Training Needs Analysis (TNA) is the process in which the company identifies training and development needs of its employees so that they can do their job effectively.

1. The Needs
Analysis
Process
Chapter 4
D R N A Z R U L I S L A M

2. Learning Objectives
• After reading this chapter, you will be able to:
– Define need analysis and describe the needs analysis process
– Define and explain how to conduct an organizational, task, and person
analysis
– Define and describe the purpose of a cognitive task analysis and a
team task analysis
– Describe the process of determining if training is the best solution to
performance problem
– Describe the different methods and sources for conducting a needs
analysis
– Describe the obstacles to conducting needs analysis and how to
overcome them.
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4. Needs Analysis
• Needs Analysis
• The cornerstone and foundation of training and development
• A process to identify gaps or deficiencies in employee and
organizational performance.
• “Formal process of identifying needs as gaps between current and
desired results, placing those needs in priority order based on the
cost to meet each need versus the cost for ignoring it, and selecting
the most important needs (problems opportunities) for reduction or
elimination.”
• Leigh, Watkins, Platt and Kaufman (2000)
• A need analyst gathers information from key people in an
organization about the organization, jobs, and employees to
determine the nature of performance problems
• Needs = required results – current results
• A needs analysis helps to identify the causes and solutions to
performance problems.
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5. Training Needs Assessment
• Organizational Analysis
– Examines system-wide factors that effect
the transfer of newly acquired skills to the
workplace
• Person Analysis
– Who needs what kind of training
• Task Analysis
– Provides statements of the activities and
work operations performed on the job

