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How to – Identify Training Needs
Posted October 7, 2011
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By Joni Daniels
Think your employees need training and development to sharpen their skills? Take the needed steps to insure that you aren't wasting your money and their time.
Identify competencies
These are the knowledge, skills, abilities, behaviors, and characteristics that are the fundamental skills of a job. These are the things people need to know and be able to do in order to perform a set of job requirements successfully. Even if you think you know what they are - start with a blank piece of paper and create a complete list of everything it takes to do the job well.
Develop profiles
It makes sense to create a job profiles using previously created success factors. Making useful job profiles start with the establishment of two important criteria:
• the importance of each success factor
• the degree of mastery required for each factor.
Remember, this is about the job, not the person doing the job.
Appraise employees
You can develop pretty good pictures of employee strengths and weaknesses by building on the competency and success-factor models. A good rule of thumb is to gather information from the employee, the employees' immediate supervisor, and two of the employee's peers (one chosen by the manager, one chosen by the employee)
Pinpoint gaps
After you create an employee profile, you can compare it to the previously established job profile in order to identify the most critical gaps in development. Compare the required levels of competency to the actual levels. The difference between the two is the gap. You could create a summary of all employees relative to their job requirements and then use that list to identify group developmental needs. That's where you can target and focus training needs and dollars. If you want to figure out who to promote, figure out the distance the group (or person) needs to move in order to be brought up to an acceptable level of performance.
Determine options
Development options can be linked to three basic sets of activities:
1. Formal, in-house programs, designed to provide training and developmental options;
2. External programs; workshops, seminars and formal classes that address identified competencies
3. Internal, on-the-job experiences that are identified as sources of growth and development
Follow Through
So simple, but so many organizations fail to follow through. Don't send the message that the process stops with the training assessment. Put something in place to commend and reinforce desired behavior. People need to see and hear tangible rewards for their efforts, even if it is just interest in their development on the part of their boss. People tend to do what gets noticed.
Whatever method you use to determine your training needs for the future, keep your outcomes in mind - What would you like to see happen as a result of your assessment? What would you like to see someone do more of? What would you like them to do less of?
Once you answer these questions, then ask - What are we willing to do to ensure the results we want? How much time, money and human energy are we, and our organization willing to invest in developing our talent?
Nationally recognized Management and Organizational Development Training consultant, author, and professional speaker Joni Daniels has helped thousands of people, teams, and organizations accomplish their professional goals. She is a sought after resource for Fortune 500 clients, professional organizations, not-for-profits, associations, higher education, media outlets and business publications. Sign up for her free quarterly newsletter at www.jonidaniels.com/newsletter.html. Follow Joni on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jonid
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