Employee training needs are the most common argument for organizing courses. Is this justified? After all, in many organizations, the identification of training needs ends with a survey, without any connection to business objectives and competency gaps. And although training courses are conducted, their impact on the company’s results is negligible. If you are wondering how to accurately determine training needs, it is worth starting by organizing the diagnosis process.
- What is training needs assessment and why is it so important?
- How can you tell if your company needs training? The most common signs
- Methods for identifying training needs – how to do it in practice?
- Stages of the employee training needs assessment process – step by step
- The most common mistakes in identifying training needs
- FAQ
What is training needs assessment and why is it so important?
Identifying training needs is a systematic process of diagnosing the gap between employees’ current competencies and those needed to achieve the organization’s goals. Its main purpose is to determine whether and what training will improve the quality of work.
Identifying employee training needs is often seen as the first stage of the development cycle. It allows you to design training programs with predictable results and approach them strategically rather than reactively.
Your basis for rational training decisions
Good HR decisions should not be based on intuition, managers’ hunches, or training trends (e.g., “everyone is training in emotional intelligence, so we should too” – but maybe your employees have such well-developed interpersonal skills that they don’t need it?). A training needs analysis will give you an objective diagnosis and identify specific competency gaps.
How can you tell if your company needs training? The most common signs
The need for training most often arises when a company observes:
- a decline or stagnation in KPIs despite stable processes and tools,
- quality errors, complaints, low repeatability of results,
- difficulties in implementing new technologies or organizational changes,
- discrepancies between expectations for the role and the actual level of performance,
- repeated feedback from periodic evaluations and 360° feedback, in which the same competency gap occurs.
However, it is worth remembering that a problem in an organization does not always require training to solve it. If the source of the problem is processes, structure, lack of decision-making, or work overload, training will not solve the problem, even if it is the first thing that comes to mind. Therefore, competency needs analysis should start by looking at what is not working and move on to considering why it is not working.
Methods for identifying training needs – how to do it in practice?
In order to identify needs effectively, two issues must come together: strategic perspective and operational data. To put it simply, statements from employees and even managers are not enough. They need to be supplemented with a broader view of the company’s goals and tools for assessing training needs that allow information to be collected, compared, and analyzed in a consistent manner. It is best to work on several levels simultaneously, and it is most convenient to do so in a single tool ecosystem, such as HRcode.
We will go through the issues that will help you diagnose your employees’ training needs.
Analysis of business and strategic objectives
Are your company’s training needs derived from its business objectives? If your organization is planning to expand, digitize, or change its operating model, new competencies may be needed at the team and role levels (we will discuss mapping these competencies in a moment).
It is very helpful to cascade objectives, which usually looks like this:
strategic goal → team goals → required competencies
The modern, widely used OKR (Objective and Key Results) or MBO (Management By Objective) methodology is extremely helpful. Systematically linking goals to competencies allows you to identify competency gaps before operational problems arise.
Surveys and knowledge tests
Testing knowledge or identifying training needs through surveys is the most popular quantitative method. In HRcode, you can do this using survey creators that allow you to combine:
- closed questions,
- open questions,
- rating scales.
This is supplemented by knowledge tests that allow you to verify hard skills and compliance knowledge.
Periodic evaluation and 360-degree feedback
Periodic assessments and 360° feedback provide repeatable feedback that you can successfully use when analyzing training needs. Repeated information from multiple sources is a strong signal of the need for development.
Note: this works in organizations with a mature feedback culture!
Competency mapping and 9-box matrix
Competency mapping allows you to compare job requirements (including those that will only appear in the company in the future) with the current level of employee competencies. This can be done in various ways, but one of the most effective is the 9-box matrix, which allows you to combine potential with performance. The data obtained will allow you to:
- differentiate development activities,
- prioritize training investments,
- plan talent development in the long term.
It is important that competency models are up to date and linked to performance, not just job descriptions.
Stages of the employee training needs assessment process – step by step
The process of assessing employee training needs should be structured and repeatable. Let’s go through the cycle step by step.
1. Defining standards (competency profiles)
The first step in diagnosing training needs is to determine what competencies are needed for a person working in a given role to effectively achieve the organization’s goals. Competency profiles should be based on job analysis and business strategy, not just job descriptions.
How to do it?
Prepare competency profiles for key roles, describing specific competencies (knowledge, skills, attitudes) and expected levels of mastery, directly linked to business objectives and performance metrics. Verify them with stakeholders (managers, HR, subject matter experts) based on job analysis, and then standardize competency profiles across the organization.
2. Diagnosis of the current situation
At this stage, data on the actual level of employee competence is collected using:
- surveys,
- knowledge tests,
- periodic evaluations,
- assessments,
- 360° feedback.
The choice of diagnostic methods should depend on the type of competencies being assessed, e.g., knowledge and procedures can be measured with tests, while skills and behaviors require observation, supervisor evaluations, or simulation-based methods.
