Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Employer Authority: Clear Expectations

Danielle Skenadore
Human Services Manager

Last month, I had the great opportunity to present “Who’s the Boss: Transition Age Youth and Employer Authority” at the 2015 Wisconsin Transition Conference in Wisconsin Dells.  The conference is a chance for educators, professionals, families, and transition age youth to come together and share best practices.  The conference opened up many fascinating discussions about community-based employment, higher education, adaptive technology, home and community-based services, and self-determination.

In both “Who’s the Boss” and many other sessions at the conference, I found myself reflecting on a common theme: expectations.  How do we understand the expectations of the individuals and families we serve?  We often talk about what individuals and families can or should expect from their educators or their employers, but we don’t always discuss what young people can or should expect from their caregivers. 

Clarifying expectations is crucial to successful employer authority.  In my recent post, I highlighted how self-directed programs allow participants decision-making authority in recruiting, hiring, training, and supervising caregivers of their choice.  When a participant or member chooses to exercise this employer authority, they take on the role of a boss. 

Participants and members frequently hire “inside sources” (people they already know) to be their caregivers.  While you might not think interviewing a parent, spouse, sibling or friend is necessary, establishing clear expectations is very important.  When I am out in the community and talking to folks, this issue comes up again and again.

Making sure both the caregiver and care recipient are on the same page from the beginning can facilitate a healthy caregiving relationship.   Check out the slide below for some tips on establishing clear expectations with family or friends. 

To see the entire presentation, please contact me and connect with iLIFE on LinkedIn and Twitter.



1 comment:

  1. Viewing this from my smartphone, I can only see so much of the page,it's a very crucial valid issue ..as it seems it would be nice hiring family or friends, but the point of meeting clients expectations shouldn't be forgotten, and all family members should work together and I find communication a problem when it comes to some family members, I will definitely continue to read all of this tonight on my computer as it's a huge part of working as a team participants and family N friends

    ReplyDelete