following: right areas of instruction, helpful materials generated and amount of time spent with staff. The first two are strongly endorsed. The third has a low level of agreement for both the managers and the line staff.

Strong differences emerged between the two groups in the following areas: adequate length of training, FTO ability to identify supervision priorities and training consistent with departmental philosophy and direction. In sum: managers more strongly believe the length of training in the program is satisfactory as compared to line staff; conversely, line staff more strongly believe FTOs do identify priorities and the program is aligned with departmental philosophy and direction. Both have a low level of agreement regarding the amount of time the DCJ FTO spends with new staff being sufficient.

In terms of content, respondents want a FTO Program that is robust and covers in depth evidence-based practices, officer safety, office and caseload task management as well as departmental and legal policies and procedure.

RECOMMENDATIONS

To address the findings described above the following is recommended:

  • Articulate the department’s philosophy and direction
  • Develop a FTO curriculum that is consistent with above and covers all the areas mentioned by respondents as important to include
  • Create a calendar of curricular activities that will identify time spent within each unit of instruction as well as time to deliver all units of instruction
  • Identify priorities that have been vetted by both managers and line staff

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Created on 8/15/2008 1:57 PM