Are you sure it's a training need?

A Needs Analysis is needed because not all requests by managers or others for "training" are really going to be solved by training. Here is a list of some needs that are sometimes mistaken for training needs.

• Performance Need—Employees are not performing in the proper manner or using inappropriate methods to accomplish goals. The performance is less than optimal because it is easier to do it another way or there is no consequence for poor performance. For example, an operations manager is not handling personnel issues correctly because he or she doesn't like conflict. (the person knows what is acceptable performance but chooses not to do it.). In this case training the person on conflict resolution is not the answer.

• Organizational Need—The organization is lacking in some capacity or process and is unable to perform or to meet the expectations of its customers. For example, an organization is not able to offer its customers a desired service or offering. You can train people as much as you want but at some point you simply "can't do more with less."

• Administrative Need—The process for following proper administrative procedures is not followed or is followed incompletely. The tracking and monitoring of administrative tasks is not performed at a satisfactory level. For example, customer warrantee information is not tracked properly. Again, the issue may be the administrative process itself.

• Technical Need—An organization needs some type of technology to properly perform its obligation to customers or to create additional value for customers. For example, not having a customer-only section of a web site function properly.

  

• Financial Need—Funding for desired initiatives does not exist or is scarce. For example, money necessary to purchase servers to house e-learning is not available.

• Competitive Need—Rival organizations offer something your organization does not. For example, they have a high level of customer service and your organization does not.

• Marketing Need—Initiatives are undertaken but members are unaware of what is available. For example, new e-learning modules are placed onto the web site but no one is aware of their availability.

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Creating Learning is Not Always the Answer

There are often times when learning interventions (training classes or modules) are designed and implemented but are not really needed. This happens with traditional classroom instruction and with newer technologies like Virtual Immersive Environments.

Why does this happen? Let's look at some things.

Suppose for a moment, a person or persons can perform a job but are not interested in doing it to the fullest potential. This could be because of improper incentives, poor tools or poor working conditions. An e-learning module or classroom instruction won't help this type of situation. Yet, often training is put forth as a solution. As instructional designers we need to push back on such requests.

Other times the task may be so large and complex that an employee really needs help and not more instruction (this is happening now in organizations because companies are operating below adequate staff levels due to budget constraints.) In these cases, if a learning intervention is delivered it won't make the additional work go away, in fact it might make the employee further behind because they've lost time "learning". This just causes frustration and leads to a bad image of learning and development initiatives because they seem to "just waste time" when real work needs to be done. Management doesn't get the blame, the learning and development people take the hits.

This is why needs assessments are necessary no matter what. We need to help organizations avoid unnecessary training. Here is an example of why an assessment is so critical:

At a manufacturing plant, employees consistently failed to reach their production quotas. The manufacturing manager believed the reason was because the employees were inadequately trained in the proper production techniques. He believed that if employees were better trained, they would produce more parts and meet their quotas. So he allocated $250,000 for the training to be developed and hired an e-leanring firm to get to work.

The first step the firm did was to conduct a needs assessment (against the protests of the manager who "knew" what the problem was.)

The assessment revealed that the workers actually did know proper production techniques but purposefully slowed down production because previously whenever quotas were reached, management increased the quotas without any corresponding rewards. The recommendation to management was not to spend the remaining part of the $250,000 on training but to develop a reward system that provided incentives the workers to reach the quota and not punish them every time they met the numbers.

If they would have developed the learning modules, no changes would have occurred and the money spent on the learning would have been wasted. Remember to always conduct a needs assessment to avoid creating learning events when they aren't really needed. And if this is part of the "long, rigid, outdated instructional design process", then so be it! Building inappropriate instruction faster and more efficiently is a waste! Taking the time to avoid creating the wrong solution to the problem is of value in any organization at any time.
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