Module 3: The Vital Importance of Needs Analysis
Module 3: The Vital Importance of Needs Analysis
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Training: the Real Solution?
Needs analysis means listening to the “still, small voice” of the organization, not jumping to conclusions about the wonders of training.
Consider these real-life examples:
The Boss: I can’t figure out why none of the warehouse clerks are using our new inventory system.
Training Manager #1 (loudly): I think we need to have a training to get everyone on board!
Training Manager #2 (loudly): We can put together a computer simulation to let them practice how it’s done!
Warehouse Clerk #1 (quietly): The only work station down here is always on the fritz. I wish we could access the system on our phones.
Warehouse Clerk #2 (quietly): It’s too bad that it takes a dozen steps to find anything on the new system.
Warehouse Clerk #3 (quietly): I started two weeks ago and I still don’t have my system login. Guess I’ll just keep using Bob’s.
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The Boss: I don’t understand why my floor supervisors aren’t spending enough time coaching their subordinates.
Training Manager #1 (loudly): Let’s put together a mentoring training!
Training Manager #2 (loudly): We can design role-plays for every coaching situation!
Floor supervisor #1 (quietly): The boss never told us she cared about coaching before.
Floor supervisor #2 (quietly): On my last performance review, I got “satisfactory” across the board, including coaching skills. I wish we could have spent more than 3 minutes talking about my review.
After reading these scenarios, do the training managers have the right idea? Can we be sure that these issues are training problems at all?
#1 Lesson: training isn’t always the answer.
Understanding what is preventing employees from performing up to expectations should always be the first step – before you even make the decision to offer training. The very first mission of performing needs analysis is to determine what can be solved by training and what can’t.
If you determine that something in the organization or the environment is preventing employees from performing up to expectations, no amount of training is going to help. On the other hand, if you determine that nothing is blocking the way and that a particular skill is required to do a particular task, but the workers just don’t know what to do, it might time for training. Or maybe not! There are still other alternatives to training employees such as providing job aids, changing the requirements of the job, or even outsourcing the tasks to a vendor.
Learning Objectives
Describe the purpose of a needs analysis
Differentiate between the components of needs analysis, including organizational, task and person analysis
Conduct a needs analysis to determine whether training is necessary
List and explain issues that impact needs analysis
Assigned Reading
Textbooks: Blanchard, P. B., & Thacker, J. W. (2019) Effective training: Systems, strategies, and practices (6th Ed.). Chicago; Chicago Business Press. ISBN 13: 978-0-9988140-6-3
Optional Text Resource: Hacker, D., & Sommers, N. (2011). A writer’s reference (latest edition.). Bedford: St. Martin’s. ISBN-13: 978-0-312-60143-0.
For this module, read the following:
o Effective Training: Systems, Strategies, and Practices Chapter 4.
Chapter 4 of our textbook explores how needs analysis or training needs assessment (TNA) looks for gaps in performance. When what you expect from employees in the organization is not what they are doing, there’s a problem – what your text calls an “organizational performance gap”
Reading Focus and Active Reading Guidance
There are many ways to look for these discrepancies in performance and TNA proposes a 3 tiered solution. A good place to start is Organizational Analysis, to make sure circumstances within the organization are not inadvertently creating a performance gap.
A good needs analysis will also look at the tasks and KSAO’s required by the job (you’ve heard of job analysis, right?), sometimes referred to as Task Analysis or Operational Analysis.
The final step is Person Analysis, when we consider the needs of the people who will actually be doing the job and performing the tasks or learning the required KSAO’s. Who are they? How many? How will they learn best?
As you are reading, think about internal and external factors, or organizational and environmental factors that might impair performance at your own organization. Could these factors be better controlled, reduced, or removed all together?
Be sure to review chapter summaries and be sure to look over all end of chapter information.
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