List different methods used in a needs assessment in 3-5 pages

Module readings:

Why a needs analysis

It is often said that there are only two reasons why employees fail to perform correctly. Either they cannot do what is needed, or they will not do what is needed. The solutions for people not doing what is needed will be addressed in another course; however, if people cannot do what is needed, training and development may be able to help. A needs analysis will allow you to determine whether training or development will be a potential solution to an organizational problem.

Let us say that you, a training and development professional, have been tasked with reducing error rates on your organization's production line. You look at various pieces of data that show a declining trend in overall quality. You then conduct a series of employee interviews and determine that new employees have not been trained properly, resulting in bad quality.

Without a needs analysis (in this case, the interviews), you may have simply advised management to train everyone; however, you would have addressed the wrong problem. Your focus needs to be on the new employees who need refresher training versus the entire employee population. The needs analysis will help you ensure that your training programs are focused on the real problem.

Methodologies

As you read in your course textbook (Noe, 2009), there are various methodologies for gathering information. Continuing with the manufacturing example about reducing error rates on a production line, let us apply two of the most common methodologies—observation and interviews. The observation approach is simple and cost effective. In the production line example, you, the training and development professional, should visit the production floor and observe every employee's work. To be effective with the observation approach, try not to disrupt the work in order to ensure that every employee is performing as realistically as possible. Remember, you want an unbiased and impulsive view of the performance. Prior to visiting the work site, you should be familiar with the process and have the basic knowledge of the work and the key elements needed to be successful in the role that you are observing.

Interviews can help clarify questions that get raised during your observation process. Interviews clarify the issues at hand and support or eliminate your initial opinions. For example, if, during your observation, you note that people are not following the expected process, you may assume that everyone needs retraining; however, during the interviews, you may note that only new employees hired within the past six months are struggling to follow the process. To help ensure that the interviews are effective, you may want assistance from a subject matter expert (SME) in the process that you are observing in order to clarify overly technical issues.

The Process

Let us continue with the production line example to apply some basic steps to the needs assessment process. You know that you have an organizational problem that needs attention. It is clear that the lack of quality in the product is affecting revenue and customer complaints are on the rise. The key element in the needs assessment process is ensuring that the organization seconds you in improving quality as a strategic goal. Without that support, you will not have the resources (both financial resources and people) to have the expected impact.

In the production line example, you have two elements to address—people and tasks. You decide to employ a person analysis to review what your employees have been trained to do and what gaps exist in that training—the course will address more about gap analysis later.

Now, you focus on the task at hand. You need to see whether the correct knowledge, skills, and abilities have been identified in order to ensure that you are training in and developing the right skills. You may even interview various SMEs to make sure that what has been identified as critical to the job is critical in reality.

Competency-based approach

Here is a helpful technique in applying the competency-based approach. When developing a competency-based assessment, begin with reviewing the position description and try to assess the need. Then, assess the key knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for the successful completion of a given job.

For example, if you are looking at an information technology (IT) desktop support technician, you should assess the knowledge, skills, and abilities that are common to any person functioning as an IT desktop support technician. Competencies can be incorporated across several types of employee actions. For example, they can be part of hiring, performance management, and training and development. The key will be in the identification of the competencies. Failure to properly develop competencies will result in confusion between what the employee is being measured against and what the role actually requires.