Training Needs Analysis
“I hated every minute of training, but I said “Don’t quit; suffer now and live the rest of your life as a Champion!”
-Muhammad Ali
A training needs analysis (TNA) is an effective way to identify any gap between the skills your business needs and those your employees have. It involves gathering information to identify areas where your employees could improve their performance. You can use employee surveys, management observations, customer comments and company meetings to collect this information.
A TNA can help you clarify your objectives in training your staff. This is invaluable for ensuring that money is spent on training that will help your business to achieve its objectives.
To carry out a TNA, you need to:
- analyse your business goals and the skills required to meet these goals
- determine whether you are changing your products or business processes and what information or training employees will need to be effective in their job
- evaluate who you want to train and how best to reach them
- establish how employees will best accept and integrate training and their preferred learning method
- evaluate the training in place and decide what your company can and can’t provide in the way of in-house training, funding and time
- take a decision on which type of training fits your needs best
It is crucial to assess skills gaps at all levels of the business. Seeking employee input can be particularly revealing as they are more likely to experience the day-to-day problems that arise when there is a skills gap. This makes them well placed to identify the skills and training they require in order to improve their performance.
We breakdown capabilities into the following key areas, in order analyse needs and ensuring that no requirements are missed:
- knowledge
- skills
- attitude
The task is to compare current and new roles with your organisation’s framework or against generic frameworks. Where current employees’ capabilities have already been matched against a framework it becomes easier to identify the gaps.
