Training Needs Assessment Process

Meeting the many requirements of clients, fellow associates and society has become a requirement for organizational success (Popcorn, 1991; Kaufman, 1998). In response of this increasing demand of both internal and external clients “need assessments” have become a mainstay in organizational management of recent years. With a history that can be traced in part back to 1952 (Moore and Dutton, 1978), the needs assessment process has become integral part of many organizations. Private and public sector organizations alike are making great strides at identifying and prioritizing performance problems, intervention requests and/or resource requirement as well possible organizational contributes. Training needs assessment is recognized as the first

It is used as the foundation for determining instructional objectives, the selection and design of instructional programs, the implementation of the programs and the evaluation of the training provided. These processes form a continuous cycle which always begins with a needs assessment.

The ultimate aim of the need analysis is to establish: 1) what needs actually exist; 2) whether they are important; 3) how the need become apparent; 4) how they were defined; 5) how they may best be addressed and 6) what the priorities are (Erasmus et al, 2000).

Any thorough need assessment phase must address three key areas: the organization, the job and the individual. Organizational assessment considers the proposed training within the context of the rest of the organization. An important consideration is whether or not the proposed training will compatible with the organization’s mission, strategy, goals and culture (Erasmus et al, 2000; Goldstein, 1993; Van Dyk et al,

This is called task analysis and different methods such as; the critical incident methods are used. Once the duties or task in which training is needed are identified, the detailed analysis of each task may begin. The purpose of this step is to ascertain if the task is important and if training is essential and then to determine the procedure that should be taught. It is important to determine which employees should receive training and what their current levels of skill and knowledge are (Erasmus et al, 2000; Van Dyk et al,