6. The Needs Analysis Process
• Step one: A concern
• Step two: Its importance
• Step three: Consult stakeholders
• Step four: Data collection ( Analysis of Organization,
Task & Person)
• Step five: Need analysis outcome
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7. .
Organizational Analysis
1. Strategy
2. Environment
3. Resource analysis
4. Organizational context
Task Analysis
1. Identify target jobs
2. Obtain description
3. Develop rating scales
4. Survey incumbents
5. Analyze & interpret information
6. Provide feedback
Person Analysis
1. Define desired
performance
2. Determine gap
3. Identify obstacles
Outcomes
1. Performance gaps
2. Solution Performance gaps
3. Whether training is needed
4. The type of training needed
5. Who needs to be trained
6. Specification of learning objectives
7. How trained should be designed and delivered
8. The development of criteria for evaluation
Collect Information
Consult Stakeholders
Yes No Terminate
Important?
Concern
The Need Analysis Process – Concern (Step One)
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8. Step 1: A Concern, Contd.,
• The process of identifying training needs originates slowly
and informally with a concern (an itch or a pressure
point).
– Internal :
• increase in customer complaint,
• high rate of wastage,
• increase in OT,
• increasing rate of defective parts or accidents
– External:
• Change in laws and regulation, VAT, IT, Other natural
concerns (?)
• At IBM, about 10% of all the complaints addressed to the CEO
involved in client dissatisfaction with IBM’s handling of telephone
calls. 8
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9. Step 2: Importance
• A concern is important (i.e., worthy of further
exploration and analysis), if it has an impact on
outcomes that are important to the organization
and its effectiveness
• Determine the magnitude of importance
• How it relates to the strategic goal
– One of IBM’s strategic goal was customer satisfaction.
70% customer contacts were by telephone. So, any
complain about telephone calls should be taken seriously
• Saving money
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10. Step 3: Consult Stakeholders
• Stakeholders – who have vested interest in the process and
outcomes.
• Support from key players in the organization is necessary from
the beginning of needs analysis process.
• Top management should understand the rational for the
needs analysis
• Managerial expectations must be clarified
• Other stakeholders, such as employees or their collective
representatives must be consulted.
• IBM Example (just train the secretaries and switch board
operators)
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11. Step 4: Data Collection
• Data collection process is the most extensive and
involves the documentation of the concern through
the collection of information from three levels of
analysis:
– Organizational analysis
• Where is training needed in the organization?
– Task analysis
• What knowledge, skills and abilities are required to
perform the job effectively?
– Person analysis
• Who needs to be trained?
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12. Step 5: Need Analysis Outcome
• After completion of needs analysis, the information needs to
be examined and interpreted.
• Focus then shifts to an understanding of the performance
problem and search for the most effective solutions.
• Determine whether training and development is a part of a
solution.
• Needs analysis information is also used to write training
objective and to design training program.
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13. Needs Assessment for Training
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14. Organizational Analysis
The study of the entire organizations including its strategy, environment, resources,
and context .text)
• Strategy
– Consists of an organization’s mission, vision, goals and objectives such as
dedication to quality or innovation
• Corporate strategy
• Business Strategy
• Functional Strategy
• International Strategy
- In the past organizational strategy was set and implemented independently
of the training function and HRM in general.
- An organizations strategy should indicate the type and amount of training
required.
• SHRM
• Alignment of human resource practices with an organization’s business strategy
• Strategic Training
• The alignment of an organization’s training needs and programs with the organization’s
strategy and objectives 14
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THE STRATEGIC THINKING
(1)
Where Are We?
What Are We? Mission
(2)
Where Do We
Want To Go?
What Do We
Want To Be?
(3)
How Do We
Get There?
How Must
We Change?
Vision
Objectives
&
Action
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Environmental Scanning
External
Natural Task
Porter’s
5 Forces
Societal
STEEP/
PESTEL
EFAS/OT
Internal
IFAS/SW
Environment
- The environment is dynamic and uncertain
- New technologies, competitors, , recessions , regulatory
changes etc.
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17. Organizational Analysis (Cont’d)
• Resource Analysis
- Analysis of the organization’s ability to design and deliver training programs.
- Financial cost, time and expertise to design and implement.
• Organizational context
– The collective attitudes of its employees toward work, supervision, and
company goals, policies, and procedures.
- Training Transfer Climate: Characteristics in the work environment that can
either facilitate or inhibit the application of training on the job.
- Learning culture: A culture in which members of an organizations believe
that knowledge and skill acquisition are part of their job responsibilities and
that learning is an important part of work life in the organization.
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18. Task Analysis
Six steps of task analysis
Identify the target jobs
Obtain a job description
Develop rating scales to rate the
importance of each task and the
frequency that it is performed
Survey a sample of job
incumbent
Analyze and interpret the
information
Provide feedback on the
results
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19. Person Analysis
The process of studying employee behavior to determine whether
performance meets standards
• Examines how well an employee performs the critical tasks
and their KSAs.
• The objective is to provide answer to these kinds of questions:
• How well does the employee perform the tasks?
• Who, within the organization, needs training?
• What kind of training do they need?
Three step process to get the answers:
1. Define the desired performance
2. Determine the gap between desired and actual performance
3. Identify the obstacles to effective performance
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20. Determining the Solutions to Performance Problems
HUMAN TECHNICAL INFORMATION STRUCTURAL
Lack of knowledge Poor job design Ill defined
goals/objectives
Overlapping roles
and
responsibilities
Lack of skills Lack of
tools/equipment
Lack of performance
measurements
Lack of
flexibilities
Lack of motivation Lack of
standardized
procedures
Raw data, not
normative or
comparative data
Lack of control
systems
Counterproductive reward
system
Rapid change in
technology
Resources sub-
optimized
Group norms Ineffective feedback
Informal leaders
Organizational political
climate
Barriers to Effective Performance
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21. Methods of Needs Analysis
There are nine basic needs analysis methods:
1. Observation
2. Questionnaires
3. Key consultation
4. Print media
5. Interviews
6. Group discussion
7. Tests
8. Records, Reports
9. Work samples
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22. Explanations of the Methods
1. Observations
1. Can be as technical as time-motion studies or as functionally or
behaviorally specific as observing a new board or staff member
interacting as during a meeting
2. May be as unstructured as walking through an agency’s offices on the
lookout for evidence of communication barriers
3. Can be used normatively to distinguish between effective and ineffective
behaviors, organizational structures, and/or process
2. Questionnaire
1. May be in the form of surveys or polls of a random or stratified sample
of respondents, or enumeration of an entire “population.”
2. Can use a variety of question formats: open-ended, projective, forced-
choice, priority-ranking
3. Can take alternative forms such as Q-sorts, slip-sorts, rating scales, either
predesigned or self-generated by respondent(s)
4. May be self administered (by mail) under controlled or uncontrolled
conditions, or may require the presence of an interpreter or assistant
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23. Methods, Contd.,
3. Key Consultation
1. Secures information from those persons who, by virtue of their
formal or informal standing, are in a good position to know what
the training needs of a particular group are:
2. Board chairman
3. Related service provider
4. Members of professional associations
5. Idividuals from the service population
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4. Print Media
Can include professional journals, legislative news/notes, industry trade
magazines, in–house publications, etc.

