TRAINING NEED ANALYSIS.

Why training need analysis?

Training need analysis is conducted to determine whether resources required are available or not. It helps to plan the budget of the company, areas where training is required, and also highlights the occasions where training might not be appropriate but requires alternate action.

Training Need arises at three levels-

Organizational Level – Training need analysis at organizational level focuses on strategic planning, business need, and goals. It starts with the assessment of internal environment of the organization such as, procedures, structures, policies, strengths, and weaknesses and external environment such as opportunities and threats.After doing the SWOT analysis, weaknesses can be dealt with the training interventions, while strengths can further be strengthened with continued training. Threats can be reduced by identifying the areas where training is required. And, opportunities can be exploited by balancing it against costs.For this approach to be successful, the HR department of the company requires to be involved in strategic planning. In this planning, HR develops strategies to be sure that the employees in the organization have the required Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes (KSAs) based on the future KSAs requirements at each level.

Individual Level – Training need analysis at individual level focuses on each and every individual in the organization. At this level, the organization checks whether an employee is performing at desired level or the performance is below expectation. If the difference between the expected performance and actual performance comes out to be positive, then certainly there is a need of training.However, individual competence can also be linked to individual need. The methods that are used to analyze the individual need are:

• Appraisal and performance review

• Peer appraisal

• Competency assessments

• Subordinate appraisal

• Client feedback

• Customer feedback

• Self-assessment or self-appraisal

Operational Level – Training Need analysis at operational level focuses on the work that is being assigned to the employees. The job analyst gathers the information on whether the job is clearly understood by an employee or not. He gathers this information through technical interview, observation, psychological test; questionnaires asking the closed ended as well as open ended questions, etc. Today, jobs are dynamic and keep changing over the time. Employees need to prepare for these changes. The job analyst also gathers information on the tasks needs to be done plus the tasks that will be required in the future.Based on the information collected, training Need analysis (TNA) is done.