Training Assessments: The Fundamentals

There are many valid reasons to conduct an assessment.

Here are just a few: initiating and measuring the progress of a major change initiative, securing executive buy-in and support, and measuring employee engagement. From a learning and development perspective, the most frequent driver is agreeing on and identifying critical skills gaps at various levels throughout the organization to drive the business forward.

Webelieve that training needs assessments should be both current- and forward-focused.The key questions to be answered ultimately are:

1.    “What is holding us back?”

2.    “Where should we focus?”

With those two perspectives in mind, assessments should be conducted not out of curiosity but with a keen commitment to action.  They should also be specific to your unique situation and environment. The boiler-plate, opinion-based training surveys that compare training topic areas have little merit. You want to learn exactly what actions you need to take to improve compared to other possible moves.

For training needs assessments, you hope to be able to learn where there are skills gaps, how to customize and guide talent development, and how to reinforce skill application on the job through performance coaching.

Anything else is typically a waste of time.