learning needs analysis -final

HJ Development Solutions

Undertaking a Learning Needs Analysis

Learning Outcome – 1

Be able to identify the learning and development needs of individuals and groups

reflecting personal and organizational objectives/goals

Learning

Development

ADDIE – Learning

analyze

Design

develop Implementing

Evaluate

Human Performance Technology

Improving performance through:

• Analysis

- Cause for performance discrepancy

• Improving performance through

• Interventions

Analysis and Intervention

• Symptoms

An observable indicator of a performance problem

• Cause

• Why the symptoms exist or reasons for the indicators of performance problem

Intervention

• What can you do to correct the causes identified

• Training solution

• Non training solution

Interventions

• Training

• Non training

• Value of the intervention

Non Learning Needs

mentoring Exposure Tools and

equipment

Process and procedure

Opportunity and chance to

perform

Working environment

What is LNA

• A systematic process of collecting and analyzing information for individual and organizational development

• The method of choices for determining who needs what learning is usually called “learning needs analysis”

What other’s say about LNA?

• A systematic study of a problem or innovation, incorporating data and opinions from varied sources, in order to make effective decisions or recommendations about what should happen next.

(Rossett)

• A process for identifying and prioritizing gaps in results based on the cost to meet the need versus the cost to ignore the need

(Kaufman)

Learning and Needs Analysis

• A planned effort to enable employees’

• learning of job related competencies

• Needs Analysis

– Diagnosis - ascertain from symptoms

– Prognosis - forecast the course of action

Value Propositions of LNA

• Close the gaps in Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes for results towards required performance

• Ensure Competency match

– Required Competency Level (RCL) versus Current competency level (CCL)

The Purpose of LNA

Why LNA?

To justify

Learning is the

solution To identify

causes of

performance

discrepancies

To collect

information

used for

determining

learning

requirements To

determine and access the current

level of expertise

To identify

the subject

matter of

future

training

program

Who, what,

where, when, how?

Why Needs Analysis in Learning

• To determine if learning is necessary

Changes That Lead To Needs

– People movement

– New management

– New process

– New technology

The Potential Benefits of LNA

• A well-trained and responsive workforce, who have the knowledge, skills and confidence to carry out their rules, even as those roles evolve and change

• Greater employee satisfaction with the organization as they feel their development needs are being addressed – a factor in higher employee retention rates

• Greater customer and stakeholder satisfaction as changing needs and expectation are anticipated and catered for

The Potential Benefits of LNA

• Increased competitive advantage and a reputation for being “ahead of the game”, through anticipating and preparing for change

• Better targeting of the L&D budget on learning activities that are most relevant and likely to have the greatest impact

Understanding Learning Needs

Knowledge What someone needs to know, e.g. facts, processes, causes and effects, technical knowledge

Skills What someone needs to be able to do, e.g. operate specific equipment, apply a first-aid dressing or listen actively

Behaviors How someone needs to do things, personal and interpersonal approaches taken, e.g. being pro-active or being considerate of other feelings

Maintenance Needs or Future Learning Needs?

• Learning needs can be about maintaining current capability or about looking ahead at the learning needed to meet future changes and developments

• Learning needs which focus on current capabilities are often referred to as “maintenance learning needs”

Competency Based LNA

• Is any knowledge, skills, attitudes, motive or value or any other personal characteristic that is essential to perform the job?

• The capability to perform at the job level to the required competency standard

Closing Gaps

• Close the gaps in Knowledge, Skills and attitudes to result in the require performance.

• Ensure Competency - Required vs Current

Closing Gaps

Levels of Analysis

• Organizational

• Job

• Individual

Three Levels of Needs Analysis

1. Organizational

• what is not happening

• what should happen

2. job

• what performance should occur

3. Individual

• who needs what training

Is Learning the Solution for the Performance Discrepancies?

• Robert F. Mager argues: it is only a solution when a performance gap is due to a ASK gap

Four Conditions for Job Performance

Types of Needs

Different Levels of Learning Need and How They Arise

Learning needs can exist at any of these levels. For example, learning needs at an organizational level may exist as a result of:

• The need to maintain a sufficiently skilled workforce to achieve organizational purpose

• Succession planning

• Regulation and compliance requirements

• Changes in organizational strategy

• Development of new products and services


• Mergers and acquisitions

• Downsizing the rightsizing of the business operations

• Changes in the workforce demographics or working patterns

• Changing trends in customer needs

• Availability of technology and technological developments

• Changes in the organization’s operating environment

• Changes in legislation and government policy


Team (department Function) learning needs may exist as a result of:

