Identifying Training Needs

One of the fundamental requirements of any business is to identify the organisation needs clearly. However, very few organizations have an effective needs identification process in place.  An ideal training needs identification process allows organizations to not only identify their training needs but also helps them identify complete organisation needs in terms of closing the gap between the organisation vision and the reality.

Before an organization lays out the plan for training, it needs to analyze the organizational objectives, assess the employee needs and then train the employees accordingly.  These training needs can be assessed by:

·         Determining the organizational goals

·         Prioritising the tasks in meeting these goals

·         Determining the skills required by the employees

·         Identifying deficiencies in the skill and knowledge levels of employees

Whereas task analysis is often used to determine new employees’ training needs, performance analysis is used in case of assessing current employees’ training needs.  For new employees’ one needs to determine what the job entails and to break it down into subtasks, which may then be identified for training.  For current employees’ training needs can be more complex, since one has to determine the reason for performance gaps & whether training is indeed the solution.

Needs Analysis

Training need is the difference between actual & required human performance at work. With the above background, it is evident that needs analysis typically involves –

1.       Organizational analysis – determining the appropriateness of training given the company’s business strategy, its resources available for training and support by managers & peers for training activities.

2.       Personnel analysis – determining whether performance efficiency is the result of lack of knowledge, skill or ability; identifying who needs the training and determining the employees’ readiness for training.

3.       Task analysis – identifying important tasks & sub-tasks and knowledge, skills & behaviour that needs to be emphasized in training for employees to be able to complete their job.

Methods of identifying training needs

·         Job Analysis

·         Day to Day Supervision

·         Training inventories

·         Self-analysis

·         Management improvement studies

 

• Good Team Members Are Important
• The Angry customer
• The sales and marketing rugby analogy
• Three Envelopes

·         Performance Appraisal

·         Technology changes

·         Accident Reports

·         Production records

·         Training committee and task groups

·         Quality Control Systems

·         Research

·         Brainstorming

·         Incidents

·         Tests

·         Questionnaires

·         Training workshops

·         Labour demands

·         Public Demands

Needs assessments can be valuable tools, if they are done correctly. Not only can they pinpoint training and other performance improvement needs, they can also help you determine practical and realistic solutions that can help your organization achieve the bottom-line business results it requires. There are several different ways to conduct a needs assessment. Many times, the situation will determine which way to proceed. The situational conditions that can determine your approach include:

·         Time available;

·         People who can or cannot be involved;

·         Politics and other sensitivities; and

·         Budget.

The following five high-level steps can help in conducting a successful needs assessment:

1.       Identify and clearly state the issue or opportunity for improvement, and the organizational outcomes or needs related to the performance.

2.       Decide how you will collect the performance data.

3.       Analyze the data.

4.       Conduct a cause analysis.

5.       Identify possible performance improvement solutions.

If time is of the essence, do the best you can, with the time and resources you have, to at least:

·         Clearly define the issue and how it affects the organization;

·         Identify what the target audience is doing compared to what they should be doing;

·         Determine the causes of the performance gap; and

·         Identify solutions that will close the gap.