Identifying Training Needs

Comprehensive & Sophisticated System to Determine Training Needs 3 analyses

OrganizationTaskPerson

AnswersWhere is training needed in organization?What must trainee learn in order to perform

effectively?Who needs training & of what kind?

Analyses require time and human resources to be conducted properly.

It is a process that needs repeating when the organization’s products, services or technology changes

The 3 analyses are usually performed simultaneously since they interrelate so highly with one another.

Organization Analysis looks at the organization as a whole Attainment of its stated objectives Human resources Culture

Primary purpose of an organization analysis is to determine where in the organization training activities should be conducted & could be conducted.

Organizations operating in dynamic, uncertain environments where there are frequent scientific discoveries, technical inventions, and changes in market conditions need structural features that will allow them to adapt rapidly to changing environmental conditions.

Organizations functioning within relatively stable commercial and technological environments can function well using a more bureaucratic or mechanistic structure.

Unless it is known what the organization and its subunits are trying to accomplish, there is little basis for determining where training is needed.

Training programs can be directed toward the improvement of those organizational units that are currently the weakest.

Main purpose of performing an organization analysis is to identify “gaps”. Difference between what an org. expects to

happen & what actually happens. Not all performance gaps can be dealt with by

means of training. Ex. Boredom w/ the work itself, low wages,

inefficient work procedures, and poor physical working conditions.

Problem may be motivation rather than training.

Professionals must refrain from jumping to the conclusion that training is the answer to the problem. Should question whether there should be training at

all. Consider eliminating or reducing performance

gaps through alternate means such as hiring the right people, communicating performance expectations, removing obstacles, creating a supportive work environment, and providing positive consequences for achieving excellence at work.

Another aspect of organization analysis is the estimation of how many people need to be trained immediately and in the future.

Determined by 2 processes: Employment planning (HR analysis) Concept testing

Every organization performs employment planning, on either an intuitive or a formal basis.

Techniques used in forecasting vary from guesses by experts to sophisticated mathematical approaches.

Concept testing is another approach for determining where within an organization training is needed.

The company’s learning center is able to decide whether there is a need big enough to warrant offering this training and, if so, where in the organization it is needed.

Organization analysis can involve organizational culture survey. Culture survey is used to determine the way

employees perceive specific aspects of their work and their membership in the organization.

Why assess an organization’s culture? The environment may affect whether

training can produce changes in behavior that will contribute to organizational effectiveness.

A careful examination of an organization’s culture using a technically sound attitude survey can help pinpoint problem areas within the organization.

Organizational culture survey is typically conducted by using a questionnaire that is completed by all employees. Perspectives questionnaire has 13 core

dimensions including: Overall job satisfaction Satisfaction with the work itself Satisfaction with pay & benefits Opportunities for advancement Satisfaction with leadership & supervision Motivation Total quality management

Most users add customized items that are unique to the organization Customer focus Teamwork Reaction toward merger Continuous learning environment Reaction toward downsizing

2 Themes for Training Depts to be Considered effective by Sr.-level mgmt

Training needs must be linked strongly to corporate strategy

Organizations have an ethical responsibility for developing training programs that minimize the technical obsolescence of their employees.

Organization analysis focuses on org as a whole – including external environment Answer “Where is training & development

needed and where is it likely to be successful w/in an organization?

Analysis of: (p.50) How the organization relates to its external

environment, in order to assess how these external variables influence the need for T&D

How well the org & its various subunits are achieving their stated objectives

Short & Long Range T&D needs of its employees

What factors in the internal/external environment are likely to present problems and to what extent can they be dealt with through the T&D of the org’s human resources.

Once questions of where & why training is needed have been answered, the design or content of the program itself can be considered. - - This is done through a systematic task analysis.

Task analysis (5 steps)

Obtain a copy of the company’s job description & any other information available about the job.

Identify the tasks involved in performing the job for which the training program is being designed.

ID the KSA’s needed for performing these tasks Develop course objectives Design the training program

Job description

1st step in determining the content of a T&D program is to develop a description of the target job.

Job Description- narrative statement about what a person does on the job, including the conditions under which the job is performed.

Other sources of information available about the job that training specialists often use in addition to a job description Job inventory questionnaire Performance standards Analyses of operating problems Observing, questioning, and performing

the job.

Task identification

Job description portrays the job in some detail but it does not give us enough specific info to put together a T&D course.

Task identification focuses on the behaviors that are involved in performing a job.

6 Procedures for Task ID

Stimulus-response-feedback

Time sampling Linear sequencing

Critical incident technique

Job inventories Future-oriented job

analysis

Stimulus-response-feedback method Indicator may be any object that provides the

cue for making a response. Broadest sense – It is an out-of-tolerance signal

that there is a difference between present conditions and how conditions ought to be.

Approach is of value when describing simple structural tasks that are amenable to Stimulus-Response-Feedback – limited with complex tasks.

Time sampling

Direct observations of work activities are made by trained observers.

Enables trainers to determine through direct observation exactly what employees do on the job & how frequently they do it.

By making randomized observations of employee behavior, trainers can learn in a relatively short time how employees perform their jobs.

Linear sequencing

Designed expressly for specifying training content.

Method is applicable for trainers who want to analyze the basic steps of any job so that they can successfully teach these steps to someone else.