• The need to develop and maintain the skills and knowledge required to fulfill team objectives

• A need to improve team effectiveness or work results

• Team re-organization or changes to team make-up

• New products or services affecting the team

• New technology or changes to specific team work practices

• Factors external to the organization which affect one area of the business more than others


• And at an (individual level), individual learning needs may exist as a result of:

• Induction for new starters

• The need to develop and maintain he skills require to fulfill job requirements

• Individual compliance requirements, such as licences or certificates

• Individual performance issues and challenges

• Promotion or temporary additional responsibilities


• Changes or potential changes to job role

• Continuous professional development

• Qualification requirements

• Aspirations and career planning


Group learning needs are likely to exist for many of the same reasons as individuals learning needs, particularly:

• Induction

• The development of basic skills and knowledge to fulfill role requirements

• Refresher or update training


• Changes or additions to job role

• Internal changes affecting the identified group, such as new IT systems, new products or services

• External changes affecting the group, such as new legislation

As you can see lists above, learning needs may arise as a result of internal factors such as the development of a new product, or external factors such as changes legislation

Learning Needs Analysis in Practice

• Learning Needs analysis is a means of monitoring an organization’s capability, in terms of having required skills, knowledge and behaviors, to fulfill its objectives

• The main objectives of learning needs analysis are therefore to:

• Determine current capability

• Determine desired or required capability

• Identify any gaps between the two

• Identify how these gaps might best be filled

Role of the Learning Needs Analysis - GCCUSA

• Get buy in

• Clarify project scope

• Collection data

• Use needs analysis techniques

• Study & Report

• Act/Implement

Example of Analyst Competency Requirements

• Communication

• Innovation

• Creativity

• Self management

• Adaptability

• Facilitation skills

• Quality management

Methods for Identifying And Analyzing Learning Needs

• Method 1: Interviews and Discussions:

• The most important factor in identifying learning needs is to communicate with the people or individual involved.

• Discussion relating to team or business area learning needs are likely to be held between a manager or representative from the area and an L&D professional and will focus on:


• Reasons for learning needs

• Required capabilities

• Current capabilities

• Perceived gaps

• Preferences on how gaps are filled

• Logistics and constraints such as timing or resource issue


Useful stages in a learning needs interview:

• Put the job-holder at ease

• Explain the purpose of the meeting

• Ask the job holder about their current role (or aspirations). What is important about the role?

• Ask what knowledge, skills and behaviors are needed in order for the job to be carried out well. At this stage, the job holder is not assessing their own skills, but describing the skills of people who do the job well. A good question here is “if I wanted to be good at your job, what would I need to know or to do?”


• Ask about the knowledge, skills and behaviors the job holder actually has, possibly reviewing any evidence of this with them (appraisal, pm report, assessment report,KPI)

• Discuss and identify where there are gaps and check with the job holder how filling that gap would improve their performance

• Discuss possible ways in which the performance gaps could be overcome

• Agree and record


Method 2: Examining Documentation:

• There is likely to be range of information already in organizations to inform learning needs analysis. For example:

• Key Performance Indicator: Many organization plan and measure their achievement in important areas through key performance indicator (KPIs).

• KPIs will tell an organization how he is doing in the areas it consider most vital to success, e.g. sales, costs, production times, customer feedback, etc.

• Looking at actual performance against targets can give an indication of a learning needs, specially where there has been an under-performance-although there many, of course, be other factors to blame for this.



• Performance Management Record: most organizations have some system of tracking individual performance, such as appraisal or staff development records. Reviewing this documentation, or summaries of it, can highlight:

• Specific individual or team learning needs

• General training needs which seem to apply across the organization or across a particular role or group

Challenges Leading to Learning

• Systems or procedures that may be causing problems

• Management behaviors or approaches which could be improved

• Emerging trends and work development which indicate future learning needs


Customer Feedback:

• Information from customer and service users can be an excellent source of information about possible learning needs

• Comments, complaints and even compliments can all give indicator of specific areas where there may be a gap in some aspect of capability


Method 3: Using an analysis model: SWOT

• SWOT analysis is useful way of staring a learning needs analysis and of engaging people in the process

• It can be used in relation to a whole organization, a work team, project team, group or individual.


