Conduct a Simple Training Needs Assessment

Want to quickly learn the training needs of a group of employees who have similar jobs? Yet, you don't want to develop and implement a survey, put the questions in a computer program, or run analyses on demographic information you collect.
This training needs assessment works best in small to mid-sized organizations. It will give you a quick assessment of the training needs of an employee group.
This training needs assessment helps find common training programs for a group of employees.

Difficulty: Average

Time Required: Approximately 1-2 hours

Here's How:

1. The facilitator gathers all employees who have the same job in a conference room with a white board or flip charts and markers.
2. Ask each employee to write down their ten most important training needs. Emphasize that the employees should write specific needs. Communication or team building are such broad training needs, as an example, that you would need to do a second training needs assessment on each of these topics. How to give feedback to colleagues or how to resolve a conflict with a coworker are more specific training needs.
3. Then, ask each person to list their ten training needs. As they list the training needs, the facilitator captures the training needs on the white board or flip chart. Don't write down duplicates but do confirm by questioning that the training need that on the surface appears to be a duplicate, really is an exact duplicate.
4. When all training needs have been listed, use a weighted voting process to prioritize the training needs across the group. In a weighted voting process, you use sticky dots or numbers written in magic marker (not as much fun) to vote on and prioritize the list of training needs. Assign a large dot 25 points and smaller dots five points each. Distribute as many dots as you like. Tell needs assessment participants to place their dots on the chart to vote on their priorities.
5. List the training needs in order of importance, with the number of points assigned as votes determining priority, as determined by the sticky dot voting process. Make sure you have notes (best taken by someone on their laptop while the process is underway) or the flip chart pages to maintain a record of the training needs assessment session.
6. Take time, or schedule another session, to brainstorm the needed outcomes or goals from the first 3-5 training sessions identified in the needs assessment process. This will help as you seek and schedule training to meet the employees' needs. You can schedule more brainstorming later, but I generally find that you need to redo the needs assessment process after the first few training sessions.
7. Note the number one or two needs of each employee, that may not have become the priorities for the group. Try to build that training opportunity into the employee's performance development plan.

Tips:

1. Training Needs Assessment can be, and often needs to be, much more complicated than this. But, this is a terrific process for a simple training needs assessment.
2. Make sure you keep the commitments generated by the training needs assessment process. Employees will expect to receive their key identified training sessions with the brainstormed objectives met.

What You Need:

• Conference Room
• Flip Chart or White Board and Markers

http://humanresources.about.com/od/trainingneedsassessment/ht/training_needs.htm

Provide Job Training for Employees - On the Job

Want to know how to provide effective job training for employees? The best job training happens at work. If you're committed to employee development - and powerful reasons exist about why employee development is critical - job training internally may provide your best answer.
Employees appreciate the chance to develop knowledge and skills without ever leaving work. And, you can customize the job training employes receive to your workplace needs, norms, and culture. Internal job training and employee development bring a special plus. Unlike external job training, examples, terminology, and opportunities can reflect the culture, environment, and needs of your workplace.
You can offer powerful internal job training for employees to your significant advantage as an organization and service or product provider. Here are twelve ways to provide internal job training and significant employee development. Are you pursuing all of these opportunities for internal job training and employee development? If not, you should be.

1. Mentoring

Xploresoft, LLC

A mentoring relationship is a win-win for all parties: the employee who seeks a mentor, the mentor, and organizations that employ the mentoring pair. Mentoring is also a powerful form of job training and can contribute experience, skills, and wisdom to a mentored employee to increase and expand employee development. Mentoring, whether with the boss or another experienced employee, is key in employee development within your organization

2. Periodic In-House Training From Internal or External Resources

Diane Diederich

If you're looking for a way to develop your internal staff that involves an external consultant, or even an internal manager or HR staff person, internal job training is an effective way to offer training and build the team at the same time. Employee development, offered in brief sessions, internally, on a regular basis, allows you to do job training with a consultant or internal provider who knows your goals, language, culture, and workplace norms. These job training sessions also build the team and help employees develop conversations about improvement, growth, and change.

3. Implement a Book Club at Work

Copyright Bobbieo

Looking for an easy way to share information for employee development at work? Form a book club in which a group of employees voluntarily reads the same book. Combine the book reading with a regularly scheduled discussion meeting to double the impact of the book on job training. Ask one employee to lead the discussion about the week's assigned chapter or two. Ask a second employee to lead the discussion about the relevance of the book's teachings to your organization. You'll magnify employee development with a book club.