Critical incident technique (CIT) Requires observers who are aware of the

aims & objectives of a given job & who frequently see people perform the job, to describe to a task analyst incidents of effective & ineffective job behavior that they have observed over the past 6-12 months. This means that supervisors, peers, subordinates, & clients may be interviewed about the critical requirements of a specific job.

Development of Job Inventory (task inventory) Structured questionnaire that consists of a

listing of tasks comprising a particular job. Once questionnaire is constructed, it is

administered to employees who currently perform the job since they are considered to be among the most knowledgeable about it

Many cases – supervisors are asked to describe the job as well.

Future-oriented task analysis Anticipates the dynamic environment in which

organizations will be operating throughout the 21st century.

Fuzzy concept – based on research which has indicated that the jobs of the future will require less memorizing of facts and procedures, fewer physical skills, & far more conceptual ability than is true at the present time.

Purpose –link the management succession process, individual executive learning, with the business strategy. The requirements are defined in terms of the future strategic organizational objectives. To do this, organization’s executives speculate on the future mission & future goals of the organization.

*Read p 59-60 Summary

Once the tasks involved in performing the job have been identified, the training specialist must identify the knowledge, skill, & ability needed to perform these tasks.K (knowledge) refers to factual material that an

employee needs to learnS (skills) pertains to the hands-on, overt doing of

thingsA (ability) basic abilities that new hires are typically

expected to possess, but that can be developed through training.

Information obtained from KSA identification is used to construct the course objectives, which consist of statements that specify the desired behavior of the trainee at the end of training.

These statements explicate what the training specialist expects of the trainee to know & to do after participating in the training program

Course objectives based on KSA ID but they differ in 2 important ways.

KSA ID describes all of the personal characteristics involved in performing a job.

Course objectives do not include those things that trainees are expected to know or be able to do before entering a course.

Course objectives also do not include those KSAs called for in performing a job that are impractical to teach during a training course & are better left to learn on the job.

2nd – KSAs describe the job as it is performed by an experienced employee.

Course objectives need only describe the KSAs we can reasonably expect at the end of a training program.

Remember that course objectives are tailored to people who will take the training course.

Although the course objectives are expressed in terms of the KSAs, the actual material taught during the training pertains to the job’s tasks.

Design of Program – Final step in task analysis involves making decisions about the actual design of the training program. (make or buy)

Training program can be judged as possessing content validity if It trains individuals on the KSAs that have been

identified previously through the task analysis as being important for performing the particular job

It does not train individuals on KSAs that are irrelevant for the particular job. If we find after designing a certain training program, that it lacks content validity – then we must revise it.

The fact that a training program possesses content validity does not necessarily guarantee that the trainees learned the material taught, nor does it mean that the trainees were able to transfer what they were taught back to their jobs.

Checking to see that a training program possesses content validity is important simply to ensure that it is, in fact, teaching what it should be teaching. Content validity by itself is not sufficient.

Individual Analysis

Focuses on the individual employee. It deals with the question – “Who needs training & of what kind?”

Step 1 – concerned w/ how well a specific employee is performing his or her job. The term performance appraisal is used to refer to the techniques employed by training specialists to measure an employee’s job proficiency. (Results deter if Step 2 needed or not)

If appraisal indicates that an employee’s work performance is acceptable – no need for step 2.

Conversely – if below standard, this is a signal that diagnosis is needed. Diagnosis involves carefully determining what specific skills & knowledge must be developed if the employee is to improve his/her job performance.

Step 1 p.65

Involves performance appraisal Methods of evaluating if employee

performing a job adequately:Behavioral measuresEconomic measuresProficiency tests

Behavioral Measures

Involve ratings based on observations of an employee’s on-the-job behaviors by superiors, peers, subordinates, or outside evaluators.

Major characteristic is that they are dependent on human observation, and accuracy in reporting observations is often affected by factors irrelevant to job performance.

Economic Measures

Someone in organization just records the # of units produced in a given amount of time, sales volume, # of injuries, scrappage weight & so on.

Economic measures broken into 2 subcategories:Those dealing w/ productionThose dealing with personnel information.

Proficiency Tests One variant is to take a work sample whereby in

either the actual work setting or a simulation of it, the employee is asked to perform the duties required on a job.

Another variant involves the use of written job-knowledge tests to assess employees.

Advantage is that they permit the employee’s skills & knowledge to be compared to known standards under controlled & uniform conditions

Drawback – performance during testing may not accurately reflect daily performance on the job.

Combo of behavioral, economic & proficiency measures Specialist can make an astute assessment

of who is not fulfilling job requirements. If an individual is performing satisfactorily,

there is no need for training – However, if not performing satisfactorily, then the next step in person analysis is warranted.

Step 2 in individual analysis

Involves determining the specific skills & knowledge that an employee needs to acquire in order to perform the job acceptably.

Requires a systematic diagnosis of each employee’s strengths & weaknesses using the performance appraisal information collected in step 1.

Alternative way of performing step 2 is to ask employees to assess their own individual training needs. Many orgs. use self-reports as an important source of training needs information.

Strengths & limitations of self-ratings (S) Approach prevents problem of forcing employees

to attend programs they don’t feel helps. (lack of motivation to transfer to job)

(L) What employees report they need may be preference or demand & not observable discrepancy in performance produced by a lack of skill.

Final Product is a Training Plan

The plan is constructed by the training dept. & is used to strategically plan what kinds of training will be conducted in the near future.