Needs Assessments in Instructional Design

St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, located in Seattle, Washington, has a circular, 40-foot labyrinth. Visitors walk the path for its centuries-old spiritual and healing properties that are seeped in tradition and symbolism. The contemplative nature of the labyrinth is said to bring inner peace by helping one to center on the spiritual nature of things, rather than the clutter of the world.

Labyrinths have been used as meditative tools as far back as the 13th century. But nowadays, walking labyrinths has evolved beyond the church as hospitals, retreat centers, prisons, and schools are offering similar labyrinth walks to help settle the mind. They help one to get absorbed in where they are going, while at the same time, pointing out that you do not really know where you are.

Training Needs Assessments (TNA) share several similarities with the labyrinth. For just as a labyrinth has a path to follow, a TNA has a "gap" that must be "bridged" (followed). This "gap" is what is between what is currently in place and what is needed, now and in the future. While some labyrinths have one path that must strictly be followed, others have a multitude of ways to reach the end or exit. TNAs are like this second group, as there is normally more that one way to bridge the gap. While following the path of a labyrinth brings one inner-peace, building the bridge across a performance gap allows designers to have inner-peace by knowing that they can visualize an appropriate learning and performance structure.

A TNA provides you with a complete understanding of the shortcomings of the system. While a task analysis looks strictly at the tasks performed on the job, a TNA looks not only at the tasks being performed, but also at other parts of the system that might yield clues at what might be done to improve it. Depending upon your goals, you might perform one, both, or a hybrid of the two.

This activity aids in the decision making process by defining all the elements, issues, facts, and features taking place in the customer's system or process. The information gathered provides a basic background for learning designers, consultants, contractors, etc. Learning platforms have failed in the past and will continue to fail because the Learning department did not understand the needs or wants of its customers.

This analysis also allows the customer to understand the learning activity and its purpose. Clients often view outside activities as meddlers who interrupt their daily flow of work. These clients are often on the defensive and hide their true feelings and facts. During this initial analysis you must bring the customer in on the learning design activities and make them a part of the solution. It is universally advised that the clients or customers of a proposed system be extensively involved in the construction of any new project (Bowsher, 1998, pp.64-88; Trolley, 2006; Wick, Pollock, Jefferson, Flanagan, 2006). Besides introducing the clients and the training activity to each other, other benefits include that the clients will accept and benefit from a system that they themselves helped to define. In addition, nobody knows the system's requirements better than the people who own and work in it.

There are two main methods to discover learning needs. The first method takes the proactive approach. This is when a training or learning analyst studies the system or process and searches for problems, potential problems, and ways to improve it. The goal is to make the system more efficient and to prevent future problems from occurring. When a new employee is needed, the required Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes (KSA) of the candidate are known, and the KSA the candidate must learn are also known.

The second method is when a manager comes to the Learning department for help in fixing a problem. These problems are usually caused by new hires, promotions, transfers, appraisals, rapid expansion, changes, or the introduction of new technologies. Learning departments must act rapidly when problems arise that might require a training solution. The lifeblood of the business could depend on it. First, investigate the problem. A training need exists when an employee lacks the knowledge or skill to perform an assigned task satisfactorily. It arises when there is a variation between what the employee is expected to do on the job and what the actual job performance is.

To decide if training is the answer, one basic question needs to be asked, "Does the employee know how to meet the required performance standards for an accountable task?" If the answer is "No," then training is needed. If the answer is "Yes" then a different action is needed. Some of these other actions might be counseling, job redesign, process improvement, or organizational development. Often, the employee does not perform to standards due to time factors, working conditions, or a misunderstanding of the required standards. Management must recognize and consider other factors which impact performance that may not be corrected with training. Factors such as quality of procedures, human factors, management style, and the work environment also affect performance. For some more detailed help in solving performance problems see Performance Coaching.

The performance problem chart shown below can be used to help solve training problems (Laird, 1985, p63).

When developing training solutions, base your decisions on the appropriate analysis techniques discussed in this chapter. The urgency of the problem might lead you to want to curtail all the training development techniques discussed in this handbook, however this should not be done as you could end up with a bigger or more expensive problem than what you started out with. Follow the model and adjust it as your instinct tells you to. Once you have a solution designed and implemented, evaluate it, and then fine-tune it. As Seth Godwin wrote:

Here's what we used to do:
Create —> Edit —> Launch
Here's what happens now:
Create —> Launch —> Edit —> Launch —> repeat

When looking for training needs, or when problems arise, there are several instruments that may be used to locate the actual symptoms:

Literature research: Analyze budget documents, quality control documents, goal statements, evaluation reports, scheduling and staffing reports, or other documents for existing problems.
Interviews: Talk to supervisors, managers, Subject Matter Experts (SME), and employees.
Observations: Watch the job or task being performed.
Surveys: Send out written questioners.
Group discussions: Lead a group discussion composed of employees and their supervisors.

Some questions that might be asked to determine training needs are:

What are your employees doing that they shouldn't be doing?
What specific things would you like to see your people do, but don't?
When you envision workers performing this job properly, what do you see them doing?
What prevents you from performing a prescribed task to standards?
Are job aids available and if so, are they accurate? Are they being used?
Are the standards reasonable? If not, why?
If you could change one thing in the way you perform your work, what would it be?
What subject would you like to see your workers trained on? What would you like to be trained on?
What new technology would benefit you the most in the performance of your work?
What new technology would you like to see invented to help you with your work? Why?

Regardless of which method you choose and what questions you ask, the data gathered must accurately reflect the specific tasks now being performed. The information gathered will be used as the basis to select the tasks that need to be trained.

The beginning of performance is knowing what constitutes great performance. The key word is "great." If we ask for mediocre performance, then that is what we will get. . . and you cannot pounce on the competition with something mediocre and expect to win.

References

Bowsher, J. (1998). Revolutionizing Workforce Performance: A System Approach to Mastery. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Laird, Dugan (1985). Approaches To Training And Development (2nd ed.), . Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Trolley, E. (2006). Lies About Learning. Larry Israelite, ed. Baltimore, Maryland: ASTD.

Wick, C., Pollock, R., Jefferson, A., Flanagan, R., (2006). The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning: How to Turn Training and Development Into Business Results. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

Next Steps

Go to the next section: Analyze The System

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Analysis Templates (contains several analysis templates)