Needs assessment helps determine whether training is necessary. There are often pressure points that may suggest that training is necessary. A needs assessment usually involves organizational analysis, person analysis, and task analysis. Needs assessment answers three questions:
Organization – What is the context in which training will occur?
Person – Who needs training?
Task – What subjects should the training cover?
Organizational analysis involves determining the appropriateness of training, given the company’s business strategy, its resources available for training, and support by managers and peers for training activities. The nature of the modern business environment makes training important. Rapid change requires that employees continually learn new skills. Growing reliance on teamwork creates a demand for the ability to solve problems in teams, an ability that often requires formal training.
Support of Managers and Peers—the key factors to success are a positive attitude among peers and managers about participation in training activities, willingness to provide information to trainees about how they can apply what they learned, and the availability of opportunities for the trainees to apply what they learned. Person analysis: a process of determining individuals’ needs and readiness for training. It involves answering three questions: Do performance deficiencies result from a lack of knowledge, skill, or ability. Who needs training? Are these employees ready for training? Person analysis helps the manager identify whether training is appropriate and which employees need training. When a problem, such as a performance deficiency, is identified, it is often unclear whether training is the solution. From the manager’s perspective, training should be considered if any of the following is true:
The performance deficiency has the potential to cost the company a lot of money. Employees do not know how to perform effectively. Employees cannot demonstrate the correct knowledge or behavior. Performance expectations are clear, there are no obstacles to performance, and non-performers are not rewarded in some way. There are positive consequences for good performance, while poor performance is not rewarded. Employees receive appropriate feedback.
Other options including tasks [a statement of an employee’s work activity in a specific job] performed by the employee and the knowledge, skill, and behaviors required to successfully complete the tasks. Task analysis: the process of identifying and analyzing tasks to be trained. To carry out the task analysis, the conditions in which tasks are performed are looked at. The equipment and environment of the job Time constraints Safety considerations Performance standards
A task analysis involves selecting the job to be analyzed. Developing a preliminary list of tasks by interviewing and observing employees and their managers. Verifying the importance of the tasks through task inventories or expert committees. A task analysis questionnaire can be used. Identifying the knowledge, skills, or abilities necessary to perform each task-using interview and questionnaires. Training Needs Analysis at the organizational level identifies gaps between employees’ actual performance and their maximum potential to attain organizational objectives. This analysis begins with a review of the company’s strategies and operational plans. For this, organizational objectives, efficiency indices, and other factors are analyzed. If a strategic planning process is not in place, you need to conduct a SWOT analysis, i.e. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of your organization. Involving employees in key roles will help you to do this better. At this level, you will identify where in the organization training is to be emphasized.
Organizational analysis considers how employee training can help attain organizational goals and where in the organization, training is needed. This analysis finds out the knowledge, skills, and abilities workforce will need for the future, as the organization and the tasks of its personnel evolve and change over time.
For example, let’s take an insurance company organizational analysis identifies the gap between the number of claims actually processed and how those numbers can be maximized to a certain extent or percent.
- Task analysis
Task analysis is a process of identifying the purpose of a job and its component parts, and specifying what must be learned in order for there to be effective work performance.
The nature of the tasks to be performed on the job, and the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities [KSAs] needed to do those tasks are analyzed in this level. This is also known as operations analysis. So, task analysis checks the knowledge and skill needs for each specific job task and correlates these requirements to the workforce’s actual knowledge and skills. The gaps revealed in this analysis will give you the training needs.
Analyzing job descriptions will provide insights on the required competencies to perform the task or job. The gaps between actual performance and required competencies indicate the need for training. Task analysis answers the question of what is the training needed and where it is required.
Insurance Company: Task analysis identifies what should be done to increase the number of claims, such as qualified claims, claims assigned, claims logged in/acknowledged, claim confirmation process, and other jobs.
- Individual Analysis
In Individual or person analysis, you can identify who needs to be trained and what training is needed. This helps examine individual performance and training needs.
It analyzes employee performance and compares it with defined standards, to find out the training needs of each individual.
Continuing with the same example: Person analysis verifies what Knowledge, Skills and Abilities [KSAs] each employee must gain, i.e. claim analysis skills, interpreting policies, estimating the extent of loss, calculating the cost of restoration, and other things.
Need Assessment Process
A needs assessment is a process used by organizations to determine priorities, make organizational improvements, or allocate resources. It involves determining the needs, or gaps, between where the organization envisions itself in the future and the organization’s current state. You then develop a plan of action to address the needs [or closing the gaps] to bring the organization closer to its desired future state.