What is a Training Needs Analysis?

This should be more than a cursory investigation since you should actually start by evaluating the request for a new piece of training itself. Ask some of the following questions:

• What is the business objective you want to achieve?
• What has already been tried?
• How do you know that training is the necessary solution?
  • Could the fault lay with:
    • Software?
  • • Hardware?
  • • Processes?
  • • Change in legislation?
    • Lack of or conflicting communication

You may find that training will not be an effective method of achieving the business objective; for instance if the fault lays with how a piece of software has been set up or permissions have been granted at the wrong levels then training will not be an appropriate response – but many organisations still believe that you can just decide to slap a training plaster over the problem and it will be fixed!

Okay, since we are looking at how to design a training solution let’s assume that there is a training need of some kind. What other questions should form a part of the analysis?

• How will the business identify that the needs have been met?

This is vital if you want to prove the effectiveness of the training you design and deliver. What measurements related to the objective/s are currently being taken and will they evidence the required changes after the training has been delivered?

• What is the current level of knowledge and/or skills within the target audience?

If you want to deliver training that is fit for purpose then you need to assess the existing level of competence, otherwise you risk delivering something that is not pitched at the correct level (either too high or too low) and not delivering the objective. How do you do this? That largely depends on the time you have and the geographical locations of the audience. You may choose to use personal interviews or focus groups based at various locations and in different, relevant departments or you may only be able to send out questionnaires due to having a worldwide audience.

Does your audience have all of the required knowledge and/or skills? If so, this may lead back to the issue being something other than a training requirement which the management are not sufficiently aware of or it may be that the organisation has been undergoing a period of change management and you can identify areas that need development. A representative cross-section of your intended audience is where you will find much of this information.

• What level of competency is required?

This ties in directly to the business objective questions – and how the business will identify that the objectives been met/not met. Your training design needs to deliver business objectives – not training objectives. The evaluation methods will depend on the delivery method chosen but some form of assessment should take place in order to validate the training delivered. We’re not talking about a rigid Kirkpatrick 1 style of happy sheet (in fact I believe it’s more informative if it’s not), the assessment ties into how the business measures its objectives. What metrics are currently in place? Use those.

• What delivery methods are appropriate and possible?

You are not committing yourself to any methods at this time, you are identifying all available methods that may be suitable within your organisation, audience and timescale. Until you have a more accurate picture of the content you cannot choose the most suitable delivery method.

• What are the project’s timescales?

Ensure that you have a clear understanding of the timescales involved from your sponsor. Not only do you need to know this in order to deliver on time, you need this in order to choose the level of content and delivery method required. If you have three weeks to start and complete a project you are unlikely to have e-learning as an option – so if the sponsor demands that e-learning is the delivery method you know immediately to have ‘that conversation’ with them about realistic targets and timescales.

If you need one or more SMEs to help with the content you need to allow time to talk with them, for them to provide you what you need and then probably double that amount of time to explain why you DON’T need to include everything they have ever learned about the subject…

• What constraints are in place?

As well as the time available to create the training, has the organisation committed to providing time for the training to be delivered? If so, what constraints – if any – has this placed upon you?

What about budget constraints? Do you have a budget for obtaining images, video, and animations externally and/or internally? Are you limited by legislation in what you can use as resources?

Depending on how explicit the sponsor’s requirements are, do you have the necessary skills, experience and equipment to deliver the project or could you need some external assistance?

There are other factors that can be included within an effective TNA but I did say this would be a brief post so I shall leave it there – but you are always welcome to get in touch to discuss these points.