24. Methods, Contd.,
5. Interviews
1. Can be formal or casual, structured or unstructured, or some where in
between.
2. May be used with a sample of particular group (board, staff,
committee) or conducted with everyone concerned
3. Can be done in person, by phone, at the work site, or away from it.
6. Group Discussion
1. Resembles face-to-face interview technique, e.g., structured or
unstructured, formal or informal, or somewhere in between
2. Can be focused on job (role) analysis, group s, consensus rankings,
organizational mirroring, simulation, etc.
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25. Methods, Contd.,
7. Tests
1. Are a hybridized for of questionnaire
2. Can be very functionally oriented(like observation) to test a board,
staff, or committee member’s proficiency
3. May be used to sample learned ideas and facts
4. Can be administered with or without the presence of an assistant
8. Records Reports
1. Can consists of organizational charts, planning documents, policy
manuals and budget reports
2. Employee records (grievance, turnover, accidents etc.)
3. Includes minutes of meetings, weekly, monthly program reports,
memoranda, agency service records, program evaluation studies.
Source: From Steadham, SV (1980), Learning to select a need assessment strategy, Training & Development
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26. Methods, Contd.,
9. Work Samples
Work sampling is the statistical technique for determining the
proportion of time spent by workers in various defined
categories of activity (e.g. setting up a machine, assembling two
parts, idle…etc.).
1. Are similar to observation but in written form
2. Can be products generated in the course of the organization’s
work, e.g., ad layouts, program proposals, market analysis, letters,
training designs
3. Written responses to a hypothetical but relevant case study
provided by the consultant.
Source: From Steadham, SV (1980), Learning to select a need assessment strategy, Training & Development
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27. Methods Advantages Disadvantages
Observations •Minimizes interruption of routine work
flow
•Generates in situ data, highly relevant
to training needs
• Provides first-hand data.
•Requires a highly skilled observer with both
process and content knowledge
•Carries limitations that drive from being able
to collect data only within the work setting
•Fear of treating by the respondents the
observation activity as “spying.”
Questionnaire •Can reach a large number of people in a
short time
•Are relatively inexpensive
•Give opportunity of expression without
fear or embarrassment
•Yield data easily summarized and
reported
•Make little provision for free expression of
unanticipated responses
•Require substantial time and technical skills
for development of effective instruments
•Are of limited utility in getting at causes of
problems or possible solutions
•Suffer low return rates (mailed)
Key
Consultation
•is relatively simple and inexpensive to
conduct
•Permits input and interaction of a
number of individuals, each of his or her
own perspectives of the needs of the
area, discipline, group, etc
•Establishes and strengthens lines of
communications between participants in
the process
•Carries a built-in bias, since it is based on the
views of those who tends to see training
needs from their own individual or
organizational perspective
•May result in only a partial picture of
training needs due to the typically non-
representative nature (in a statistical sense)
of a key informant group
Advantages and Disadvantages of Nine Basic Needs Analysis Methods
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28. Methods Advantages Disadvantages
Print Media •Provides information that is current if not
forward-looking
•Is readily available and is apt to have
already been reviewed by the client group
•Can be problem when it comes to the data
analysis and synthesis into a useable form
(use of clipping service or key consultants can
make this type of data more useable)
Interviews •Are adept revealing feelings, causes of, and
possible solutions to problems that the
client is facing (or anticipates);
•provide maximum opportunity for the
client to represent himself spontaneously
on his own terms
•are usually time-consuming
•Can be difficult to analyze and qualify results
(especially from unstructured formats)
•Unless the interviewer is skilled, the client(s)
can easily be made to feel self-conscious
Group
Discussion
•Permits on the spot synthesis of different
viewpoints
•Build support for the particular service
response
•Decreases client’s “dependence response”
toward the service provided since data
analysis is (or can be) a shared function
•Helps participants to become better
problem analysis, better listeners, etc
•Rely for success on a skillful interviewer who
can generate data without making client(s)
feel-self-conscious, suspicious, etc
•Is time-consuming both for the consultant
and the agency
•Can produce data that are difficult to
synthesize and quantify (more a problem
with the less structured techniques).
Advantages and Disadvantages of Nine Basic Needs Analysis Methods
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29. Methods Advantages Disadvantages
Tests •Can be especially helpful in
determining whether the cause of a
recognized problem is a deficiency in
knowledge or skill, or by elimination,
attitude
•Results are easily quantifiable and
comparable
•The availability of a relatively small number of
tests that are validated for a specific situation
•Did not indicate if measured knowledge and skills
are actually being used in the on-the-job or “back
home group” situation
Records
Reports
•Provide excellent clues for trouble
reports
•Provide objective evidence of the
results of problems within the agency
or group
•Can be collected with a minimum of
effort and interruption of work flow
since it already exists at the work site.
•Causes of problems or possible solutions often do
not show up
•Carries perspective that generally reflects the past
situation rather than the current one (or recent
changes)
•Need a skilled data analysis if clear pattern s and
trends are to emerge from such technical and
diffuse raw data
Work
Samples
•Carry most of the advantage of records
and reports data
•Are the organization’s data (its own
output)
•Case study method will take time away from
actual work of the organization
•Need specialized content analysis
•Analyst’s assessment of strengths/weaknesses
disclosed by samples can be challenged as “too
subjective.”
Advantages and Disadvantages of Nine Basic Needs Analysis Methods
Source: From Steadham, SV (1980), Learning to select a need assessment strategy, Training & Development