4. Require Employees Who Attend External Training to Do Job Training

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When an employee attends an external seminar, training session, or conference, establish a company norm that the employee is expected to magnify the experience for the company by training other employees. This is effective employee development because it introduces new ideas to your organization. It is cost-effective in that the attending employee provides employee development for other employees. These presentations promote employee development, the promulgation of new ideas, and extend job training knowledge. The requirement also develops the skills of the employee who attended the external event. He or she practices sharing ideas and presenting - both significant skills for employee development.
Related: Train Managers to Train

5. Promotion

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A promotion is a powerful form of job training. A promotion forces an employee to grow - or sink. With appropriate mentoring and coaching, a promotion is a positive form of employee development. For job training, a promotion is stretching and fulfilling.

6. Transfer

Copyright Phil Date

A transfer is an approach to employee development that also helps employees create a career path. A transfer provides experience in other areas of an employee's current department or in a new department within the business. This job training widens the employee's horizons and enables the employee to gain wider and broader experience within the business. A transfer provides effective job training.

7. Lateral Move

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In a lateral move, an employee moves to an equivalent role in an organization for job training and career development. Though the new role usually provides a similar salary range and a job title at the same level, lateral moves are critical for employee development. In a lateral move, the employee's job responsibilities change thus affording the employee job training and new opportunities.

8. Hold Brown Bag Lunches

Aleksandar Petrovic

Brown bag lunches or lunch and learns, as they are frequently called, are another form of employee development, available internally. Whether about work or work-life topics, brown bag lunches provide employees with information they need to create great lives. How can this not be good for an employer? Use brown bag lunches, or buy lunch for the employees, to spotlight projects and initiatives within your company. Provide job training that enhances employee knowledge of your field, your industry, your competition or your customers. Or, just help employees manage work life balance and their individual needs within their every day lives. Regardless of topic, brown bag lunches, or lunch and learns, enhance employee development and their commitment to your business.

9. On the Job Training

Jacob Wackerhausen

On the job training is normally emphasized for job training for any new employee. Whether structured, with written processes and procedures, or informal, the power of on the job training for employee development cannot be overemphasized. Early and timely job training ensures that the employee will perform his or her job effectively. Competence builds employee morale and motivation and ensures employee commitment and retention. Employee onboarding or new employee orientation is also critical in this job training mix. You can also produce internal job training videos and other resources that allow employees unlimited access to job training.

10. Coaching

peepo

Executives, managers, and others interested in career growth and employee development increasingly turn to a business coach, either internal or external, for a personally tailored development process for themselves or reporting employees. Coaching from a boss or other interested manager is always useful job training. Coaching is also a different delivery system for training, since training, especially with long term managers and people who are further along in their careers, is not working. The coach works with the manager to tailor the job training program in skill areas that need an impact.

11. Job Shadowing

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Job shadowing allows an employee to learn about and benefit from brief stints of job training while the employee observes and participates in the work of another employee. Job shadowing, whether for a day, a month, or some other period of specified time is a little used form of employee development. Used by colleges and universities, along with internships for student career exploration, job shadowing can provide job training as well. Job shadowing is also an excellent approach to the job training of employees who provide back up for jobs such as payroll. Job shadowing is also perfect for an employee with an interim assignment resulting from an employee termination.

12. Provide Internet, Intranet, and Webinar Training Classes and Resources

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If your company is not providing online training in your wiki or Intranet or other online employee resource, you are missing a golden opportunity for employee development. Portions of employee onboarding, access to company and departmental information, even your employee handbook, are better accessed online. Everything that any employee needs to know about your company should be accessible to employees online.
Myriad Internet resources, on just about any job training topic that you can imagine, are also available online. Providers from universities to consulting companies are vieing for your employee job training dollars online. You will invest time in vetting providers, but online training is a significant employee job training resource today - provided at work. From webinars to speakers to courses presented via telephone, employees or groups of employees canaccess online job training.
http://humanresources.about.com/od/new/tp/provide-job-training.htm