To increase the accuracy of the diagnosis, it is worth using data triangulation, e.g., combining results, work quality, and KPI achievement (this is easier to do if all this information is combined in a single L&D system).
The diagnosis should be conducted at the individual, team, and organizational levels, and its purpose is to describe the actual state of affairs in relation to competency standards, not to evaluate the effectiveness of previous training or to assess employees.
3. Gap Analysis
Gap analysis involves systematically comparing the competency levels required in job profiles with the results of the diagnosis. Your goal is to identify differences that are relevant to the achievement of business objectives. Focus on the following:
- where the gap occurs,
- what is its scale,
- who is affected (individuals, teams, everyone in a given role).
Each identified gap should be analyzed in terms of its cause. The problem may result, for example, from:
- insufficient knowledge or skills, which can be developed through development interventions,
- systemic barriers, such as unclear processes, role overload, lack of tools, conflicting goals, or insufficient managerial support.
Only after such an analysis is it possible to prioritize the gaps. It is best to rank them according to their impact on results, business risk, and scale of the phenomenon. Only then is it time to decide which gaps are a real justification for training activities and which require organizational intervention outside the L&D area.
4. Planning development activities
At this stage, L&D selects forms of development appropriate to the type of gap:
- classroom training,
- e-learning,
- blended learning,
- mentoring or coaching,
- other development projects.
It is easy to forget how important it is to design conditions for knowledge transfer to the workplace when planning. To do this, you need to involve supervisors, present clear expectations to training participants, and enable the application of new skills in everyday tasks (e.g., if an employee is learning to use a program for which the company does not yet have a license, this is an area that needs to be addressed).
Assigning development activities in an LMS (e.g., HRcode) or other HR tool will allow you to organize the process, monitor implementation, and prepare data for later evaluation of effectiveness.
5. Verification of effectiveness
The planned and postponed verification of the effects of development activities is the last part of the process. The evaluation should include an assessment of participants’ reactions, but above all, a measurement of changes in competence levels and work behavior. Where possible, it should also include the impact on key performance indicators (KPIs).
This means that the appropriate design of metrics must be considered at the stage of planning development activities. The results of the evaluation should be used as feedback for the entire process, e.g., for:
- correcting competency profiles,
- changing methods of diagnosing training needs,
- making decisions about continuing activities,
- modifying or terminating specific development interventions.
The absence of this stage makes it impossible to reliably assess the validity of investments in development and reduces L&D to the role of a training provider rather than a partner supporting the achievement of the organization’s goals.
The most common mistakes in identifying training needs
The first and probably most serious mistake (resulting in unnecessary costs) is to equate every problem with the need for training.
Training will not improve results where the barrier is, for example, work overload or lack of decision-making.
Another pitfall is the temptation to base the diagnosis of training needs solely on the declarations of employees or managers. Self-assessment of competencies can be unreliable, so it is worth combining data from several sources.
The third mistake is not linking training needs to the company’s strategy.
Development activities that are detached from business goals lead to a low return on investment in training. Therefore, an effective analysis of training needs should not be based on the available training calendar, but should result from the organization’s development plans.
As a final point, we would like to address the omission of the verification stage. Without checking the effectiveness of actions (in the form of tests, KPIs, or observation of behavioral changes), an organization cannot know whether it has accurately diagnosed its needs. The lack of evaluation perpetuates ineffective development practices because decisions are not corrected based on data.
And perhaps not a mistake, but a serious obstacle to the process, is the lack of appropriate tools. Identifying competency gaps and addressing development needs is a large, multidimensional process that combines numerous data sources and activities. A single, common tool will make it much easier to navigate the maze of needs. This way, instead of trying to navigate through countless notes and spreadsheets, you can focus on what really matters: the strategic development of your organization.
Would you like such a development tool for your company? Let’s talk about HRcode.
FAQ
First, you need to relate competency requirements to business objectives and then compare them with the current level of employee competencies. Gap analysis allows you to determine whether training is the right solution or whether the problem lies in processes or work organization.
The best results and a more complete picture are achieved by combining several methods: surveys and knowledge tests, periodic assessments, 360° feedback, and competency mapping.
No. Some gaps are due to organizational problems, lack of tools, or unclear roles. Training only makes sense when the problem is caused by a genuine lack of knowledge or skills.
Bibliography:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0020748903001913;
https://www.cipd.org/en/knowledge/factsheets/learning-needs-factsheet/;
https://www.aihr.com/blog/training-needs-analysis/.
Małgorzata Turowska
Gosia has a scientific mind and feels at home in the world of processes, structures, and systemic solutions. With her technological approach and HR flair, she designs solutions that allow companies to say goodbye to the chaos of spreadsheets and take their competence management to the next level.
At HRcode, she is responsible for creating and developing tools that truly support HR departments, regardless of the size of the organization.
On her blog, she shares her knowledge on how to organize HR processes, implement changes step by step, and convince organizations that digitization pays off. Always to the point, without beating around the bush.
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