Analyze

If you don’t do a thorough need analysis, the following might happen:

• The content might be irrelevant to the context, needs, and interests of participants and organizations.
• The content might be inadequate (too complex and difficult for the level of knowledge/ skills of participants, or redundant and too simple).
• The content and methodologies might not be appropriate for your participants in terms of cultural and professional background.
• The training might be disconnected from other learning experiences participants have taken part in within the same organizational context and other organizational development programs they might be part of.
• The training might be disconnected from the company’s business strategy, and thus perceived as irrelevant.

• the individual level by looking directly of the target group of your participants
• the organizational level by looking at
  • differences between what is needed/ desired in the organization as a competence and what already exists.
  • problems of deficits: Are there problems in the organization and/or the country which might be solved by learning activities?
  • Imminent changes: Are there problems which do not currently exist but are predicted due to upcoming changes, such as new processes, new laws or conventions?
  • Opportunities: How can the organizational strengths be utilized in a proactive approach to reach new goals or objectives, or implement new strategies?
• the wider context (regional, business sector, professional niche, etc.) looking, for example at mandated trainings: Are there policies that might dictate the implementation of some program? Are there governmental mandates that must be adhered to?

These questions will ensure that your training is tailored, as much as possible, to the participants’ interests, needs and characteristics. Thus, it will increase the relevance and probability of the participants using what they learn after the course in their actual work place, and consequently, produce the expected changes at the company level.

In this case, do a cost-effect analysis and focus on the segments that you think will bring you the most valuable information.

Try to conduct regular training needs analyzes with all members in order to get a broad picture for how to situate all your trainings. This will be your general guiding light.

The least you need to do is the needs analysis on the learners’ level. If possible, do it before the training by sending a needs assessment questionnaire, in whatever format you find most suitable (Google forms, some questions on a FB or WhatsApp group, etc). You might however, find yourself in a situation where you don’t really know who the people coming to the training will be. On top of that, they might not have a choice, and are only coming because they were requested to. In this scenario, try to find out who the people in the room are once they arrive. Allocate at least thirty minutes to clarify expectations and learning needs, and be ready to adapt your training design, content, and activities on the spot with the reality of your participants.

Examples of on-the spot training needs analysis

You might need to adjust your training in terms of content, methods and approach. If, for example, people want to have a space for peer-discussions, and you did not plan that, check where it can be integrated. Or if, for example, it turns out that people have more expertise in the topic than you imagined, you can still do a short content intro to ensure that everyone is on the same page, but you might allocate more time to a deeper analysis, like the practical implications of a law, for example. At the same time, you might find out that a certain course objective is not relevant for your participants. You might choose to focus less on that, or choose to keep the focus and explain why, if the organization you deliver the training for considers it a priority.

In this case, you should go back to what the organizational needs are. What do they define as a base-line for all employees? This is what defines your training goals and this is also what is communicated to the participants.

At the same time, you can use the group wisdom and dynamic to support peer-learning:

• you can group people for small-group discussions according to their backgrounds to ensure more meaningful conversations.
• you can form small working groups according to their knowledge level to ensure appropriate depth of conversation and approach.
• you can mix participants in such a way that the more inexperienced ones can learn from the more knowledgeable, and the more experienced deepen their knowledge by explaining it to others.

When you create a learning environment, people will understand that exposure to different backgrounds and expertise enriches their learning process.

Also, by using different reflection methods, you can support participants to understand and articulate what is relevant for them within the training and to extract meaningful personal learning outcomes.

You can’t force the process, however, you can support organizations to dig deeper and you can make proposals based on all the information you have.  All organizations will be able to express some needs (e.g. that they generally need employees to be up-to-date with Labour Law changes), and you can build on what is available. You can analyze the wider context (regional, business sector, professional niche, etc.): Are there policies that might dictate the implementation of some program? Are there government mandates that must be adhered to?

Whether this is discovered before the training, in the training needs analysis, or comes up on-the spot, it is important that you, as a training provider understand and articulate what the limitations of the training are. If there are needs that cannot be completely covered through training, you can analyze with the clients what other type of learning is available and might be more appropriate. Maybe people need to do some on-the-job learning, mentoring or coaching. It is unrealistic to believe you can cover all the learning needs within a company with your training, so it is important to situate trainings in the wider learning and capacity development strategy of organizations.

If there are needs that you cannot cover in a certain training, you can discuss with your client ways to address them in future trainings or modules. You can also support participants to identify how they might learn what they need after the training is over. You can do that by allocating some time and using reflective methods within the training to evaluate what they have learned, to identify what they still need to learn and how to do that.