What is Training Needs Analysis and how to perform it?

Viren Kapadia November 22, 2021
What is Training Needs Analysis and how to perform it?

Training Needs Analysis is an inevitable part of all the organizations that want to improve their employees' skill sets and believe in the cumulative growth of the company. This is the procedure in which the organization identifies the training and professional development needs of the employees. This analysis helps them to do their job more effectively. The Training Needs Analysis process involves a detailed analysis of the training needs required at the company's various levels.

Here are the steps included to conduct a Training Needs Analysis:

Step 1: Determining the Specific Business Outcomes:

Before beginning the Training Needs Analysis, the employees need to specify the desired goal of the training. The purpose behind conducting the training sessions should be clearly delivered to the trainees to clarify their vision about the expected business-oriented outcomes of the training.

The training goal should be realistic and correspond to a marketing perspective incorporated with a business objective. The goal can be action-driven to an individual employee or purposeful to a work unit or a specific department, or it could also be helpful for the entire organization.

The ultimate vision of the training should be measured and delivered clearly to everyone engaged in the training sessions. It should be kept in front of the whole team to ensure what to expect from the Training Needs Analysis process to help them envision the desired outcomes.

Step 2: Connecting the Results with Employee Behaviour:

Generally, there are multiple behaviors associated with the analysis of the desired business outcome. They are an integral result of employees about what they want to know from the Training Needs Analysis, having the ability to do it, and achieving the motivation to do the whole process.

At this step, employees should identify the critical competencies that include behaviors and associated knowledge, their desired skill sets, capabilities, and personal characteristics that are connected to the ultimate business outcomes. The whole procedure is usually done by collecting vital information from the field experts.

Step 3: Identifying the Expertise:

In this step, hiring candidates with specialized knowledge may be more effective than training them for a new project to be handled.

The trainers should evaluate every executive's critical competency from the previous step and determine their experience from the previous work. The results are blended together to identify the expertise of the subject.

Step 4: Evaluating Abilities

With a generated list of capabilities in hand, employers should evaluate and determine the extent to which their organization can attend the goal. Often they use the methods of competency evaluations followed by corresponding tests or assessments.

Performance evaluation analysis is used to analyze the behaviors. This can be accomplished by taking the competencies from the second and third steps. In this case, the process should have knowledgeable people who can easily and effectively evaluate the targeted employees' behaviors. For example, supervisors could perform this evaluation and analysis process.

Step 5: Determining the Gaps between Performances:

Irrespective of the methods that are seamlessly used to evaluate the critical competencies, individual employee evaluation reports are then combined to assess how many employees need personal development and professional improvement training in those particular competencies.

To conduct this research, it is necessary to establish for the employer what the reason behind a performance gap is. What factors can vary from person to person? Some employers set higher standards and critical performing analysis than others.

Step 6: Prioritizing Training Needs:

In this step, employers need to aggregate the data generated in the past evaluation reports. Then, they have to incorporate them with the information on the performance gap analysis. Employers should calculate what percentage of the target workforce actually needs to attend the training in this process.

Employers also need to consider the effectiveness of the competency, keeping in mind the second step of evaluation and analysis. They are taken together to check the importance of the result in a list of training modules.

Step 7: Determining the Process to Train:

Implying the priority list from the previous step, employers now consider what could be the best way to train their workforce. Some of the typical training methods include:

Mentoring and coaching, On Job Training (OJT), Classroom Coaching, Books, Web-based Teaching, Conferences, and University programs.

It is suggested that employers consult a professional or an expert in adult learning to help them determine the best ways for the training. In this way, the employees can attend to a particular competency.

Employers should remember this and strive for the particular training method that will be most suitable for the subject and field. This also helps in acquiring the best chance for retention.

Step 8: Conducting a Cost-Benefit Analysis

At this step, employers should consider all the costs associated with a specific training method. They also need to be concerned about how they can combine performance gaps into the training experience. Some of the cost factors include:

Total time required for the training, specific content development for the training, evaluation, and acquisition when purchased from the vendor, content delivery, the loss in productivity from the total duration spent in training, travel, and logistical expenses.

Step 9: Planning for Training Evaluation:

The last step in the Training Need Analysis process is especially meant for employers. In this step, they need to decide how they could know whether the training has worked or they need to imply some other changes in the training strategy. The training will be effective only if the ultimate goal is attained successfully and the lessons are effectively used in the work field. Therefore, this step should include an overall evaluation and analysis the same way they have applied in step 4. This way, the requirements could be assessed, and they will have clarity in the outcome of the training session.

At Gyrus, we offer you real-time data visualization incorporated with reporting to have demonstrated learning effectiveness. This aligns with the priorities for workforce development, skill set improvement, and detailed analytics to provide you a better insight. We like to keep the employees, partners, and customers driven by your brand and help you improve your learning activities by offering an experience beyond the desktop.