The document discusses needs assessment and analysis for determining training needs. It outlines the needs assessment process, including analyzing organizational, task, person, and KSA requirements. Common causes of needs assessment are discussed such as performance issues, incorrect training solutions, lack of prerequisites. Methods for identifying training needs include interviews, surveys, documentation review, and focus groups. The outcomes of needs assessment should identify training subjects, importance, population, and required results.

1. Needs
Assessment & Analysis

2. Needs Assessment
Process used to determine whether training is necessary
Why needs assessment ?
• Training maybe incorrectly used as a solution to a performance
problem
• Training programs may have the wrong content, objectives, or
methods
• Trainees maybe sent to training programs for which they do not
have the basic or prerequisite skills
• Training will not deliver the expected learning, behavior change or
financial results that the company expects
• Money wld be spent on unnecessary programs

3. Model of the Needs Assessment Process
Organizational Organizational Requirements Task & KSA Person
Support Analysis Analysis Analysis Analysis
Establish Define the Analyze tasks
Specify Target job & KSA’s Develop
Rel with Performance
goals
top mgmt Indicators
Choose Develop
methods tasks
Establish
Determine Determine
Rel with
Training Determine Form task KSA gaps in
other orgnal
climate participants clusters Target
members
population
Determine Develop KSA’s
Identify points of
Form
External & contact Determine
Liaison
Legal Determine Approach to
team
Constraints Anticipate Relevant KSAs Resolve gaps
problems & tasks
Develop a Link relevant
protocol KSA’s to tasks

4. Causes & Outcomes of needs assessment
What is the context
In what
Pressure Points do they need Outcomes
Org
Training
Lack of basic skills analysis
Operation What trainees need to learn
Poor performance Who receives training
analysis
New Technology Type of training
Customer requests Operator
Frequency of training
New Products analysis
Buy Vs. Build training
Higher standards Trg vs other HR options
New jobs Who needs Training How trg shd be evaluated

5. Who initiates the Identification of
training needs?
• Managers – recognize needs due to dept performance
results, individual performance appraisals, future plans,
new equipments & systems
• Employees – to improve current performance or to
prepare for other jobs
• Staff dept – from activities such as employee opinion
surveys, exit interviews, succession planning, budget
reports etc.
• Training employees – Through training courses &
performance surveys
• External Consultants – As part of organizational study
projects, performance assessments

6. Initiating the Identification of Training needs
• A published procedure
Requisition forms from anyone in the organization
• An Annual survey
Conducted by training department
• Requirement
that all appropriate activities like performance reviews,
purchase of new equipment, employee opinion surveys
include communication to the training function of any
possible training needs

7. Who should participate in Needs Assessment?
• Subject Matter Experts
– Trainers, Technical experts, Managers, Employees,
Academics
– Who are knowledgeable in regard to
• Training issues including tasks to be performed
• KSA’s required for successful task performance
• Necessary equipment
• Condition under which tasks have to be performed
• Job Incumbents

8. Key concerns
• Upper Level Managers
– Is training important to achieve our business objectives?
– What business units need training?
• Mid Level Managers
– Do I want to spend money on trg? How much?
– Who should be trained? Mgrs/Employees
– For what jobs can training make the biggest difference in
product quality or customer service?
• Trainers
– Do I have the budget to buy training services? Will managers
support training?
– How will I identify employees need training?
– What tasks should be trained? What KSA’s or other
characteristics are important

9. Training Needs
• A gap between actual performance & desired
performance or between current abilities & job
requirements that can be closed by training
• Categories of Training needs
– Needs of the Organization
– Needs of the Individual

10. Training needs of the Organization
• Recognized Training needs
Planned training needs, required by all
– Need to know the organization, its structure, policies,
procedures, benefits
– Need to know a department, its rules, operating procedures &
personnel
– Need to have specific job skills & knowledge not generally
known by employees
• Requested Training needs
Unplanned needs resulting from different activities
– Changes in jobs/systems
– Addition of new equipment
– Department Performance reviews
– New government requirements
– Employee opinion surveys, organizational studies, dept
meetings
– Exit Interviews conducted with departing employees

11. Training needs of Individual
employees
• Initiated through activities such as
– Performance Reviews
– Selection Process
– Testing & Assessment
– Employee Career Objectives
– Succession plans

