Why training needs analysis is useful to SMBs

When running a small or medium-sized business, you may find that your team needs a broad skill set that crosses over into different roles and/or disciplines. You might think that your staff need retraining, especially if you are running a tech company, where new software and skills are constantly being upgraded or changed, such as learning to code or learning how to shift to Web 3.0. Analysing your employees’ learning needs will enable you to see whether they are effectively handling complicated tasks, and areas in which they could be performing better. It is a good idea to make sure that learning and development needs assessment is more than just a collection of data on your staff’s needs and is a useful analysis of them. You should use this information appropriately to help drive performance and introduce new training schemes or goals.

You should make sure that your HR team is involved in learning and training needs assessment, and ideally, that there is a designated learning and development team at your company. This team should be involved in assessing learning outcomes and combining this with any additional training needs analysis (TNA).

Differences between learning, training and development

Above, we referred to learning and development, alongside training needs. The terms ‘training needs analysis’ and ‘learning needs analysis’ are sometimes used interchangeably. Learning needs analysis encompasses training needs, but also includes learning more broadly within your organisation. As there is a clear overlap between these concepts, it is worth considering the differences between them when creating relevant analyses and strategies for each:

• Employees learn new skills or mindsets through training, experience on the job or the teaching of skills to new employees. Learning analysis reveals an employee’s current skill set and where there are gaps in experience.
• Once you know which employees would benefit from training and where in their skill set they need improving, you can provide them with the necessary training schemes to develop them further.
• Development is the continuous learning and training of employees. It should be part of your overall long-term strategy for your company.

Assessing learning and development needs

To determine which employees have learning and development needs, you will need to understand how to assess them. It helps to ensure that you:

• Know what the needs of your organisation are, including all capability needs along the timeline.
• Create the role of performance consultant, or recruit one. They will work with you and your business to identify key weaknesses in performance areas and provide recommendations to strengthen them.
• With multiple stakeholders, undertake a learning needs analysis (LNA) prior to creating your strategy, involving a thorough investigation and gathering of data on the talent, skills and capabilities of your employees and their teams.
• Work out the performance level required of current roles and for current tasks, and whether your employees are matching them with their current capabilities.
• Through the LNA, decide what changes need to be made on the basis of your employees’ skills and capabilities as they currently stand.
• Sync your LNA with your overall business strategy; your underlying aim is to improve or sustain business performance.

Combining an LNA with a Training Needs Analysis (TNA) could help you gain a better understanding of how you can develop the capabilities of individuals in your organisation, such as whether they would be suitable for certain training schemes.

Why is a learning and development analysis important to your strategy?

A learning and development analysis is an integral part of your learning and development strategy, and in turn, your overall business strategy. It will enable you to work out the required steps for you to build the capabilities of individuals in your organisation and streamline workflows. Here are some good reasons why you may want to integrate an LNA into your overall strategy:

• It helps you to streamline workflows, making sure that skilled individuals are completing tasks suited to their abilities
• You can create learning opportunities for employees to further develop their skills and capabilities if they are not meeting expected performance targets
• You will have a baseline performance standard that establishes a target to be met through any learning or training opportunities
• It helps you to integrate your learning and development strategy into your staff retention and talent strategies
• It improves the confidence levels of employees in completing their tasks

Having strong reasons for undertaking a learning and training needs analysis will help convince employees of their benefits. It may also help to provide you with a clear indication of which targets you want to meet and why the outcomes will benefit your business.

Assessing learning and training needs

It also helps to ensure that you collect the relevant data for your analysis of training needs. This would usually include information on individuals as well as on the organisational structure of your company as a whole. There should be plenty of existing data in your company that you can gather, but you should also consider holding meetings with employees and stakeholders to find out more.

The kind of data you will need for your analysis will include:

• Personal analyses of employee skill sets, knowledge and personal capacities. This can include psychometric testing, assessments and/or looking at job profiles.
• Task competence analysis, looking at what skills are required to complete a task and whether the requirements are being sufficiently met. You can look at competency frameworks and any pre-existing performance management data that you have.
• Organisational analysis looking at the overall structure of the company, making sure that any training or learning initiatives are aligned with the company culture.
• Any pre-existing business plans and objectives that are relevant to this particular analysis.

