It is perfectly normal, before an organization decides to invest a part of its budget as well as its employees’ time in training, that stakeholders want to know in advance whether the training will be effective.

This is precisely why every training assignment needs to begin with identifying the reasons for which the training is required, the employees to whom it is addressed, and the results we wish to achieve upon its completion. This process, known as ‘Needs Analysis’, is a crucial factor for training success, as it helps identify any performance issues that need to be addressed and, most importantly, whether training is indeed the appropriate intervention to overcome those issues.

More than a few times, delving into this stage may surprise us. For example, even though we assume that a team leader may understand the team’s needs and thus suggest the kind of training they need, experience has shown that this understanding is a product of interpretation – and, as such, may not be accurate:

“They consistently miss deadlines, because (interpretation) they do not manage their time effectively – thus, they need ‘time management’ training”.

“They do not achieve the desired sales goals, because (interpretation) they do not have sales skills – therefore, they should attend a ‘cross & up-selling skills’ training”.

“His/her team members don’t demonstrate high levels of engagement, because (interpretation) he/she does not inspire them – so, let us organize a ‘coaching skills’ training”.

If, however, we delve into the above ‘performance gaps’, we may discover that there is a different root cause. In the first scenario, perhaps the team members have not developed the ability to set boundaries and say ‘no’ – thus, they may need to be trained in ‘boundaries and assertiveness skills’. In the second, team members may have been used to operate as customer service (in-bound) agents and, even though the organization (and their supervisor) requests that they get actively involved in sales, they are resisting this change – the value of which they may have not understood. In the third scenario, perhaps the particular executive does not maintain high engagement levels among their team members because he/she has never been properly trained in setting goals, following up on performance and offering effective feedback.

We therefore understand that if we do not succeed in accurately analyzing the training needs of our employees, even an exceptional training program is doomed to fail, as long as it does not address the real pain points of the organization.

How can we increase the chances that training achieves its goals? Here is our recommendation:

• We identify the performance or behavioral issues that need to be addressed. We may start by asking: What in particular do we want to see different after the training? And why is this important?

• We avoid making hasty interpretations and reaching to undisputable conclusions. The advice is to involve a third (neutral) party in exploring the possible reasons that may explain the performance gap we have been observing.

• We define quantitative and qualitative criteria to evaluate the outcome of the training, by answering the question: How will you know that the participants have learnt? Or that the particular skill of interest has been improved? Or that their attitude towards a certain subject has changed?

• In case an external Learning Advisor is involved, the advice is to provide them access to data and findings regarding possible areas in which the organization or a specific department may be suffering. The more questions the Advisor asks and the more information is shared with them, the better the chances of identifying the actual needs that the upcoming training should focus on.
• At Designate, we encourage our clients to consider involving any parties that may be directly or indirectly interested in the training and who may benefit from its successful outcome. We believe that the time we invest in analyzing needs and in evaluating the training assignment on each of its subsequent stages (design, development and implementation) is a time well spent.