TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS
Introduction to Training Needs Analysis (TNA)
Conducting a Training Needs Analysis is a key element of any learning and development professional, trainer, or training consultant. It’s effective in determining learning and development areas, that organisations need to focus on, in addressing performance gaps. Gaps that may hinder the performance of any organisational goals and achieving success.
What is a TNA?
The TNA is the process to identify any gaps between the actual and the desired knowledge, skills, and abilities in an organisation.
Conducting an TNA usually arises when an organisational is not performing to it capacity or inefficiencies have infiltrated business operations. It can be a lower-than-expected quarter for the sales team, changing technology threatening to impact the continuity of train operators, or constantly low customer satisfaction scores forcing the product team to be more agile and customer-focused. In all these instances, the problems can potentially be resolved through training.
In other words, when a lack of knowledge, skills, or abilities causes the problem, conducting a training needs analysis and subsequent training can be a viable solution.
Conversely, training needs analysis won’t be effective if it’s broader organisational issues that cause the problems. This may mean that instead of a lack of knowledge, skills, or abilities, our diagnosis may point out that sales are low because of a mismatch between the work and the rewards. Or that customer satisfaction is low because the top-down driven product strategy is not in line with what customers are looking for.
These problems cannot be solved through training (alone) but require organisational interventions.