IT'S ABOUT COMPUTERS, RIGHT?... WRONG.
It's about improving productivity and learning in human resource systems. In other words: It's about people and improving how they do things.
By putting together what we know about instructional technologies (media, psychology, techniques, practices, methods, etc.), Human Performance Technology (HPT) is playing a larger role in global competitiveness. Training and education are essential to increasing a company's ability to compete, but an effective human resource system needs an outstanding learning system with a focus on performance. To remain competitive in the long run, that system must be the core of an organization's human resource efforts.

More companies, departments, and individuals with abstract job titles incorporate HPT than you can swing a stick at. Human Resource Managers, Human Performance Technologists, Instructional Designers, Educational Technologists, etc, all may have a part in HPT. Basically, any person or group of people responsible for the performance outcome of others.

HPT is a set of methods and procedures, and a strategy for solving problems in an organizational setting. But, let's not forget the most important aspect: people! HPT is concerned with realizing opportunities within the human component of these organizational settings.

HPT is utilized whenever organizational challenges of a performance nature arise. Can we do something better? Faster? More efficiently? Are these challenges related to the performance of people? If so, HPT is the tool for the job.

It can be applied in any organizational setting, to individuals, small groups, as well as large organizations.

For realizing opportunities related to the performance of people. Its utilization is an efficient approach to problem solving and performance enhancement.

Ah-hah! Now we're getting down to the nuts & bolts of it… through a systematic combination of three fundamental processes: performance analysis, cause analysis, and intervention selection.

Performance analysis determines what we want, what we've got, and the difference (gap) between them. The ultimate goal of HPT is to eliminate this difference in the most cost-effective manner.

Cause analysis identifies specific factors that contribute to the difference between the "wants" and "haves." Cause analysis is the critical link between identified performance gaps and their appropriate interventions. 

This stage of the HPT process actually entails more than intervention selection alone. It also includes intervention design and implementation. The chosen form of intervention is actually a combination of different approaches, allowing a multidirectional approach to improving performance. How a form of intervention is selected, developed and implemented is based on its cost-effectiveness and the overall benefit to the organization. 

Although not previously mentioned, a key element found in every major approach to instruction and change is evaluation. Evaluation is not always a separate event occurring at the end stage of the process, nor is it functionally unrelated to the previous phases of analysis and intervention selection and development. In fact, evaluation occurs during all steps of the HPT process. Without it, we would have no idea whether our selected interventions are effective or not, and if we are on track during the analysis and development phases.

In addition to the above, an intervention's success is directly tied to the reduction of the original performance gap. There must be a measurable outcome in terms of performance improvement and organizational results 

For more information about Human Performance Technology, visit the website of the International Society for Performance Improvement at www.ispi.org.

In addition, please see the following Encyclopedia of Educational Technology articles:

Conducting performance analysis
Finding solutions to performance problems
Performance analysis: an overview
Technology and analysis
Training needs assessment
Understanding goals
Why performance analysis

Human resources management

Eric Tremmel ，Graduate Student ，San Diego State University