Strengths

• Team get on well

• All qualified in technical aspects of role

• High technical expertise

• Lots of contacts in the organization

• Good at building relationships across the organization

• Established procedures, based on good customer service practice


Weaknesses

• Team admin resource not yet recruited will be external recruit

• Team newly formed – still some uncertainty around specific roles

• Not much experience in dealing with difficult or complex customer issues


Opportunities

• New team, new start

• New IT system could lead to new and better ways of communicating across team

• Chance to develop new skills in customer relations

• Team and individual roles could expand and develop if successful


• OPPURTUNITIES

• Good customer records available for follow-up contact

• Chance to contribute in a very obvious way to the organization


Threats:

• High performance targets to be met

• New system could prove difficult to operate

• Lack of customer relations skills could lead to wrong decisions or wrong advice (could be legal issues to tackle)

• Lack of communication could mean essential details are not passed on

• Customers might feel hassled

• Technical skills could become outdated

• Risk of team not being successful and being discontinued


Method 4: Individual assessment, observation and testing

• A more precise way of identifying learning needs is to undertake direct assessment activities – such as observation or testing

• Observation is particularly useful for practical skills such as interviewing a client or repairing a heating system

• Typically an observation would be done against specific standards or requirements, such as internal or external performance standards


• Tests can take various forms from simple knowledge tests, through to formal, in-depth occupational tests.

• They may focus on technical knowledge, basic skills literacy, language and numeracy or practical work skills

• There are also a wide range of psychometric tests available which test behaviors and personality styles.


• It is crucial that tests and assessments are operated within clear and fair guidelines and that methods used are valid for the type of assessment being undertaken.

• Some formal tests and assessments require that the people operating them are trained or licensed as assessors

• Assessors should be competent in what they are assessing and have a good understanding of the criteria they are assessing against.


Method 5: Developing a skills matrix

• Developing a skills matrix can be really useful way of exploring learning needs within a team

• With this technique, you identify by finding out through them all of the separate skill areas or activities involved in the team’s work.

• Each teams member’s abilities, based on direct assessment, qualifications or self-rating, are then marked against each of the activities on the matrix


Method 6: Focus Group:

• Focus group are useful to identify the learning needs of a particular work role or of groups within the organization.

• In this context a focus group would bring together representatives of the role or groups being analyzed to explore their potential learning needs


Method 7: Questionnaires and surveys

• Questionnaires can be used to help individuals prepare for a learning needs discussion or as the basis of large-scale learning needs surveys

• Questionnaires can be designed to capture whatever type of information is required, including quantitative data or qualitative information such as general opinion and personal comments


• In a learning needs scenario, questionnaires will focus on performance requirements, performance issues, self-assessment of capabilities, views on potential improvements and personal aspirations

• The same questions could be covered in interviews or focus groups, but questionnaires allow respondents more time to reflect on the questionnaire as well as providing a written record of their responses


Method 8: Performance review and 360 feedback

• Performance review or appraisal is one of the most commonly used methods of assessing learning and development needs.

• As appraisal is generally about reviewing current performance and agreeing objectives for future performance, it is often a timely occasion to also discuss learning needs


• Performance review is often a culmination of a number of assessment activities, including self-reflection, manager observation, feedback from colleagues and customers, and examination of work results

• Some organizations separate performance review from development review so that development can be explored “holistically”, rather than just being seen as a response to the performance issue


• Most appraisal/performance reviews and development reviews are carried out by line managers, supported by the L&D functions

• 360 feedback in this context refers to an activity where feedback is collected from people positioned all around the subject – e.g. the subject’s manager, the subject’s colleagues and people managed by the subject


• This method of “assessing” performance through the gathering and analysis of others’ opinion has grown in popularity over the last few years, to a point where a number of organizations now specialize in just providing this service.

• However, the process can be managed internally, with L&D taking a coordinating role.


• Whether outsourced or done internally the process involves the collection, analysis and summarizing of comments and presenting back, in a balanced manner, to the individual involved and the manager

• Findings from 360 feedback can provide useful information to inform a further discussion about learning needs

The Link Between Business Needs and Learning Needs

Business Needs

• Downtime must be reduced. Project construction uptime shall be maintained as high as possible

Performance Needs

• Machine operates must carry out basic maintenance work to reduce frequent breakdown /downtime

Learning Needs

• Machine operates need to be trained on preventive maintenance

Data Collection Tools

• Stage Three (1) – Data Collection Tools

•Focus Group •Interview •Survey •Observation

Focus of Needs Analysis: Data Collection

Deficiencies present situation based on historical data e.g. complaints/ accidents/absenteeism

Opportunities (development)

likely situation based (development) on future data business e.g. future business plan technology change organizational change

Data Collection Tools

• Stage Three (2) – Data Collection Tools

• Needs Analysis Techniques

SWOT Analysis

• SWOT acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

• Environmental analysis - helps to determine the priorities based on SWOT

SWOT Analysis Template

Learning Outcome – 2

Be able to recommend appropriate learning and development solutions to meet the identified

needs of individuals and groups.

