Why every business should do a Training Needs Analysis

A Training Needs Analysis (or TNA, also sometimes called a Learning Needs Analysis) is the process of gathering data about your employees' current skills and knowledge, to help you identify if any gaps exist between where they are, and where you want them to be. It often is performed as a reaction to poor performance in some area, and training is thought to be the best solution.

So why do this?

If your team are performing well and so is your business, that's great, and you may think there's no skills or knowledge gaps, and so there's no need to invest in any training. However, taking that approach will only get you so far. If you ask yourself "do my team have the necessary skills and knowledge to get my business to where I want it be in the next 3-5 years?" or "If my best performer suddenly leaves, do I have someone with the necessary skills profile to easily move into that role"?, will likely highlight that there needs to be improvement in some areas.

Performing a TNA will provide you with data to help you align appropriate training to your business strategy. How often you do it depends on a number of factors, however at minimum it should be twice a year.

It doesn't have to be complicated, and you may already have data there to work with. Here's some tips on how to gather data:

• Use a free survey tool to distribute a questionnaire to your employees. Ask them to rate themselves in certain skills areas and to give you open feedback on what skills they feel are lacking.

• Use appraisals and job chats to have honest conversations about learning needs.

• Analyse customer and mystery shopper feedback to see if there are any common themes that need to be addressed.

• Observe your team in action and gather feedback from supervisors.

Using the data gathered, will help inform what you do next. 

It's important to note that sometimes a TNA will show you that training is not actually the right solution at all!

It could be a process issue or some unnecessary step to service delivery. Whatever the outcome, you can use the data gathered to identify where to spend your budget effectively.

There are, of course, other reasons why you may want to or have to provide training to your employees, such as for compliance, but that's something for another post!

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.