If training initiatives in your organisation aren’t having the impact you expect, you might have missed the first and crucial step in any training plan – the training needs analysis.
Simply put, a training needs analysis determines the gaps between the desired and actual knowledge, skills and abilities of your employees.
It tells you what needs to be learned and who needs to learn it. After the training needs analysis, you’ll be in a better position to identify the right training initiatives for the right people, which will go a long way to ensuring the effectiveness of your training plan.
To get the most out of your training needs analysis, follow these steps:
Step 1: Determine the training goal
The first step in a training needs analysis is to determine the goal of the training. In other words, how will you know that training has been effective? What changes do you want to see? To do this, you need to understand and translate the organisation’s overall objectives and strategy into specific and measurable goals.
For example, imagine that your organisation wants to position itself as an industry leader in customer service. To achieve this, you might set the following goals:
- Increase customer satisfaction ratings.
- Increase sales close-rates.
- Reduce customer returns.
- Reduce customer complaints.
Step 2: Determine the desired knowledge, skills and abilities
To achieve the goals you’ve now set, employees need to possess certain knowledge, skills and abilities.
- Knowledge: The theoretical or practical understanding of a subject – such as understanding a concept, knowing a process, or being familiar with a tool or technology.
- Skill: The ability to perform a specific task or activity – such as operating a machine, using computer software, or troubleshooting a faulty product.
- Ability: The quality of being able to do something – such as quick thinking, empathy or creativity.
For example, to achieve your goal to ‘increase customer satisfaction ratings’, your customer service representatives probably require:
- Knowledge of the organisation’s products, services, terms and conditions.
- Skill to use the organisation’s CRM software, and to troubleshoot a problem with a customer.
- Ability to listen actively and have empathy with a customer.
To achieve your goal to ‘increase sales close-rates’, your sales team might need:
- Knowledge of customer segments and how to customise the organisation’s offering to specific customers.
- Skill to develop presentations in PowerPoint, speak confidently in front of a large audience, and negotiate and close deals.
- Ability to be assertive and solve problems in collaboration with customers and internal stakeholders.
Tips:
- Not all knowledge, skills and abilities will be equally important for successful job performance. To avoid an overly complex process, it’s best to focus on only those competencies that are significantly important.
- Some competencies will be important for all job functions, while others will be specific to roles, work units or departments.
- To facilitate the next step in the process, it’s useful to identify the level of proficiency an employee needs in each competency. For example, using the rating scale below, a customer service manager might need to be (as a minimum) a 5 in conflict management, while a customer service representative needs to be a 2 or 3.
- 1 – Novice
- 2 – Advanced beginner
- 3 – Competent
- 4 – Proficient
- 5 – Expert
Step 3: Determine the actual knowledge, skills and abilities
Now that you’ve identified the desired knowledge, skills and abilities, you need to determine what competencies your employees currently possess.
For example:
- To determine the knowledge of your customer service representatives on the organisation’s products, services, terms and conditions, you might develop a multiple-choice assessment.
- To determine their skill to use the organisation’s CRM software, you might analyse the completeness of their CRM entries.
- To determine their skill to troubleshoot a problem with the customer, you might ask a manager to role-play a scenario with the employee.
- To determine their ability to listen actively and have empathy with customers, you might evaluate customer feedback forms.
You can use a variety of methods to measure employees’ actual knowledge, skills and abilities, and the most suitable method depends on the competency. For example, you could use:
- Questionnaires
- Observation
- Interviews
- Assessments
- Focus groups
- Performance appraisals and reviews
- Customer feedback
- Performance metrics
- Personality tests
- Aptitude tests
Tips:
- Where possible, use methods that are less subject to bias, such as professional tests and assessments. Where self-assessment or manager assessment is the only suitable method, opt for 360-degree assessments where multiple raters give input, such as manager, peers, subordinates and customers.
- Once again, it can be useful to allocate a rating to each competency – i.e. 1 (novice) to 5 (expert) – to facilitate the next step in the process.
Step 4: Determine the gap
If you’ve completed Steps 2 and 3 as described above, you should have data that resembles the following:
JOB FUNCTION | EMPLOYEE | COMPETENCY TYPE | COMPETENCY | DESIRED PROFICIENCY LEVEL | ACTUAL PROFICIENCY LEVEL |
Customer service representative | Ben | Knowledge | Products, services, T’s & C’s | 4 – Proficiency | 2 – Advanced Beginner |
Customer service representative | Ben | Skills | CRM Software | 3 – Competent | 4 – Proficient |
Customer service representative | Ben | Ability | Active Listening | 4 – Proficient | 4 – Proficient |
Any instance where the actual proficiency level is lower than the desired proficiency level indicates a performance gap. For example:
- When it comes to knowledge of the organisation’s products, services, terms and conditions, Ben has a proficiency level of 2 but needs a proficiency level of 4. This indicates a performance gap.
- When it comes to the skill to use the organisation’s CRM software, Ben has a proficiency level of 4 while he needs a proficiency level of 3. He is therefore more competent than required, indicating that there is no performance gap.
- When it comes to the ability to listen actively, Ben has a proficiency level of 4 and he needs a proficiency level of 4. He therefore has the required level of competency, indicating that there is no performance gap.
Step 5: Close the gap
Closing a competency gap effectively depends very much on whether we’re dealing with knowledge, skills or abilities. Comprehensive training initiatives – such as those that combine theory with practical application, reflection and feedback – can address all three, but generally speaking:
Knowledge can be improved by:
- Taking training courses or workshops to learn new information.
- Reading books, articles and other resources to expand knowledge and understanding of a subject.
- Attending conferences, seminars and webinars to learn from experts and peers.
- Joining professional associations and networks to stay up to date with industry trends and best practices.
Skills can be improved by:
- Regular practice to develop and refine skills.
- Obtaining feedback from others to identify areas for improvement.
- Taking on new challenges and projects to apply and expand skills.
- Participating in coaching or mentoring to learn from experienced professionals.
Abilities can be improved by:
- Identifying natural talents and strengths to leverage them in one’s work.
- Seeking opportunities to develop and apply abilities in different contexts.
- Practicing reflection, mindfulness or other techniques to enhance focus, creativity and resilience.
- Obtaining feedback from others to understand how one’s abilities impact performance and relationships.
Conclusion
Once the most appropriate training initiatives have been identified and implemented, the effectiveness of these initiatives must be evaluated by considering their impact on both the employee’s proficiency level as well as the organisation’s overall objectives and strategy (as defined in the training goals).
This means that employees’ competence needs to be regularly evaluated to ensure that training initiatives have the desired impact – using the same measurement methods that were used in Step 3.
Also note that a training needs analysis is not a once-off event. A comprehensive analysis should ideally be conducted:
- Every three years.
- When there are significant changes in the organisation, such as new products, services or regulations.
- When there are significant changes in the workforce, such as high employee turnover, retirements, promotions or restructuring.
