User:Christenson j/sandbox

Trying to change the marked "you"s to better wording without destroying the context

Conducting a training needs analysis
Conducting a training needs analysis is usually done to gauge what training is needed for new employees or to identify and find solutions to:


 * 1) Problems with performance
 * 2) New system, task or technology
 * 3) An organizational need to benefit from an opportunity

Organizational training needs

There are many tools to gather information about employee performance, which work best in different circumstances.


 * Observation: First hand observation and analysis in a setting in which the observer is not interfering with normal productivity. Used to gather first hand data about an employee's strengths and weaknesses.


 * Interviews: Using a series of predetermined questions to gauge opinions and perceptions. This tool allows the employee to comment on their performance,and allows the interviewer to ask in depth questions about performance.


 * Questionnaires: Allows for a big picture of the environment by asking respondents identical questions. Allows for more respondents than individual interviews, and takes less time. The data collected can be analyzed in a more quantitative way than with interviews.


 * Job Descriptions: Study of all responsibilities of a certain job to define an employees expectations and responsibilities, allowing for more thorough training and supervision.


 * The Difficulty Analysis: identification of an employee's duties that cause them the most difficulty, and allowing for more training in those areas.


 * Problem Solving Conference: A conference setting that allows employees and other staff to identify a plan for a new task or technology and mold the training to it.


 * Appraisal Reviews: Within a performance review, questioning the employee about their duties and training. Allows supervisor to uncover reasons for poor performance.


 * Analysis of Organizational Policy: reviewing the organization's policy on training, and the amount and type of training offered to employees.

When using any of these methods, these three things should be kept in mind:

1. These tools should be used in combination, never rely on just one

2. They may be used to identify training needs in different groups or types of employees

3. They should be applied to individual employees because of variation in training between employees. .

Conducting a needs chain model
A needs chain model is a framework that allows organizations to consider the individuals needs within and organization as well as the organizations needs simultaneously in order to come to solutions to prioritizing resources and areas of improvement for the organization. Once the organization has completed the model, it gives them a better picture of the organization's priorities in a timely manner. One of the benefits of this model is that it can be used to help decision makers quickly come to solutions to priorities that may change over time.

In order to conduct a needs chain model, the organization must identify: Instrument needs, performance needs, conscious and unconscious needs on the organizational level and the individual level. The organizational level applies to behavior or outcomes, where as the individual level pertains to individual attitudes to things such as job performance or how they view the organization. The data about each of these levels comes from different data collection methods :


 * Organizational level: Goals of the organization
 * Individual level: Surveys or interviews

The most difficult data to collect in this model are the unconscious needs. In order to gather this information about the individual, careful methods must be used.