Why Training Need Analysis is Important for Organizations & Projects
The Purpose & Benefits of Training Needs Analysis
Based on decades of studies, when employees, managers, end users, and/or external parties are not provided with the right level of training, an organization will not achieve the right level of success.
The people in an organization drive how well the organization operates and how profitable it becomes, and they need to be educated and empowered with the right knowledge and skillset.
This is why companies continually seek to optimize operations and projects by analyzing employee training needs and matching those with organizational goals and project objectives. This is done through a training needs assessment (TNA).
In this overview of the importance of training needs assessment, we’ll highlight several training needs analysis benefits and answer the question, “What is the purpose of a training needs analysis.”
Read on to gain a better understanding of the benefits and purpose of training needs analysis for projects and organizations.
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Table of Contents: TNA Training Need Assessment
Keep on scrolling down this page to read each section or click any link below to go directly to that section.
1. What is TNA Training Need Assessment?
2. What Is the Purpose of Training Needs Analysis?
3. The Importance of Training Needs Analysis for Effective Organizations & Projects
4. Training Need Identification Methods
5. 12 Training Needs Analysis Benefits
6. Tips for Conducting Training Needs Assessment
7. OCM Solution Software for Conducting Training Needs Assessment & Training Management
8. Conclusion – Why Training Need Assessment is Important
9. FAQ | The Importance of Training Needs Analysis
The purpose of training need assessment will vary according to many factors. These factors can include projects that the company is undertaking, recent reporting on key business metrics, and how employees feel about ongoing training and development within their roles.
The benefits of training needs assessment are well documented and tied directly to an organization’s key performance indicators, such as customer experience, sales, efficiency, and more.
What is TNA Training Need Assessment?
Before we get into the purpose of training need assessment and why training need analysis is important, we should define what a TNA is.
A training needs analysis, also called a training needs assessment, is a process that determines an organization or project’s goals and requirements, and the skills and knowledge employees may need to meet them.
At its core, the TNA training need assessment looks at the needs of the organization versus team capabilities with an aim to fill the gaps with necessary training programs.
Want more details on training need identification methods? Don’t miss: “Best Training Needs Analysis (TNA) – Guide, Samples, Template, and Process”
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Do you have specific questions about the benefits of training needs assessments? Have you been wondering, “what is the purpose of training needs assessment? Please reach out and let us know!
What Is the Purpose of Training Needs Analysis?
The purpose of training needs analysis can vary in organizations. A training needs analysis is often done to gauge how much training impacted users need for a new technology that is being implemented, or a new process, policy, culture change, vision, reorganization, and other types of change.
It is generally tied to certain activities of an organization, such as a project that is impacting the way people do things. Or to solve a problem with performance indicators.
Ultimately, the overarching purpose of training need assessment is to ensure the organization can perform according to its goals and expectations by ensuring its people have the knowledge and skills necessary.
When answering, “what is the purpose of a training needs analysis,” we should break this down (as done below) into the various reasons that organizations give for why training need analysis is important.
Project Adoption Success
One purpose of training needs analysis is to ensure that a new project solution is successfully adopted by the impacted employees, managers, and end users who need to perform differently as a result of the project.
The importance of training needs assessment is tied directly to the project success measurements and what people need to learn to meet those.
Continuous Improvement
Many organizations understand the benefits of training needs analysis to continuous improvement strategies. Identifying areas of efficiency and productivity growth are often tied to the skills that employees may be lacking, and which training can provide.
Correcting Organizational Problems
When certain key performance indicators aren’t looking good, such as when customer complaints are increasing, companies often focus on identifying the causes of this increase, such as a lack of employee knowledge. The benefits of training needs assessment, in this case, is to correct problems and put the organization back on track.
Ongoing Employee Development
What is the purpose of training needs assessment at the individual level? It’s used to understand where individuals in an organization may benefit from ongoing training and development to help them gain more skills and potentially move up the corporate ladder.
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Do you know of another important purpose of training need assessment? Do you have information on the importance of training needs assessment that could help other training and OCM professionals? Please reach out and let us know. We’d love to hear from you!
Benefits of Training Needs Assessment | OCM Solution TNA Training Need Assessment Template
Training Assessment Template from OCM Solution for conducting training needs analysis: OCM Solution Training Management Toolkit for trainers, HR, and training teams.
The Importance of Training Needs Analysis for Effective Organizations & Projects
Now that we’ve reviewed the purpose of training needs analysis, let’s discuss why training need assessment is important.
One reason why training need analysis is important is because people can’t perform to their fullest if they lack the skills and knowledge needed. Companies that don’t understand the importance of training needs analysis may be confused as to why the organization isn’t performing better than it is.
In this example, they might even blame employees for not instinctively knowing what they need to do. But without proper training, teams do their best on their own, but they may be adopting inefficient processes simply because they were never trained on more effective workflows.
The importance of training needs assessment can also be seen in the area of data security. If employees are ignorant of how to detect phishing emails or the proper ways to handle sensitive customer information, they could inadvertently cause a data breach.
Training needs analysis benefits are also seen when it comes to projects that the organization is undertaking. If a project or OCM team is not using training need identification methods to determine whether or how much training may be needed to adopt a new solution, software, or process, the project could fail.
So, as you can see, the importance of training needs analysis permeates many different areas of an organization. It can be a driver for success in a wide variety of departments that have to do with employee skills and knowledge.
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Do you have any questions about this article answering what is the purpose of a training needs analysis and what is the importance of training needs assessment? Reach out and let us know!