Competency Analysis

• Is any knowledge, skills, attitudes, motive or value or any other personal characteristic that is essential to perform the job?

• The ability to perform at the job level to the required standard

What is a competency assessment?

• Is a process of collecting evidence and determining the person’s Current Competency Level (CCL) to perform a particular job according to the established Required Competency Level (RCL)

Competency Analysis Steps

• Step 1: Identify position

• Step 2: Review job description

• Step 3: Identify competencies

• Step 4: Determine performance criteria required

• Step 5: Confirm and finalize

Competency Analysis Steps

• Step 6: Assign competency to position

• Step 7: Perform competency validation

• Step 8: Establish employee competency profile

• Step 9: Identify competency gap

• Step 10: Identify training programme

How is the Competency framework developed?

Leadership Competency Profiling

Competency Matrix and RCL

• Based from

– Hierarchy – Organization structure

– Job Description – Business Needs

– Industry standard – Benchmark

– RCL = Required Competency Level

– CCL = Current Competency Level

Indicators Description

Level 1 – Awareness :

• Able to do or demonstrate basic knowledge, skills and behaviors in key actions to meet required standards. Needs total supervision and guidance.

Level 2 – Knowledge :

• Able to do or demonstrates sufficient knowledge, skills and behaviors in key actions consistently to meet required standards. Needs occasional supervision and guidance.


Level 3 – Skill :

• Able to do or demonstrates advanced knowledge, skills and behaviors in key actions consistently to meet required standards and makes continuous improvements. Capable of doing the job independently and can lend support to others.


Level 4 – Master :

• Able to do or demonstrates advance knowledge, skills and behaviors in key actions consistently to meet required standards. Is considered an authority in the field and train/coach others

Review and Interview- Evidence

• Process evidence – how task has been performed

• Product evidence – result of work accomplished

• Portfolio of evidence – compilation of evidence

Structure of competency dictionary

• Competency Type

• Competency Group

• Competency Title

• Competency Description

• Competency Indicators

Competency Dictionary

• COMPETENCY TITLE : CUSTOMER ORIENTATION

• COMPETENCY DESCRIPTION

• This competency refers to the willingness and ability to give priority to customers, delivering high quality services which meet their needs. Ability to help and serve customers (internal and external) to meet their needs. It focuses one’s effort on discovering and meeting the customer or client’s needs. Develops relationships to sustain current customers and enhances the customer base to support and grow the business.


• COMPETENCY INDICATORS

• Awareness (Level 1): Delivers a service

• Actively seeks information to understand customers’ circumstances, problems, expectations, and needs.

• Keep customers up to date and informed. Acts promptly to ensure customer problems are resolved. Interacts well with all customers.

• Understands that each customers are different

• Delivers what is expected, not what they think the customer wants or needs

Competency Dictionary • Knowledge (Level 2): Adds Value

• Shares information with customers to build their understanding of issues and capabilities

• Thinks about customer when understanding day to day work. Questions ‘how is this add value to the customer?’ Makes decisions with the customer in mind.

• Takes pride in delivering a high quality product or service.

• Investigates service delivery and provides solutions to problems

• Builds rapport and cooperative relationships with customers.


• COMPETENCY INDICATORS

• Skill (Level 3): Addresses Underlying needs and Serves long term needs

• Takes time to question and understand the real, underlying needs of customers, beyond those initially expressed. Establishes systems to collect customer feedback.

• Establishes systems to collect feedback from customers

• Focuses resources without bias on priority areas and/or key customer groups


• Mastery (Level 4): Develops partnerships

• Develops and maintain strategic relationship based on in depth knowledge and understanding of the client or stakeholder’s business/needs.

• Works closely with customers, developing an independent view of their needs and acting in their long term interest. Moves customer thinking forward, helping them understand issues beyond their day to day work

• Becomes and integral contributor to the client or stakeholder’s strategy. Anticipates

• future needs and plans and acts as appropriately.

Reporting

• Who should know

• Why the report is being prepared

• How to report findings

• Report results of the findings

• Communicate effectively

Reporting: Format

• Executive Summary

• Terms of reference

• Methods

• Results/findings

• Conclusions

• Recommendations

• References

Tips

• Ensure broad-based Stakeholder participation

• Choose appropriate means of data gathering

• Recognize core values in the group

• Make Needs Analysis a participatory process

Reporting: Common Mistakes

• Not documenting findings

• Not providing findings in useful formats

• Not disseminating findings

learning needs analysis -final

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