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FHWA Highway Safety Programs

5. Next Steps

Interpret the Results

After completing the HSIP Self Assessment, the evaluation team should calculate the scores and review the results together. First, the team should examine the resulting scores for each individual question in the self-assessment tool. These scores will provide an indication of particular areas of strength as well as areas where improvements may be required to improve performance. Agencies may also wish to consider the relative importance of each activity to the success of their program.

In addition to examining individual questions, the team should examine the scores for each of the five primary assessment areas (e.g., Leadership, Administration, Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation). This examination will provide an indication of broad areas of strength as well as potential opportunities for improvement.

Develop an Action Plan

Once the team understands the areas where performance can be improved, members should consider developing an action plan to improve performance. To make this action plan implementable, the team should assign responsibilities and time frames for completing each action item where needed improvements were identified.

Some actions may be very straight forward. For example, if a champion for highway safety needs to be designated to improve HSIP leadership (Question 4.1.3), the action required is to identify a champion or champions. In some cases, the action may be less clear, so the team may need to collect more information or conduct more detailed discussions to create multiple steps to implementation. For example, if your agency does not incorporate advanced statistical methods into safety evaluation (Question 4.5.3), discussions may be required to identify such procedures and to adopt procedures for use in safety evaluations. In any event, actions plans should be as specific as possible and should include, at a minimum, a description of what needs to be done, who is going to do it, and when it will be completed.

Communicate the Findings and Actions

Finally, once the evaluation team has completed an examination of results and developed an action plan, they should prepare a communications plan to share results with management. The team should consider the following questions as they create this communications plan:

  • Who needs the information and why?
  • What information is needed?
  • How will the information be communicated?
  • How will the information be used?
  • Who will convey the information?
  • When will the information be given?

Develop Schedule to Update Self Assessment

After implementing the action plan, the evaluation team should schedule a time to update the self assessment. The process of updating the self assessment provides an opportunity to examine the effectiveness of the action plan and to monitor overall program effectiveness over time.