The OCM Solution Training Management Toolkit is an all-in-one tool for training planning, management, and needs assessment.
Training Need Identification Methods
You may understand the benefits of training needs assessment, but need some guidance on how to identify training needs. Conducting training needs assessment is a multi-step process, and during that process, you’ll use a few different training need identification methods.
Ensuring that your organization gains all the benefits of training needs analysis requires understanding the various training need identification methods to use. You may also need to use more than one training need identification framework to ensure you fully understand all the training needs and skills and knowledge that may be lacking.
Remember, the purpose of training needs analysis is to help an organization or project meet performance and success goals. Thus, you will want to be thorough when conducting your assessment of employee skills.
Here are some of the standard training need identification methods:
- Send surveys to managers of groups being assessed
- Send surveys to employees
- Send surveys to other impacted end users
- Monitor Business Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Directly observe daily workflow
- Employee skills testing/audit
- Monitoring of customer experience feedback
- FAQs and recurring questions
One of the benefits of training needs assessment using OCM Solution’s Training Management Toolkit is that it comes with surveys for you to use.
12 Training Needs Analysis Benefits
When you understand why training need assessment is important, it’s easier to explain training needs analysis benefits to others. There are multiple advantages to organizations and projects when having training teams assess employees for skills and knowledge gaps.
When emphasizing the importance of training needs assessment to project sponsors, OCM managers, change management practitioners, executives, other key leaders, or project stakeholders, here are several training needs analysis benefits you can mention.
Benefits of training needs analysis:
- Addresses skill and knowledge gaps in organizations
- Improves the effectiveness of training
- Helps ensure project solution adoption
- Makes organizations better because their employees have the knowledge they need
- Ensures continuous improvement and staff development
- Drives goal-oriented training
- Highlights training needs that were unknown before
- Reduces unnecessary training
- Assists in prioritizing training needs
- Improves employee job satisfaction
- Can correct problems in an organization
- Offers a proactive way to keep organizations productive
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Do you know of additional benefits of training needs analysis that we should include here? Are there other points about the importance of training needs analysis we should touch on? If so, please let us know!
Tips for Conducting Training Needs Assessment
Once you understand the purpose of training need assessment and the importance of training needs analysis, it’s natural to next seek out tips to get you started.
We’ve put together a few workflow tips for you to leverage for efficient and effective TNA training needs assessment. When using best practices while conducting training needs assessment, you can gain even more benefits.
Multiply your training needs analysis benefits with these tips:
- Begin your training needs assessment by looking at organizational or project goals.
- Tie those organizational goals to knowledge and skills benchmarks.
- If using surveys as one of your training need identification methods, use a cloud-based survey tool to save time, such as Microsoft Forms or Survey Monkey.
- Include a question on your surveys to help you gauge trainees’ receptiveness to training (if they’re not receptive, you’ll need more engagement to win them over).
- Set up your training effectiveness KPIs ahead of time so you can report on training success.
- Leverage a training needs assessment and management template (like the OCM Solution Training Management Toolkit).
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If you have any questions about this article on the importance of training needs assessment or the purpose of training needs analysis, let us know. We’d love to hear from you!
OCM Solution Tool for Training Management & Conducting Training Needs Assessment
The OCM Solution Training Management Toolkit provides you with one place to handle all your training needs assessment, training planning, and deployment activities.
This is a powerful, yet easy-to-use cloud application that helps you achieve all the benefits of training needs analysis. Gain insight from training needs assessment reports, manage all your training in three comprehensive templates, and more.
The OCM Solution training management and training needs assessment tool includes:
- Program planning template
- Individual-level training audience template
- Group-level training audience template
- Checklist of assessment for training, planning, and delivery tasks
- Video tutorials, tooltips, guides, surveys, and more
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Conclusion – Why Training Need Assessment is Important
What is the purpose of training needs assessment? It’s to ensure your employees have the training and skills they need to help your organization achieve its operational goals.
Once you begin to see the benefits of training needs analysis, then the importance of this activity will become even more apparent.
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We hope you’ve found this article on the importance of training needs assessment informative and helpful. If you have any other questions about the purpose of training needs analysis, please feel free to contact us anytime.
FAQ | The Importance of Training Needs Analysis
What is the purpose of training needs assessment?
The purpose of training needs analysis can vary in organizations. Ultimately, the overarching purpose of training need assessment is to ensure the organization can perform according to goals and expectations by ensuring its people have the knowledge and skills necessary.
What are the main benefits of training needs analysis?
The benefits of training needs assessment include:
1. Addresses skill and knowledge gaps in organizations
2. Improves the effectiveness of training
3. Helps ensure project solution adoption
4. Makes organizations better because their team has the knowledge they need
5. Ensures continuous improvement and staff development
6. Drives goal-oriented training
7. Highlights training needs that were unknown before
8. Reduces unnecessary training
9. Assists in prioritizing training needs
10. Improves employee job satisfaction
11. Can correct problems in an organization
12. Offers a proactive way to keep organizations productive
What are the steps in conducting training needs assessment?
Conducting training needs assessment involves six steps:
1. Determine the organization’s performance goals
2. Identify the skills/knowledge needed to meet goals
3. Conduct a skills/knowledge gap assessment
4. Determine recommended training solutions
5. Establish goal-oriented tracking metrics
6. Develop & present training recommendations
What is the importance of training needs analysis?
The importance of training needs analysis permeates many different areas of an organization. It can be a driver for success in a wide variety of areas that have to do with employee skills and knowledge. This includes project adoption, data security, organizational bottom-line KPIs, employee satisfaction, and much more.
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