Ideally, consider using as many of these data types as possible to gain an adequate understanding of the training needs to be met.

Talk to your employees as well to find out what training and development they think they might need. Schedule a conversation with individuals or a whole team; it can be an informal discussion about their needs to date. Ask managers about their employees and whether there are any areas of their workflow where they feel as if they are struggling. Find out if there are any new software packages or techniques, such as SEO, that they need training in. If the employee is currently on any training programmes, you can use this time to ask whether they feel they are getting the most out of them.

Learning needs analysis vs a learning and development strategy

The learning needs analysis is the fundamental basis for your learning and development strategy. It enables you to work out the conditions required for positive outcomes of learning and training initiatives, which gives you a basis for your strategy. It not only helps you to work out what the outcomes of your strategy should be, but also what areas you need to work towards improving.

Creating a learning and development strategy

The steps towards creating a successful learning and development strategy may vary depending on the size and nature of your business. However, there are some key components that are usually included in a successful learning and development strategy:

• Consult numerous stakeholders, including affected employees, about the proposed strategy and its desired outcomes
• Propose a suitable budget for your learning initiative and/or training schemes.
• Decide which areas of your company need a learning and development strategy, making sure that strategies for each are integrated into your business strategy as a whole. This can include individuals, a department or your entire company.
• Decide what your performance standards should look like, assessing the capabilities of individuals and teams. Conducting a learning and development strategy will also help you to assess the current capabilities of these teams and individuals.
• Assign the task of creating training material to the relevant team, including online tools or locating the appropriate external trainer(s).
• Create learning outcomes to be achieved through training schemes or ongoing development.
• Create goals that can be measured post-training, such as checklists for managers and employees to find out whether they are implementing their training correctly, for example, in using new software.
• Assess the results of learning outcomes and whether they have been effective.

Once you have a clear understanding of your learning and development strategy and have implemented what it requires, you will be able to start analysing its outcomes.

Analysing learning outcomes

You will need to consider the future impact that your learning and development strategy has had; it is worth considering the impact of any training strategies you are running in tandem with learning outcomes. Collect data on the strategy’s outcomes to determine whether it has been effective. The assessment is summarised as follows:

• Use the data to show how learning interventions have helped boost productivity, using financial and operational indicators
• Assess whether the new knowledge that employees have gained during training courses has had any impact on their role, which can include analysis of performance and reports from employees themselves
• Identify which areas of the organisation are benefiting from training or learning strategies

Models for assessing learning effectiveness

It is a good idea to use a model to assess learning effectiveness, such as Bloom’s taxonomy. This particular taxonomy is a useful tool for thinking about achieving learning objectives in a dynamic and fluid way, helping clarify and organise them for teachers and students.

The six levels of the taxonomy in increasing complexity are:

• Remembering
• Understanding
• Applying
• Analysing
• Evaluating
• Creating

Bloom’s taxonomy helps you to decide the level at which your employee understands the training; some employees may only remember the facts, while others will be able to contribute new ideas or provide critiques during a training session as well.

LNA is still relevant to small or medium businesses without a learning and development team. You may find that in a smaller team, your employees are working somewhat beyond their original job description, becoming involved with many roles during their employment with you.

Learning needs analysis for small businesses

In a small team, it is likely that your employees will have to help out in areas unrelated to their main skill set, such as when another employee responsible for a task is on holiday or sick leave. Therefore, learning needs analysis helps you to work out where your multi-tasking staff are most capable, and which areas of their skill set need improving in order to compensate for this. It may also help you to reassess your workflow and workloads for your team, making sure that the right tasks are assigned to the right team member.

Training and learning needs analysis is relevant to any business looking to improve performance and the confidence of its team. There are clear differences between learning, training and development; however, they are heavily interlinked concepts which should be considered together.

Assess which areas need developing first, and create learning goals with assessable outcomes. Ideally, you would stay committed to the ongoing development of your company’s training needs, keeping up to date with new strategy ideas, training schemes and technological skills as they emerge. When your employees’ skill sets match what is required of them, you could see a huge jump in performance.