Training Need Analysis in Human Resource Development

HUMAN RESOURCE
DEVELOPMENT

1
Training Need Analysis
Training and development has become an essential part of the modern day business. This is
not only crucial for improving the productivity and quality delivered by the employees but
also helps in managing the activities in a smoother way. T&D helps the employees in
grabbing the opportunities available in their professional career. It is the role of the
management to analyse the need of the training and development. It must be done on a
regular basis so as to keep their employees updated as per the requirements of the firm1.
Training need analysis is process through which a company understands the amount and
quality of the training that is required by each and every individual within the organisation.
Regular analysis of the factors that are creating the environment for training needs to found
out.
Assessments are usually done on the basis of employee centric approach or the organisation
centric approach. In these categories there are several approaches to training need analysis in
an organisation. The first and the widely used approach to TNA are training needs survey.
This is done by conducting survey within the organisation so as to understand the training
requirements as per the demand of the company2. These surveys are conducted through both
online and offline mediums. The suitability of the approach depends on the openness within
the organisational culture, organisational size and the numbers of members present with them
as well as complexity of job3. Surveys are conducted using questionnaires, personal
interviews as well as personal observations. These surveys generally get conducted through
benchmarks that company has set for determining the effectiveness4. Another effective TNA
approach is competence analysis. This is an approach where competencies of Individuals are
evaluated. It is a relatively quicker approach where competencies are identified which
includes skills, knowledge and process abilities that is needed for performing business
1 D. Rajan, "Training Need Analysis: A Comparative Study Among Managers" (2015) 6(1) Training &
Development Journal.
2 Colin Terry, "Enabling Staff To Access The Knowledge They Need, When They Need It" (2007)
39(7) Industrial and Commercial Training.
3 Kanak Wadhwani, "Training Need Analysis At Manas Agro Industries And Infrastructure Ltd." (2018)
8(6) HELIX.
4 Malabika Sahoo and Sumita Mishra, "Effects Of Trainee Characteristics, Training Attitudes And Training
Need Analysis On Motivation To Transfer Training" [2018] Management Research Review.

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activities. Certain specific benchmarks are set for job responsibilities and company wants that
employees must be competent enough to touch these benchmarks.
Third approach that company utilises is performance appraisal approach. It is a relatively
accurate approach for identifying the needs of training and development related to
individuals. It is done by assessing the job requirements, skills and knowledge that an
individual has relative to the requirements at that position. Performance appraisal approach is
widely used in the larger organisations where numbers of employees are large. Task analysis
is another approach that is done by examining each process included in completion of job or
tasks. This is done along with detailed definition of the tasks that is done in each operation.
This approach involves elements like duration, environmental factors, speed, mental activities
etc.
Fifth approach that is followed within any organisation is feedback approach. Information or
feedbacks related to T&D necessity within a department for any individual and group is
accumulated5. It might be from performance reports, annual reports, colleagues or supervisors
comments, production report etc. Other significant approach in this regards is Management
decision approach. This approach is more widely used in the small scale firms where the
management decides who should be trained and what shall be trained about. Such decisions
are based on the career growth plan or future planning done by the organisation for itself.
This is done by analysing the laggings among the workers that is noted by the management at
the top level.
There are multiple significance of the Training need analysis. First is that it helps in
understanding the GAP in the skills that is present in the individual and what is required for
that position. It also aims to find the remedy for removing the GAP. Training need analysis
starts with Job and ends with the expectation of the consumers. Such type of analysis also
finds its significance in finding the content of learning also known as content development6.
It also helps in identifying the requirement of learning. It is basically an output oriented
study. TNA is also significant as it helps in understanding the depth of learning or to evaluate
the needs at expertise levels. TNA is significant as it helps the firm in manipulating the talent
pool and keeps it as per the requirement of the firm. Such kind of analysis helps the firm in
5 Eric Sokolowski, How To Conduct A Training Needs Analysis In 3 Steps (2018) Knowledgewave.com
<https://www.knowledgewave.com/blog/training-needs-analysis-in-3-steps>.
6 Training Needs Analysis: What's The Best Approach? (2018) Corporatetraining.ie
<https://www.corporatetraining.ie/training-needs-analysis-best-approach/>.