CHAPTER 6

TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

Rosemarie F. Penalba
Instructor Presented By: Group 2
 Group 2

Santiago, Dane Panganiban, Maureen Dela Cruz, Alonzo,

Jhanna Pauline Joy

Dimaranan, Angelo Barrios, Lyka

Hermoso, Marcdale Flores, Wilson
What Is A Training Needs Analysis?
A training needs analysis is
a process that determines
which type of training an
employee needs to thrive
in their role, fill a
knowledge/skill gap, or
develop their learning in
order to improve their job
performance.
Typically, the analysis focuses on
specific training content that
needs to be completed within a
certain time period, instead of
focusing on an employees’ long-
term training plan.
 There are three different types of training needs
analyses that you can perform, depending on
your goals:
• Organizational training needs analysis. Looks at the company as a
whole to determine which overarching training programs are missing
or lacking.

• Team training needs analysis Centers on one department’s specific

training requirements and deficiencies. This training also typically
includes programs focused on collaboration and team-building to
inspire motivation and group problem-solving.

• Individual training needs analysis. The most customized assessment,

which focuses on an individual employee’s career goals and typically
begins with a performance review or one-on-one evaluation.
 Why A Training Needs Analysis?
Great employee training empowers workers with the skills and knowledge they need to boost job
performance and produce optimal results for their company. And for the cherry on top, it fills your roster
with top talent and keeps your business ahead of the competition.

Not to mention it’s what your employees crave—but are likely lacking. Thirty percent of UK workers say
they haven’t received formal workplace training in the last five years, yet nine out of 10 employees want
their employer to offer more training courses.

They want programs that are specifically catered to them, their role, their goals, and their career growth.

And as a business owner or HR professional, so do you, because it means their skills are sharper, they’re
producing higher caliber work, and they’re more likely to stay on the team for longer.
How Business Benefits From Training Needs Analyses
1. You’ll Solve Issues Before They Happen
Sixty-one percent of working-age adults in the UK don’t
believe they have all of the workplace skills they’ll need for
the next five years. And, without proper training, they (and
you) will encounter issues well before then.

Through a training needs analysis, you can identify

knowledge gaps and skill deficiencies before they create
issues. You can also determine which training needs are
the most critical and urgent, and prioritize those programs
in your training schedule to proactively overcome
obstacles.
How Business Benefits From Training Needs Analyses
2. You’ll Uncover New Training Needs
To put it simply: You don’t know what you don’t know. By
conducting a training needs analysis for each of your
company’s roles and departments, you’ll uncover training
needs you wouldn’t have been exposed to otherwise.

3. You’ll Create Impactful Training Plans

Training plans often get overrun with programs and courses
you hope will work, or with stale content that hasn’t been
updated to fit the current position. But once you complete
your analyses, you can fill the next quarter, year, and
beyond with valuable courses and plans that speak to your
employees’ exact needs and wants.
How Business Benefits From Training Needs Analyses
4. You’ll Stay Focused On Business Goals
Every piece of training you produce should be crafted in pursuit of
your company’s goals. But over time, the two can stray further
and further apart. Performing training needs analyses allows you
to compare your current training modules against your company’s
goals to ensure they’re on the same track.

5. You’ll Provide The Right Training To The Right People

No one wants to be stuck in a training session they don’t need.
After you complete your training needs analyses, you’ll know
exactly who needs to attend the training and who doesn’t, saving
everyone involved time and resources so they can focus on their
work or on their own targeted training program.
How Business Benefits From Training Needs Analyses
6. You’ll Have Better-Performing Employees
Effective reskilling of employees can lift productivity by six to
twelve percent, while overall learning and development can
improve skills, service, and motivation.

Employee training is also one of the key drivers of employee

engagement, and when learners are more engaged, they’re more
likely to find new roles within their organization, increasing your
retention rates.

7. You’ll Save Money And Resources

Instead of wasting money and resources creating, managing, and
reviewing training programs that aren’t effective, you can put
your budget towards building constructive programs that provide
a better return on investment.
Conducting A Training Needs Analysis In 8 Steps
1. Determine Your Goals
_ Your organization’s goals are constantly growing and changing, as are the roles and responsibilities of
your employees. Compare your current training programs and outcomes with your company’s short- and
long-term goals to ensure they’re aligned.
_Next, determine the specific goals you want to achieve through employee training. Consider:
The outcomes and improvements you’re expecting.
_How you will measure progress, success, or failure.
_If you’ll need more than training to achieve the goal.
_You should also establish the level of expertise you expect the learner to achieve from the training:
_Awareness: They gain a basic knowledge of a topic.
_Application: They learn how to complete a specific task.
_Mastery: They learn how to complete a task (or become knowledgeable on a topic) to the degree that
they can teach it to someone else afterward.
Conducting A Training Needs Analysis In 8 Steps
2. Run A Cost Analysis
Part of your planning should include calculating the costs and return on
investment you expect from creating, conducting, and analyzing the training
programs.

