When Would You Conduct a Training Needs Assessment?
A good training needs assessment saves resources by channeling them to a measured need as against a perceived need.
Do you often meet managers who say their team needs training?
It helps you focus your efforts to ensure that those with the maximum need get the help they merit. It guarantees that the right resources and training are delivered to the right need using the right delivery format, to the right roles to achieve the right results you need.
Listed here are a few such scenarios when you could think of conducting a training needs assessment.
1. New software system: Are you implementing a new software system in your organization? Including training and support in the roll-out plan will help users adapt to changes. Having a good support system such as job-aids or performance support systems can help users address new software issues quickly. A good training needs assessment will help you identify and suggest various solutions when launching new software thus increasing the chances of user adoption and success.
2. Workflow or process change: Have some processes or workflows in your organization changed? Adding quick training solutions when a process has been changed can increase the chances of quick user adoption of new policies, process change or adoption of newly updated compliance's. A training needs assessment will help you provide solutions that’ll help reduce project delays and reduce resistance to change.
3. Change in the organization structure: Are there upcoming changes in your organization? Do you have new employees and contractors joining your teams? When you start processing these employees and contractors, you discover that it is labor intensive. For the consultants you may not want them to access the same company information as a full-time employee. What do you do now? A needs assessment would help understand the current LMS capabilities as well as the requirements for both employees and contractors in order to move ahead as planned.
4. Rapid business growth: Is your business growing fast? Or do you have an ever-changing product list? Conducting a training needs assessment right at the planning stage of your business growth allows for quick wins. New requirements can be incorporated with minimal impact on overall project schedules. Conducting a training needs assessment when you products keep changing will help increase your return on investment.
5. Merger/Acquisition: With mergers, there is change everywhere, from business process integration, new/different roles, new technology integration, lateral moves, etc. A good training needs assessment not only provides a jump-start but also becomes the backbone of a successful training plan that determines the modality (online, onsite, blended), amount of time, transition to organizing documents and more.
6. Annual Department Training Needs Assessment: Do you want to engage staff in continuous learning and development? A good training needs assessment will help identify the "gap" between performance required and current performance. It will then explore the causes of the gap and suggest methods for closing the gap. The interviews also help get employees actively involved in training decisions and give managers insights to plan the best development paths for their teams.
If you're looking for an experienced external partner to come on board to help you analyze and complete your next training needs assessment, call the experts at TrainingFolks.
To help you conduct a needs analysis for your next training program and close the skills gap in your organization, download this free Training Needs Assessment Checklist.