30. Obstacles to Need Analysis
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The following challenges exist as obstacles to need analysis.
1. Training & OD professionals lack the business acumen or insight,
experience, or knowledge to accurately assess training needs;
2. Business leaders do not provide Training & OD departments the right
resources , tools, or time to effectively assess training needs.
3. Trainers often claim that they are not rewarded for taking time and
money to conduct a needs analysis.
4. Managers prefer action over analysis and want to see training resources
used to train employees.
5. Managers may have their own agenda , such as rewarding employees by
sending them to attractive places – redefine training needs.

31. Obstacles to Need Analysis, Contd.,
6. New machine or equipment is arriving early next week and it is easier
to train all employees on all procedures instead of determining who
needs what.
7. Urgency - train people as soon as possible. Needs analysis is seen as
costly and time consuming.
8. It is therefore important for trainers to persuade management on the
importance of conducting training needs.
9. Trainers also need to be creative in finding ways to conduct a needs
analysis within the constraints that exist in the organizations.
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32. Just-in-Time Needs Analysis
When an organization is introducing new equipment, or an employee has to
learn to perform an important task, need analysis will be time consuming
process to the managers who want just-in-time solutions to urgent problems
• Ask a series of questions
– Questions related to the nature of the problem and its impact on the business
• Use existing information
– Customer complaint letters, grievance files, exit interviews, sales data
• Speed up data collection
– Use intranet to survey employees
– Start discussion groups around issues, concerns, and problems
• Link assessment and delivery
– Some trainers attempt to join the lengthy process of need analysis and designing
a training program together
– Star performers and non-stellar performers are brought together to discuss the
effective techniques
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33. Describe
performance
discrepancy
Ignore
Skill deficiency?
Important?
Used to do it?
Performance
punishing?
Remove
punishment
Non-
performance
rewarding?
Arrange positive
consequence
Performance
matters?
Arrange
consequence
Obstacles?
Remove obstacles
Used often?
Arrange
practice
Goal setting
Arrange feedback
Simple way?
Has potential?
Select best
solution(s)
Implement
solution(s)
Change job
Arrange on-the-job
training
Transfer or
terminate
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
FIGURE 4-2
Mager
& Pipe’s Flow
Diagram for
Determining
Solutions to
Performance
Problems
Arrange formal
training

34. FIGURE 4-2
Mager
& Pipe’s Flow
Diagram for
Determining
Solutions to
Performance
Problems
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35. Mager and Pipe’s Performance Analysis Model
• The scope of Mager & Pipe's model extends as far as the individual
performer and, by extension, the organization itself.
– Additionally, the model is fundamentally reactive, primarily intended
for making only adjustments to the status quo at the level of
individual and small group performance.
• Mager & Pipe hold that cost-benefit is the best approach to solution
selection but do not explicitly detail a process by which alternate
solutions are generated.
– Additionally, Mager & Pipe do not directly address formative
evaluation and continuous improvement despite Quality
Management's emphasis on data-based decision making – a goal of
the "Performance Analysis Flow Diagram".
• Mager, R. F. & Pipe, P. (1997) Analyzing Performance Problems. (3rd edit.)
Atlanta, GA: The Center for Effective Performance, Inc.
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