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Integrating training needs analysis, assessment and evaluation

by Catherina Opperman

Does your organisation experience any of the following problems in the workplace?

• Do the wrong people sometimes attend the wrong courses?
• Do you struggle to develop a business case for training?
• Do you train and develop people and never assess them?
• Do you know how and when to measure the Return on investment (ROI) in training?
• Do you sometimes find that needs analysis, assessment and evaluation are viewed as three separate processes and are not inter-linked?

The above problems are experienced due to a lack of integration of needs analysis, assessment and evaluation practices. These processes are implemented in a fragmented manner, and no, or inadequate training needs analysis is done prior to training.  Assessment is done as a paper exercise and does not really focus on applied competence in the workplace. Lastly, little evaluation takes place after training, and the impact of training is not properly measured, or measured at all.

Organisations place a high value on people development; but how will they know what training is necessary to acquire these key skills? How are these training decisions made without conducting a proper needs analysis? Through the identification of basic needs and higher goals, performance opportunities can be identified to close those skills gap. Once these needs have been identified through various needs analyses methods, learners can attend training that is aligned to business initiatives to ensure maximum results for the individual and the organisation.

Assessment is an invaluable tool that assists people in identifying competence and highlighting the areas where further development is necessary. The call for accountability is challenging the individual and line managers, training- and HR managers to make the call about current competence. Assessment is the tool that produces results regarding the level of competence and allows the learner to develop and focus on those areas that need to be developed to ensure maximum performance.

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