W EEKLY EDITION JUNE 26, 2019
PSAI Announces Updates to Its Certification
Program for the Portable Sanitation Industry
By Karleen Kos, PSAI Executive Director
• A series of demographic data points
• A personal rating for the frequency the worker performs each task and
subtask in the job analysis
• A personal rating regarding the criticality of each task and subtask in the
job analysis
Each item was then weighted. This involved multiplying the respondents' ratings
for frequency and criticality to derive an overall weighted rating for each item and
knowledge domain. Survey respondents represented a cross section of those
people working in the industry. They were well dispersed geographically and
worked for companies of all sizes. The survey was available both online and in a
paper format. More than 90% of respondents used the online version. Most spoke
English as a first language, although around 4% described themselves as more
comfortable with Spanish.
The initial findings from frontline workers were somewhat surprising to the
Commissioners. The results clearly indicated that frontline workers see their most
important competencies differ ently than either intuition or the legacy certification
program would suggest should be the case. To increase the sample size, the PSAI -
CC extended the survey to include portable sanitation company owners and
managers, most of whom have also performed fron tline duties on a regular basis
over the course of their careers and supervise frontline workers today. The
Commissioners felt this step was necessary to either validate the initial findings with
a larger pool of responses or demonstrate that additional wo rk would be necessary
to complete this important step in the process. In the end, the survey pool included:
• 182 completed survey instruments
• 20% in the industry 2 years or less, 20% in the industry more than 20 years
• 36% currently frontline workers, 72 % have been frontline workers at least half
the time at work at some point during their careers
• 20% work for companies with fewer than 500 units; 26% work for companies
with more than 5,000 units
No respondent provided feedback suggesting that the surve y failed to cover
domains or tasks that are common in the field. There were also no items on the survey that ranked so low
as to suggest they should not have been considered. The PSAI - CC thus concluded that the job analysis
itself was a sound depiction of the role.
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