Project BOAST: Workplace

The BOAST Workplace is a simulated place of employment within MatriArk Family Center that allows women to acquire and practice both job-related and work-related skills. Employees earn base pay for attending work, productivity pay for achievement on the typing and keypad entry programs, and pay for professional behavior. Paychecks are distributed weekly.

Job Responsibilities

The primary job responsibility of employees in the workplace is to complete a customized, computerized typing and keypad training from Dr. Kenneth Silverman's Therapeutic Workplace at the Center for Learning and Health at The Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.  The software program consists of standard typing and keypad programs that assume no typing or keypad skills.  Both the typing and Keypad programs are divided into small steps.  Each trainee must practice and remain on a step until the fluency criterion for that step is met.  The fluency criterion is specified in terms of a required number of correct characters per minute and maximum number of incorrect characters per minute.  Once the participant meets the fluency criteria for a step, the participant can proceed to the next step, and practice that step until the fluency criterion for that step is met.  In both of these programs, participants practice the skills being taught in short timings (or trials) that typically last one-minute each.  Within each timing, training trials will be presented repeatedly until the timing is over.  At the completion of both programs, the student should be able to type with high levels of speed and accuracy without looking at the keyboard. Employees earn productivity pay for correct characters and meeting criterion on a step and lose pay for incorrect characters.

Policies and Procedures

• Employees are expected to arrive for each scheduled shift on time. If they are unable to attend work for an appropriate reason, they must provide written documentation in advance or upon return to work. If employees miss work for unexcused reasons or do not provide documentation, their base pay is reset to the lowest amount.
• Employees must show your ID card to gain admittance to the workplace. If they forget it, they either forfiet your right to work that day or you must pay a Lost ID fee .
• Employees must dress appropriately for work. If they continue to disregard warning about dress, they will be sent home from work without pay.
• Employees are expected to greet co-workers when they arrive and bid them farewell on departure.
• Employees are expected to remain task-focused during work and to engage in behaviors that are conducive to creating a productive work environment. For example, employees are expected to maintain library-mode communication and to engage in behaviors that prevent or manage conflicts with co-workers. Employees are expected to avoid gossiping and to engage in problem-solving during work.
• Employees engage in a quarterly performance evaluation that consists of both self and supervisor assessment and goal-setting.

Hours of Operation

Employees are scheduled to work 5 hours a week in the following work schedule: Monday and Wednesday 10 am-noon and Friday 11 am-noon.

Promotion

Employees that master the job responsibilities of the BOAST Workplace may apply for promotion to BOAST Office.

Support for this program was provided in part by a grant from the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through its New Jersey Health Initiatives program.

Page revised 10/23/10
Center for Behavior Analysis• abacenter@rowan.edu •856-256-5470