Description of Training Needs Assessment to the Organization
Training is a critical component of human resource planning and development in every organization. Working in the rapidly changing business environment that the current corporate climate has mutated into requires regular updating of skills to remain competitive.
Organizations cannot afford to leave all the training needs to the academic and professional institutions of the graduates entering the workplace because each organization has a unique corporate culture.
Training Needs Assessment (TNA) is the process of identifying areas where the organization has a weakness in its human resource in either skills or attitudes critical to remaining competitive.
The overall organizational strategy plays a big role in determining the areas where the organization needs to train the staff. The strategy sets the optimum performance requirements for the organization and therefore reveals areas where it needs to strengthen its operations.
TNA makes it possible for the organization to develop tailor made programs for its employees to take advantage of its strategic positioning in order to improve organizational performance.
Two types of situations may necessitate the TNA taking place. The first one is when there is a mismatch in the job requirements and skills of a particular employee or a department in the organization. The second situation arises due to growth when the organization decides to expand its activities.
It may find it prudent to conduct a TNA to ensure that all the employees are capable of handling the new duties. In the case of a TNA revealing a gap, then the organization would plan for capacity building activities to bridge the skills gap.
Necessity of Conducting a TNA and its Justification
Meddox as a company is at an important point in its organizational history. The company seeks to expand its presence in the market to improve its profitability. This situation calls for a TNA to determine the skills gap that exists among the employees responsible for the poor performance posted by the company.
One of the key issues raised during my appointment as the Director of Human Resources was that there was a gap between the quality of staff hired and their performance, which was eating into the company’s performance.
The company was not realizing the benefits it hoped it would get from hiring some of the most talented people in the market.
This situation presents a unique challenge to the human resources section of the company. The question it raises is why is the company’s rich human resource is not producing the results that it should?
The best way to answer this question is by conducting a TNA to determine what is the missing in the organization’s human resource strategy. The TNA will show whether it is an issue of skill, attitudes, or working conditions. The best way to present the TNA is to ensure that it does not present a threat to the employees.
There will be a need to ensure that the employees have a full understanding of goal of the TNA. That objective is to improve the skills that are there and to offer employees with an opportunity to improve on their skills.
The promise of a personal benefit for the employees will provide motivation for them to participate in the exercise. A poor introduction, on the other hand, may create rejection for the process leading to a loss of opportunity.
Steps in Perform TNA
The Human Resource Section of the company will perform the TNA in four steps. The first step will be a profile analysis of all employees in the organization. The goal of this exercise will be to uncover the true potential of the human resource in the organization.
The profiles of all the staff in the organization will form the basis for the analysis. This exercise will provide information as to the true level of organizational competence available at Maddox Corporation. The second step will be to determine the needs of the company.
This includes current and strategic needs. The goal of this analysis will be to provide a basis for comparing the available human resource to the needs of the company. It is very possible to have a very talented Human resource mismatched with the organizational goals.
The third step will be an analytical exercise geared towards identifying the gaps that exist between the needs of the organization and its talent pool. The exercise will involve comparing organizational needs with the existing human resource.
A report showing the discrepancies will provide the needed information that will feed the design of the capacity building training programs.
The final step will be the development of a training strategy. It will borrow heavily from the initial exercises to ensure that the company invests training resources in the right employees to produce the results that it craves.
Through this process, it is probable that some jobs will become redundant while new ones will emerge.
The important thing will be to ensure that employees whose jobs are at risk of redundancy get an opportunity to train in the newer roles that the exercise will reveal.
Reference List
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Swanson, R. A., & Holton, E. (1997). Human resource development research handbook: linking research and practice (Illustrated ed.). San Fransisco, CA: Berrett- Kohler Publishers.