Needs Assessment

Chapter 3

6th Edition
Raymond A. Noe
McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2013 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Introduction
 The design process begins with a needs assessment
 Subsequent steps in the process include
 Ensuring that employees have the motivation and basic skills
necessary to learn
 Creating a positive learning environment
 Making sure that trainees use learned skills on the job
 Choosing the training method and evaluating the results
 Needs assessment: Process used to determine whether
training is necessary

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Introduction
 Involves
 Organizational analysis: Determines the appropriateness of
training, given the company’s business strategy and resources
 Person analysis: Determines
 Whether performance deficiencies result from a lack of knowledge, skill, or
ability
 Who needs training
 Employee readiness for training
 Task analysis: Identifies the important tasks and knowledge,
skills, and behaviors that need to be emphasized in training
for employees to complete their tasks

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Why is Needs Assessment Necessary?
 Training may be incorrectly used as a solution to a
performance problem
 Training programs may have the wrong content, objectives, or
methods
 Trainees may be sent to training programs for which they do
not have the basic skills, prerequisite skills, or confidence
needed to learn
 Training will not deliver the expected learning, behavior
change, or financial results that the company expects
 Money will be spent on training programs that are unnecessary
because they are unrelated to the company’s business strategy

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Figure 3.1 – Causes and Outcomes of Needs
Assessment

Reasons or “Pressure Points” Outcomes

• Legislation • What Trainees Need to Learn
• Lack of Basic Skills • Who Receives Training
• Poor Performance • What Training Method is Appropriate
• New Technology • Frequency of Training
• Customer Requests • Buy versus Build Training Decision
• New Products • Training versus Other HR Options Such as
• Higher Performance Standards Selection or Job Redesign
• New Jobs • How Training Should Be Evaluated
• Customer Dissatisfaction • How to Facilitate Transfer of Training
• Reduce Scrap
• Improve Quality

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Table 3.1 – Key Concerns of Upper-Level and Mid-Level
Managers and Trainers in Needs Assessment

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Who Should Participate in Needs Assessment
 Subject-matter experts (SMEs): Employees, academics,
managers, technical experts, trainers, and even customers or
suppliers who are knowledgeable with regard to
 Training issues
 Knowledge, skills, and abilities required for successful task
performance
 Necessary equipment and conditions under which task has to be
performed
 Job incumbents: Employees who are currently performing the job
 It is important to get a sample of job incumbents involved in the
needs assessment because:
 They tend to be most knowledgeable about the job
 They can be a great hindrance to the training process if they do not
feel they have had input in the process 3-7
Table 3.2 – Advantages and Disadvantages of
Needs Assessment Techniques

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Table 3.2 – Advantages and Disadvantages of
Needs Assessment Techniques

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Methods Used in Needs Assessment
 For newly created jobs, trainers often do not have job
incumbents to rely on for this information
 Historical data review provides information regarding
current performance levels
 Online technology is available to monitor and track
employee performance
 Because no one technique of conducting needs assessment is
superior to the others, multiple methods are used

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Methods Used in Needs Assessment
 Focus groups: Type of SME interview that involves a face-
to-face meeting with groups of SMEs in which the questions
that are asked relate to specific training needs
 Crowdsourcing: Asking a large group of employees to
help provide information for needs assessment that they are
not traditionally asked to do
 Benchmarking: Using information about other
companies’ training practices to help determine the
appropriate type, level, and frequency of training

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Figure 3.2 - The Needs Assessment Process

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Organizational Analysis

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Person Analysis
 Helps to identify employees who need training
 The need for training may result from the pressure points
 Readiness for training: Refers to whether:
 Employees have the personal characteristics necessary to learn
program content and apply it on the job
 The work environment will facilitate learning and not interfere
with performance
 This process includes evaluating person characteristics, input,
output, consequences, and feedback
 A major pressure point for training is substandard or poor
performance
 Another potential indicator of the need for training is if the job
changes such that current levels of performance need to be
improved or employees must be able to complete new tasks 3-14
Figure 3.3 – Process for Analyzing the Factors That Influence
Employee Performance and Learning
Person Characteristics
• Basic Skills
– Cognitive Ability
– Reading Level
• Self-efficacy
• Awareness of Training Needs, Career Interests, Goals,er
• Age & Generation

