Needs Analysis: Definition, Importance & Implementation

Needs Analysis: Definition, Importance & Implementation

When business performance takes a nosedive, managers tend to implement a training program hastily. Training programs, however, are always predicated on employee performance and skills issues. What businesses must fear about hastily executed and unstructured training is that it may well prove to be an exercise in unnecessary education, further contributing to accumulating business woes (Carlisle et al., 2011 cited in Holloway et al. 2018).
To see where the business predicament lies, managers must first conduct a thorough needs analysis. Needs analysis will make it clear whether employee skills or a thorough knowledge of tasks are at the heart of the question, not some specific hiring problems, understaffing, or inadequate equipment.
In the final analysis, a decision that calls for a training solution must come at the back of a properly run process of needs analysis that points to a lack of knowledge and skills as the definite reason for the performance gap. An evidence-based approach to training needs analysis is a highly recommended yet often missing first step in designing training programs.
What is a needs analysis, however?
In this article, we will try to provide the answer, as well as walk you through the steps to execute a winning needs analysis plan.

Needs Analysis Table of Contents

1. 
   What is needs analysis?
   
2. 
   Benefits of Needs Analysis
   
3. 
   When to conduct needs analysis?
   
4. 
   How to conduct needs analysis?
   

One of the biggest obstacles learning professionals are facing right now is identifying the difference between training issues and performance issues. For example, issues in performance or productivity are almost always addressed by the training programs provided by the company or organization.
While standard training programs are designed to be helpful, they are not meant to resolve all productivity or performance problems regardless of how good a training program is. Training programs are not cookie-cutter solutions, that is why a thorough needs analysis is necessary not only to identify what the problem is but also the root cause of it and how to effectively address it.