12. Deciding what you need to know
Elements the analysis should produce in its final
report
• Training Subjects
• Importance of the Training
• Urgency or time requirements
• Current training population
• Potential training population
• Frequency of training
• Subject review & update
• Required results of the training
• Content information sources

13. E
PL
SA
M Training Needs Analysis Report
Elements the analysis should produce in its final
report
• Training Subjects
– How to operate the new product pricing system from a PC
• Importance of the Training
– Will reduce individual order pricing by 10% & increase order
processing & invoicing speed by 30% for annual company
savings of$250000
• Urgency of the training
– New system available for training by June 12, will go online by
August 12. All order processing employees to be trained by
August 12
• Current training population
– 47 order processors, 6 supervisors, 2 managers, 3 information
systems technicians

14. E
M PL Training Needs Analysis Report
SA
• Potential training population
– Based on turnover & projected sales, the following employees
will be added each year for the next 5 years - 7 order
processors, 1 supervisor, 1 manager, 1 information systems
technician
• Frequency of training
– Small no of future trainees, so focus on initial group training
course for current employees & a self study version for the later
training
• Subject review & update
– To be surveyed annually. Changes to be communicated to
training dept
• Required results of the training
– Order processors can price products via their PCs at a rate of 50
per hour, with no more than a 2% error rate
• Content information sources
– The company from which the system was purchased
– Managers of the product pricing dept
– Information processing technicians

15. Procedures for Identifying Training Needs
Individual Procedures Group Procedures
• Interviews • Meetings
– Need to know process – Conferences
– Job Analysis Grid – Focus Groups
• Performance Reviews
• Job Analysis
Written Procedures
• Task Analysis • Questionnaires
• Job Sampling – Information gathering questionnaires
– Behavioral questionnaires
Other Procedures – Surveys
• Experts – Online questionnaires
• Combinations – Self- Reports
• Tests & Assessments
• 360 degree & peer reviews

16. Methods used in
Needs Assessment

17. Interviews
• Knowing whom to interview
• Planning the Interview
• Designing the Questions
• Scheduling the Interview
• Notifying the Interviewee
• Conducting the Interview
• Conclude the Interview

18. Interviews
Advantages Disadvantages
• Good at uncovering • Time consuming
details of training needs • Difficult to analyze
as well as causes & • Needs skilled interviewer
solutions of problems • Clients may feel self
• Can explore conscious, suspicious
unanticipated issues that • Difficult to schedule
come up • Clients only provide
• Questions can be information you want to
modified hear

19. Job Analysis Grid Interviews
• Method to eliminate the drawback of information
contamination in traditional interviews
• Outgrowth of a behavioral inquiry technique called the
Repertoire Grid – a comprehensive approach for
identifying specific human behaviors
• Begins with a series of questions that do not appear to
be related to the objective of the investigation
• A less direct form of interview, requires more time and
an interviewer trained in the technique
• Suited more to determine basic needs, when the
investigation is for a possible first time course.

20. Job Analysis Grid Interviews
The Process
• State the objective, but be less specific
• Check for interviewee questions
• Give a brief discussion of what will occur
• Ask your questions
• Note responses on index cards – one keyword per card
• Shuffle the cards & select 3 at random – Show to employee & ask to
select 2 of them which are more in common
• Remove the least common. Ask what others have in common
• Again note keywords
• Reinsert the cards, reshuffle & repeat the process till there are no
new responses
• Conclude the Interview & combining results

21. E
M PL
SA A typical Job Analysis Grid Interview
• Conducted with a supervisor to identify the management
competencies required for a supervisor’s position
• Questions & Answers
Q- What did u discover during your first month as a supervisor that
was a surprise to you?
A -Need to know employment procedures (Employment
procedures)
- Some employees are not motivated (Motivation)
- Must have a daily plan (Planning)
Q - What are the three best features of being a supervisor?
A – Compensation (Compensation)
- Being in charge (Authority)
- Being a part of management (Management)