+
Input
• Understand What, How, When to Perform
• Situational Constraints
• Social Support
• Opportunity to Perform
+
Output
• Expectations for Learning and Performance

+
Consequences
• Norms
• Benefits
• Rewards

+
Feedback
• Frequency
• Specificity
• Detail

Motivation to Learn
Learning
Job Performance 3-15
Person Analysis
 Consequences: Type of incentives that employees receive
for performing well
 Feedback: Information that employees receive while they
are performing
 Motivation to learn: Trainees’ desire to learn the content
of training programs
 Personal characteristics include basic skills, cognitive ability,
language skills, and other traits that employees need to
perform their jobs or learn in training and development
programs effectively
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Basic Skills
 Skills that are necessary for employees to perform on the job
and learn the content of training programs successfully
 Cognitive ability
 Reading skills
 Writing skills

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Cognitive Ability
 Includes three dimensions:
 Verbal comprehension, quantitative ability, and reasoning
ability
 Trainees’ level of cognitive ability also can influence how
well they can learn in training programs
 To identify employees without the cognitive ability to
succeed on the job, companies use paper-and-pencil
cognitive ability tests

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Reading Ability
 Readability: Difficulty level of written materials
 Readability assessment usually involves analysis of sentence
length and word difficulty
 If trainees’ reading level does not match the level needed for
the training materials, four options are available
 Trainers can determine whether it is feasible to lower the
reading level of training materials or on-the-job training

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Reading Ability
 Employees without the necessary reading level could be
identified through reading tests and reassigned to other
positions more congruent with their skill levels
 Using reading tests, trainers can identify employees who lack
the necessary reading skills and provide them with remedial
training
 Alternative training methods need to be considered, or
managers can elect a nontraining option
 To develop basic skills or close the skills gap, many
companies are engaging in skills assessment, training, or a
combination of the two
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Self-Efficacy
 Employees’ belief that they can perform their job or learn
the content of the training program successfully
 Employees’ self-efficacy level can be increased by:
 Letting employees know the purpose of training
 Providing as much information as possible about the training
program and the purpose of training prior to the actual
training
 Showing employees the training success of their peers who are
now in similar jobs
 Providing employees with feedback that learning is under their
control and they have the ability and the responsibility to
overcome any learning difficulties they experience in the
program
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Awareness of Training Needs, Career
Interests, and Goals
 Managers should communicate the link between training
and improvement of skill weaknesses or knowledge
deficiencies
 Employees need to be given a choice of what programs to
attend and must understand how actual training assignments
are made to maximize motivation to learn

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Input
Situational constraints: Include lack of proper tools and
equipment, materials and supplies, budgetary support, and time
Social support: Managers’ and peers’ willingness to provide
feedback and reinforcement

Output, Consequences, and Feedback

 Trainees need to understand what specifically they are expected
to learn in the training program
 Norms: Accepted standards of behavior for workgroup
members
 For employees to perform to standard, feedback needs to be
given frequently, not just during a yearly performance
evaluation
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Determining Whether Training is the Best
Solution
 If employees lack the knowledge and skill to perform a job
and the other factors are satisfactory, training is needed
 If employees have the knowledge and skill to perform but
input, output, consequences, or feedback is inadequate,
training may not be the best solution

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Task Analysis
 Steps involved in a task analysis
 Select the job or jobs to be analyzed
 Develop a preliminary list of tasks performed on the job by:
 Interviewing and observing expert employees and their managers
 Talking with others who have performed a task analysis
 Validate or confirm the preliminary list of tasks
 Once the tasks have been identified, it is important to identify
the knowledge, skills, or abilities necessary to successfully
perform each task

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Scope of Needs Assessment
 Rapid needs assessment: Needs assessment that is done
quickly and accurately, but without sacrificing the quality of
the process or the outcomes
 There are several ways to conduct a rapid needs assessment
 Scope of needs assessment depends on the size of the potential
pressure point
 Consider using already available data collected for other
purposes
 If business problems, technological developments, and other
issues facing the organization are attuned to, training needs can
be anticipated

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