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Running header: PLANNING A NEEDS ASSESSMENT

Planning A Needs Assessment

Carter L. Clark-Adams

CUR 528

April 1, 2020

Siddeeqah Johnson
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Planning a Needs Assessment

Every organization has goals. The organization works diligently to achieve its goals but

often run into barriers that can be hard to identify. The distance between the current functions of

the organization and the goals it hopes to achieve is considered to be the “gap” that needs to be

closed. There is not but one way to determine the barriers that create the gaps. Organizations

would do well to take advantage of Needs Assessments to determine the barriers and move

closer to achieving their goals. For example, Auntie Anne’s is a bakery that is headquartered in

Pennsylvania. The organization is parented by Fresh Dining Concepts, LLC, which is based out

of Florida. Both Fresh Dining Concepts, LLC, and Auntie Anne’s has recognized the challenge

of retaining employees. The conundrum has left both entities baffled and filled with overworked

employees who have the responsibilities of caring triple the weight in keeping their store afloat.

To reach the goal of improving employee retention rate, Auntie Anne’s should perform a Needs

Assessment to survey their crew members; and interview their store managers so that the

organization may gain a better understanding of the barriers to overcome.

Project Plans

The goal of the Needs Assessment is to find possible solutions to improve job retention

within the organization. The organization will need to measure the satisfaction of all of the

employees within the organization and construct a way to heighten employee satisfaction.

Job retention is necessary because the 1,700 stores that are a part of the organization are

suffering at the hands of not having enough employees. Managers are posting employment

opportunities and potential employees apply to only remain employed the minimum timeframe

of a week. The organization seems to be able to benefit from the need of a strategy to retain
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employees to improve the retention rate. The organization needs to know the employees’ outlook

on what makes their job enjoyable, beneficial, productive and worth keeping.

There are two audiences to target: store managers and crew members. All crew members

will be presented with the opportunity to be assessed. The company currently has approximately

50,000 crew members employed. Furthermore, there are approximately 6,800 managers in place.

They too would need to be assessed. This assessment process would take approximately 3

months. It would take approximately $1,188.00 ($99.00 a month) to purchase SurveyMonkey to

provide surveys to both crew members and managers.

Data Collection

The data that will be reviewed are the responses of the crew members and managers

provided from surveys and interviews. The information that already exists is the retention and

turnover rates for the organization. The data that will be collected with the assessment tool will

capture the satisfaction of the crew members and provide insight from the managers as to why

they feel crew members are hard to retain. The data will be collected through the use of

interviews as well as through the use of surveys through the program, SurveyMonkey. The data

will be analyzed using the narrative analysis method. This means that data is expected to be more

so in a narrative form that will need to be carefully interpreted.

The type of data that will be collected will be qualitative in nature. Qualitative data is

most appropriate for this Needs Assessment because the information provided by crew members

and managers will be results that cannot be measured by numbers. The tool that would be best to

use to collect and analyze this data would be the use of the computer-based program,

SurveyMonkey. SurveyMonkey will be used to create surveys that will provide the feedback

from crew members. Furthermore, interview questions will be fashioned to be conducted with
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store managers and assistant store managers.

Interview Questions for Store Managers and Assistant Store Managers

1. What are 3 big wins and 3 major challenges you have noticed your crew members have

faced?

2. What challenges are you facing with your crew members? Where are you all stuck?

3. What is the organization doing, or can be doing, to make you and your crew members

more successful?

4. How are you feeling? How are your crew members feeling? What is the morale around

you?

5. On a scale of one to 10, how happy are you and why?

6. On a scale of one to 10, how happy are your crew members and why?

7. What is the best thing that happened to your crew members this week?

8. Provide one idea to improve the working conditions of your crew members.

(Hassell, 2020)

9. What do you do to keep your crew members motivated and excited about coming to and

being at work?

10. How often do you celebrate the successes of your crew members? Give an example of the

last time you celebrated a success of your crew member(s) with your crew members.

Survey Questions for Crew Members to be on SurveyMonkey

1. Do you agree with the mission of this organization?

2. Does your manager inspire you? How so, or why not?

3. Do you feel teamwork is practiced among your coworkers?

4. Are your coworkers held accountable for the work they produce?
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5. Do you feel valued for the work that you do?

6. Are the amount of work and the pace of work you are required to perform reasonable?

7. Do you feel information is shared openly and communication is encouraged?

8. Do you receive the training you need to perform your job well?

9. Do you have the tools you need to perform your job efficiently?

10. Do you have adequate opportunities for professional growth and development?

(Coors Insights, 2019)

Conclusion

There is hope for job retention for Auntie Anne’s. The valid concern can be remedied as

the barriers that rest between how the organization is currently functioning and where they hope

to be is eliminated. To rid the gap, Auntie Anne’s recognizes the need for a Needs Assessment.

The Needs Assessment provides qualitative data that can be interpreted using a narrative

analysis. Through the surveys and interviews, Auntie Anne’s can close the distance between the

organization’s current existence and the destination it hopes to reach.

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References

Coors Insights. (2019). 10 Questions to Ask to Improve Employee Retention. Coors. Retrieved

from https://www.coorsleadership.com/10-questions-ask-improve-employee-retention/

Hassell, D. (2020). Mindreading 101: The 10 Questions You Need To Ask Your Team Every

Week. 15Five. Retrieved from https://www.15five.com/blog/mindreading-101-the-10-

questions-you-need-to-ask-your-team-every-week/