Typical costs include training time, training content development (whether

in-house or outsourced), training evaluation time, content delivery, lost
productivity, and travel and administrative expenses, if applicable.
Conducting A Training Needs Analysis In 8 Steps
3. Select Candidates
Next, determine which employees or departments need a training analysis.
Survey employees to gain insights into their skill levels and training desires,
request feedback from managers and leaders, and gather reviews from
managers, peers, and customers to determine skill gaps and knowledge
deficiencies.

Review your findings to identify the employees or departments that would

benefit most from improved training at this time.
Conducting A Training Needs Analysis In 8 Steps
4. Identify Necessary Skills
Once you’ve chosen your candidate(s), review their role and identify the
skills required for an employee to perform the job successfully.

If you’ve already conducted job analyses at your company, refer to the

documentation as it should outline, in detail, the necessary skills, tasks,
responsibilities, and qualifications for the role.
Conducting A Training Needs Analysis In 8 Steps
5. Assess Skill Levels
Next, measure the employee’s current knowledge and skill level through
assessments, quizzes, and testing.

Compare the results against the required skills for the job. With this
information—along with your surveys, assessments, and reviews—you’ll see
what skill gaps and knowledge deficiencies are hindering the role or
department. Then, you can start planning a training program that addresses
it.
Conducting A Training Needs Analysis In 8 Steps
5. Assess Skill Levels
Next, measure the employee’s current knowledge and skill level through
assessments, quizzes, and testing.

Compare the results against the required skills for the job. With this
information—along with your surveys, assessments, and reviews—you’ll see
what skill gaps and knowledge deficiencies are hindering the role or
department. Then, you can start planning a training program that addresses
it.
Conducting A Training Needs Analysis In 8 Steps
6. Find The Experts
Locate subject matter experts within your company who know the ins
and outs of the training topic, and recruit them as needed to plan out
your training program. They’ll be able to give you the most recent and
useful information, which you can use to design your program and
make it as beneficial to the learner as possible.
Conducting A Training Needs Analysis In 8 Steps
7. Design And Deliver Your Training
Now, it’s time to build the training program that bridges your employee’s
skill gaps and powers their performance. Your training approach should be
tailored to your employee’s preferred learning style, their goals, the
business’s goals, and your established training methods.

Your training could include coaching or mentoring; online learning with

experiential components, micro-learning modules, and games; on-the-job
learning; books and reading materials; or conferences.
Conducting A Training Needs Analysis In 8 Steps
8. Regroup, Review, Refine
As your team and business goals evolve, so should your training. After you’ve
completed a training needs analysis and the employee has finished their
training program, review the outcomes and finesse your approach as needed:
• How did the training analysis inform your training program development?
• How did the training improve employee performance?
• How was the learner’s experience, and how can it be improved?
• How did the training push the company towards achieving their goals?
• What is the return on investment, and how can it be improved?
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
• KSA refer to the knowledge, skills, and abilities that an
employee must have to perform their responsibilities
within their roles. They’re listed in the job description
and guide candidates and employers to assess the
person’s chance to succeed.

Knowledge
• Topics and subjects that can be used when performing
work functions when the person is hired.
Examples:
• Knowledge of accounting principles and practices
• Knowledge of budget control policies and procedures
Skills
• Technical or manual proficiencies are usually gained or
learned through training. They are observable and
measurable.
Examples:
• Skills in analysis and problem-solving
• Skills in using Microsoft Excel and accounting software
Abilities
• Capacity to apply knowledge and skills to perform a task.
It also includes personal and social traits which are
innate or acquired without formal training.
Examples:
• Ability to process large amounts of numerical data
• Ability to prioritize work and meet deadlines
Training needs analysis levels
There are three levels of training needs analysis based on
your organization’s goals and the knowledge and skills
required for goals at each level:

1. Organizational level TNA – It determines training needs

related to performance metrics, new employee knowledge
at the company-wide level, and continuous training to
optimize company performance and productivity to achieve
its goals. It’s designed to address problems and weaknesses
of the organization as well as to further improve the
company’s current competencies and strengths. More
importantly, it takes into account other factors like trends
and changes in the economy, politics, technology, and
demographics.
Training needs analysis levels
2. Group/job role level TNA – This type of analysis identifies
specific training needed to upskill a team, department, or
business unit. Moreover, it determines which occupational
groups experience skills gaps or discrepancies and ways to
eliminate them.