22. E
PL
SA
M A typical Job Analysis Grid Interview
Q - What are the three things you would most like to change?
A – Hours (Work Schedule)
Pre supervisory Training (Training)
Improve communications (Communications)
Q – If supervisors are dissatisfied with their job, what is the most likely
reason?
A – Cannot control employees (Controlling)
- No leadership (Leadership)
Q - What would have helped you to know before starting work as a
supervisor?
A – Employee histories (Employee histories)
- Payroll Procedures (Payroll Procedures)
Q - What areas do you still not know?
A – Disciplinary procedures (Disciplinary procedures)
- Interviewing (Interviewing)

23. E
PL
SA
M A typical Job Analysis Grid Interview
• Three cards displayed – Controlling, Disciplinary
procedures, Employment procedures
• What they had in common - Controlling, Knowing
Disciplinary procedures, Oral communication, One to
one meeting
• Concluding
– What competencies are missing?
– Group – Musts, Wants, Not necessary
– Prioritize

24. The Need to Know Process
• Based on discovering exactly what a person to be trained
needs to know in order to meet the objectives of the training
• When to use
– When number of people to be trained
– To teach a new subject as well as to make revisions to
existing training
– Can be used to design the training course & also conduct it
• The person who conducts it should have full knowledge of the
ultimate training course content or job for which training is
provided
• People to be interviewed must be representative of those to be
trained & have varying levels of performance

25. The Need to Know Process
The technique
• Planning
– Identify what the outcomes of the training are to be & then the
specifics. Prepare the ‘final exam’ for the training course
• Implementation
– Participant brought into private area with equipment & materials
required
– Explain the process to trainee
– Record questions by trainee
– Provide information as required & make note of what is asked,
what is provided
– Conclusion – Ask for reactions

26. Key Consultation
• With persons who are in a good position to know what the
training needs of a particular group are
Advantages Disadvantages
• Simple & Inexpensive • Built in bias, since based
on views of few who see it
• Input of number of
from their perspective
individuals with his own
• May result in partial picture
perspectives of needs of training needs

27. Observation
• Technical/ behavioral
• Structured/unstructured
Advantages Disadvantages
• Generates data relevant • Needs Skilled observers
to work • Employees behavior
• Minimizes interruption of maybe affected by being
work observed

28. Group Discussions
• Structured/ Unstructured
• Brainstorming, Force- fields, Organizational mirroring
Advantages Disadvantages
• Permits on the spot • Time consuming
synthesis of different • Can produce data difficult
viewpoints to synthesize & quantify
• Shared function
• Help participants
become better problem
analysts

29. Focus Groups
Advantages Disadvantages
• Useful with complex or • Time consuming to organize
controversial issues that • Group members only
one person maybe provide information they
unable or unwilling to think you want to hear
explore • Group members maybe
• Questions can be reluctant to participate if
status or position differences
modified to explore
exist among members
unanticipated issues

30. Tests
• Tests are standardized & objective measures of skills,
knowledge & competencies
• Measures differences between individuals & between
individuals & some predetermined standard
• Ensure that they
– Measure what you need to measure
– Are error free
– Are valid within your environment & your population
– Are administered & scored properly, with a common
understanding of how to interpret results

31. Tests
• Functionally oriented to test proficiency
• Maybe used to sample learned ideas & facts
Advantages Disadvantages
• Helpful in determining • Limited number of
whether cause of validated tests available
problem is deficiency in
skill, knowledge or
attitude
• Results are easily
quantifiable &
comparable

32. Assessments
• Procedures designed to measure employee behaviors
that can be the basis for determining training needs
• It includes
– Job Simulations
– Psychological interviews
– Assessment Centers
– Self Testing Devices
• High implementation costs & time

33. Questionnaires
• Surveys/Polls, Question formats, Self administered
Advantages Disadvantages
• Inexpensive • Requires time
• Possible low return rates,
• Can collect data from a
inappropriate response
large number of persons • Lacks detail
• Data easily summarized • Only provides information
directly related to questions
asked
• Less flexible

34. Documentation
(Technical manuals, records)
Advantages Disadvantages
• Good source of • Difficulty in understanding
information on technical language
procedure • Materials maybe obsolete
• Good source of task
information for new jobs

35. Print Media
• Professional journals, trade magazines, in-house
publications
Advantages Disadvantages
• Source of information for • Can be a problem when it
uncovering normative comes to the data analysis
needs & synthesis into a useable
form
• Provides current
information
• Readily available