With the competitiveness of the business industry today, employees must always be at the top of their game and be equipped with the necessary skills and skill level to keep up with the competition. However, not all employees will automatically perform up to a certain standard or expected level of performance. This can potentially compromise the processes in your company, as not being able to meet the expectations may mean that the employee can drag the whole operation back.

This needs to be addressed immediately. The difference between the actual level of job performance and the expected skill level will most certainly indicate a need for training to ensure that employees are educated and developed properly to meet the level of job performance expected of them. This can potentially be a human resource challenge in the making – which is something you’d like to avoid at all costs.

A mistake you’ll make on training your employees, however, is assuming that they will all fit a single training equation. Your employees are unique, with certain levels of skills that may not necessarily match your other employees, which is why pitting them all in a single training formula will be counter-productive.

What your company needs is a Training Needs Assessment.

What is Training Needs Analysis?

According to HR-Survey.com, a Training Needs Assessment is a process that serves as a diagnostic tool for determining what training needs to take place in a company. It considers an employees’ organizational knowledges, skills, and abilities to identify any gaps or areas of improvement. Afterwards, a training is specifically structured to develop the individuals and the organization for the gaps between the current performance and department/organizational goals can be filled.

For a Training Needs Analysis to be effective, it must answer the following questions:

Who needs training?

What do they need to learn?

What skills are needed and for what reason?

What skills are already in place?

What is needed but is not accessible?

What is missing from existing training?

Why Conduct a Training Needs Analysis?

There are a lot of reasons for the need to conduct a Training Needs Analysis – factors that affect individuals and the organization. A company may need to conduct the analysis because of any of the following factors:

Re-organization processes

Business Process Re-engineering

Process Involvements

Reductions in Force

Layoffs/Transfers/New Hires

Staffing Changes/Promotions

Re-locations

New equipment/Technology

Performance/Safety Issues

Problems in Production/Safety

New Systems/Procedures

Changes in Laws/Regulations

Succession Planning

Career Paths/Growth

However, these are not the only factors that can call for the need to conduct a TNA. Ultimately, a TNA needs to be conducted to reduce the gaps between the employee’s skills and the level of competency and skill needed by their position and the department. This is especially important if the employee has been taught before but in the wrong way, with the wrong information, or if certain skills need to be brushed up to meet trends in the industry.

Steps in a Training Needs Assessment

To conduct a TNA, the following must be done to ensure that all bases are covered and there are ample results to work on after the assessment, which can be used as a benchmark for further training.

Needs Assessment – You must collect the necessary data on the employee’s skills and abilities that they currently have that is in-line with their work. Analyse this data to figure out where you are currently standing with them, and where you can go from here. Design – After initial assessment, you must provide the program objectives, the blueprint of the training, and how you will measure their success. This ensures that there is a set goal and a way to determine how close your employee is to that goal. Testing – This is where you first let the assessment run to figure out if it will actually work, will give you the results you are hoping for, or if there are any parts of the TNA that needs to be rethought. Implementation – After polishing your blueprint, it’s time to run through its course with your employee. Collect all data during this stage, update as needed, and make sure that your program objectives are being met along the way. Analysis and Evaluation – Review the feedback and the data you’ve collected to see if you were successful in filling in the gaps that were present before the TNA.

Training Needs Analysis with Healthy Business Builder

Conducting a TNA can be a lot of work, and with the competitiveness in the business industry, a truly-successful, in-depth TNA can seem like a luxury. At Healthy Business Builder, we offer immediate access to off-the-shelf and customised Online Training Needs Analysis (TNA) Questionnaires for the following competency assessments:

Sales

Direct Sales / New Business Development

Account Management

Sales Support

Outbound Telesales

Inbound Telesales

Sales Management

Customers Service

Management

Communication and Interpersonal Competencies (non-sales roles)

These are great for assessing your sales, service, management or interpersonal skills fitness and learning needs against a core competency framework. Individual and team reports are available, as well as single, 180 and 360-degree assessments.

The TNA is competency based and would use findings gathered from your job design project. We customise the Healthy Business Builder Training Needs Analysis Questionnaire using superior performance competency data compiled from a competency profiling project. All participants would be rated on each competency, via a collaborative discussion with their direct manager. Findings will be summarised to identify individual and group training priorities.

Call us at 1300 833 574 or send your enquiries to info@businesscoachessydney.com.au if you want to learn more of our TNA assessment service.