Training: Your Investment in People Development and Retention

The right employee training, development and education, at the right time, provides big payoffs for the employer in increased productivity, knowledge, loyalty, and contribution. Learn the approaches that will guarantee your training brings a return on your investment.
The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) "estimates that U.S. organizations spend $109.25 billion on employee learning and development annually, with nearly three quarters ($79.75 billion) spent on the internal learning function, and the remainder ($29.50 billion) spent on external services."
Licensing, certification, continuing education, and training to retain and grow skills are becoming increasingly important. According to the State of the Industry Report 2006: The American Society for Training and Development's Annual Review of Trends in Employer-Provided Training, the amount of employer-provided training is rising. The ASTD annual report "look[s] to exemplary organizations from the ASTD Benchmarking Forum (BMF) and the BEST Award winners to determine how they invest in employee learning and development."

Important Aspects of Training

How training needs are determined, how training is viewed by employees, and how training is delivered become critically important issues. Training trends and methods for gaining knowledge, other than traditional classroom training, such as coaching and mentoring, take center stage.
New employee orientation, or new employee onboarding, is a significant factor in helping new employees hit the ground running. Training that helps each employee grow their skills and knowledge to better perform their current job is appreciated as a benefit. Training also increases employee loyalty, and thus retention, and helps you attract the best possible employees

Options for Training and Education for Employees

Options for employee training and development are magnifying due to these factors:

• technological innovations,
• employee retention strategies, and
• the need for organizations to constantly develop their employees' ability to keep up with the pace of change.

So, sending an employee off for training at a one-day seminar or a week-long workshop is only one of many options that exist now.
The American Society for Training and Development has traditionally recommended a minimum of 40 hours of training a year for every employee. This is consistent with the emphasis employees place on the opportunity to grow and develop both their skills and career while in your employ. The chance for ongoing development, is one of the top five factors employees want to experience at work. In fact, the inability of an employee to see progress is an often cited reason for leaving an employer.
As a retention strategy for your preferred employees, training and development rates highly. Only their perception of their salary and benefits as competitive, and reporting to a manager they like, rate higher.

Options for Employee Training and Development

When you think about education, training, and development, options exist externally, internally, and online. Choices range from seminars to book clubs to mentoring programs. Here are the existing alternatives to help your employees continue to grow. For recruiting, retention, and managing change and continuous improvement, adopt all of these practices within your organization.

External Education, Training, and Development

• Seminars, workshops, and classes come in every variety imaginable, both in-person and online.
• Take field trips to other companies and organizations.
• Colleges and universities, and occasionally, local adult education, community colleges or technical schools provide classes. Universities are reaching out to adult learners with evening and weekend MBA and business programs.
• Professional association seminars, meetings, and conferences offer training opportunities.

Internal Education, Training, and Development

• Onsite seminars and classes provide training customized to your organization.
• Coaching gives employees the opportunity to share knowledge.
• Mentoring is increasingly important in employee development and training as are formal mentoring programs.
• Form a Book Club at work.

What Your Organization Can Do to Facilitate Continuous Learning and Regular Training

• Create a learning environment. Communicate the expectation for learning.
• Offer work time support for learning. Make online learning and reading part of every employee's day.
• Provide a professional library.
• Offer college tuition reimbursement.
• Enable flexible schedules so employees can attend classes.
• Pay for professional association memberships and conference attendance annually for employees.

Training is crucial to the ongoing development of the people you employ and their retention and success. Be creative to provide diverse opportunities for training.
By Susan M. Heathfield

Train Managers to Train

Definite advantages exist for your organization when you have developed the training capabilities of your managers. Teach managers to train and you will increase the effectiveness of your internal training. Additionally, training and mentoring become a more expected and utilized part of the managers’ jobs. Employees react positively when managers provide training, too. The employees believe they will have the opportunity to use the training; they react more positively to the expectations of the manager versus a trainer. When they provide training, managers are enabled to articulate what they believe is important and to reinforce these ideas with employees. Employees are impressed that the training topic is so important that the manager takes the time to do the training.
During my time at General Motors in the mid-eighties, managers trained a corporate-wide change strategy. I don’t remember what GM was changing to, but I have never forgotten that a high level manager provided the training. His examples illuminated both the GM of the time and the expected new direction in a way that an external trainer could never have done. He was also successful at communicating the “why” of the change in a way that promoted excitement and participation.
By Susan M. Heathfield