Needs Analysis: Definition, Importance & Implementation

Benefits of Needs Analysis

Needs analysis offers an array of benefits to organizations such as the following (Morrison, 2020):

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  Identify knowledge and skills gaps. Needs analysis helps organizations become proactive in approaching potential issues before they become actual problems. Being able to figure out the gaps in employees’ knowledge and skills before these gaps start creating real issues that can affect the organization is just one of needs analysis’ important benefits.
  
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  Helps prepare training ahead of time. Planning the training programs for an entire organization is not an easy feat. But instead of simply assuming the types of training that should be included, training needs analysis helps an organization make informed decisions based on actual and accurate data.
  
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  Identify the areas that need to be prioritized. Despite knowing what types of training should be included in the training schedule, there is still the issue of which training is more urgent and which is not really needed at the moment.
  
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  Identify the individuals who need training and the type of training they need. A training program will not be effective regardless of how good it is if it is not directed to the right individuals. Training needs analysis help in this area by identifying the individuals who need further training and what training programs are appropriate to address their knowledge or skills gaps.
  

When to conduct needs analysis?

Training needs assessment, which involves the process of needs analysis, can be conducted anytime but is often implemented during the onboarding period, performance reviews, promotion consideration, and when there are changes in the organization that require employees to change job roles. It is, however, important to conduct needs analysis periodically not only to determine the training needs of an organization or its employees but also to assess the effectiveness of training programs (SHRM, n.d.).
According to the study conducted by TalentLMS (2019), 39% of employees in the United States receive training during onboarding and this helps new hires feel better about how they would perform.