3. Individual level TNA – This training needs assessment is

dedicated to an individual or individuals in a team. It is
conducted in conjunction with a project or changes that
could impact each team member. It is also used for an
employee’s personal development for future career
advancement.
What is the purpose of conducting a training needs analysis?
1. Aligning training with business goals – Alignment ensures that you’re
investing in training that will help your organization achieve its business goals.
Identifying the short and long-term objectives for your organization and the
skills needed to achieve them helps L&D professionals to focus on the scope of
the training.
2. Uncovering skills and performance gaps early on – Performance gaps occur,
for instance, when a business is undergoing change or new technologies
emerge. As such, employees need to constantly upskill to acclimate to these
changes. TNA allows organizations to resolve these gaps before they become a
major issue. However, a study by PWC pointed out that only 40% of employers
are upskilling their workers to address skills and labor shortages.
3. Prioritizing training – A TNA will help you determine which training you need to
prioritize with respect to time and budget. “Training needs analysis is critical if you
want to ensure you don’t waste resources, time, and energy,” notes Emily Chipman,
executive coach and principal consultant at Rushman Consulting Solutions. “When
done correctly, people learn more quickly, there is a greater impact on job
performance, and it reduces the frustration that comes for employees when taking on
new roles and tasks, thereby impacting employee engagement.”
4. Planning targeted training – You can create training plans that target exactly the
skills and knowledge you identified are missing, so resources are invested properly.
5. Determining who gets trained – With TNA, you can make sure that specific people
get trained on what they need. Customizing your training program based on your
employees’ needs allows you to maximize the benefits of your training programs.
 Training needs analysis best practices
1. Start with the desired outcome. Identify which activities lead
to these organizational outcomes before identifying training
activities. This outcome can be an organizational or departmental
goal. Or it could be an individual that needs improving.

2. Manage expectations. Training and training need analysis

requires advanced stakeholder management. Stakeholders
include employees, service users (or customers), educational
providers who design and deliver the program, and internal
sponsors who pay for the educational event. Ensuring that the
training satisfies all groups is crucial for its success. In other
words, when a manager thinks a communication training session
will solve all their internal problems, you need to manage their
expectations.
Training needs analysis best practices

3. Use an integrated approach. Research shows that training

programs that place new skills in a broader job or organizational
perspective and integrate them with other organizational
processes and activities are more successful. This does not mean
that you cannot focus your training on something specific, but
you must place what people learn into an organizational
perspective.
How to conduct a training needs analysis
Step 1. Defining organizational goals
Usually, a (senior) management comes to the L&D team with one of these
symptoms and asks them how they can help to fix it. These problems can include:
-an organization losing its innovative lead
a sales department struggling to increase market share for a fast-growing scale-up
the board has come up with an organizational capability that every employee must
develop.
Introducing new technology or processes that employees need to be trained on
Trying to improve compliance or safety within the workplace
Wanting to develop the skills of the organization’s workforce to prepare for future
business opportunities or to stay competitive in the job market
When we talk about organizational goals or outcomes, we focus on
measurements like:

financial performance
revenue
profit
Return on Equity
Return on Capital Employed
earning growth
share price
Step 2. Define relevant job behaviors
Let’s say we are an L&D professional working for a large consulting company.
Currently, a small group of partners sells large-scale projects to clients.
However, in the future, all consultants will be required to sell their services
to (potential) clients. In other words, this will be a new core competency
that everyone in the organization needs to develop.

The next step is defining the appropriate job behaviors that will build this
competency to help achieve the organizational goal.
Step 3. Define the required knowledge & skills
The relationship-building and commercial behaviors we have defined earlier
need to be specified before we can move on to a training program. The
more specific we can make these behaviors, the easier it will be to create
training programs that fulfill these behavioral dimensions.
Step 4. Training
The final step in the process is the training design. Here, you’ll communicate the
needed learning outcomes you defined in step 3 to the training provider(s). You
also determine a budget, scope the time investment of the training, and decide
if you will work with internal or external trainers.

Remember to consider non-training alternatives that can help develop the

required knowledge and skills. It can be the inclusion of these core
competencies in the performance management review and praising and
rewarding the defined behavior. Or you can also add them as selection criteria
in the hiring process. All these interventions will help build and reinforce the
knowledge and skills.
TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS EXAMPLE
TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS QUESTIONS
Step 1. Define organizational goals

What problems are occurring in the organization?

What is the organization trying to achieve?
Which organizational goals require the biggest change in employee
behaviors?
Which departmental goals are lagging?
Which individual performance goals should be improved?
Can these problems be solved through different behaviors?
TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS QUESTIONS
Step 2. Define relevant job behaviors

Which job behaviors contribute to the goals defined in step 1?

If the listed job behaviors are ‘fixed’, does that bring us closer to the goals
defined in step 1?
Do the listed job behaviors align with our organizational core values?
Which cultural cues reinforce undesirable behavior?
What other influences play a role in reinforcing undesirable behavior?
TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS QUESTIONS
Step 3. Define the required knowledge & skills

Which skills are required to display the behaviors we defined in step 2?

Which knowledge components are required to display the behaviors we
defined in step 2?
Once the listed skills and knowledge components are taught, will the
relevant job behaviors always be displayed?
What is hindering the display of relevant job behaviors once the listed skills
and knowledge components are taught?
TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS QUESTIONS
Step 4. Training

Is all the information required to start the training design and development
process present?
Are there non-training alternatives that we can deploy that will have a
similar effect?