Home Library Translate
A A A
Share »
Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Follow us on LinkedIn
Connect »

Blog: Training and Development

Menu

  • This Blog's Home
  • Guest Writer Submissions
  • Policies
  • To Subscribe to a Blog
  • About
  • Feedback

Needs Assessment

By Leigh Dudley on May 11, 2010

The First Step

A Needs Assessment is a systematic exploration of the way things are and the way they should be. These “things” are usually associated with organizational and/or individual performance.

WHY design and conduct a Needs Assessment? We need to consider the benefits of any Human Resource Development (HRD) intervention before we just go and do it:

  • What learning will be accomplished?
  • What changes in behavior and performance are expected?
  • Will we get them?
  • What are the expected economic costs and benefits of any projected solutions?

We are often in too much of a hurry. We implement a solution, sometimes but not always the correct intervention. But we plan, very carefully and cautiously, before making most other investments in process changes and in capital and operating expenditures. We need to do the same for Human Resource Development.

The largest expense for HRD programs, by far, is attributable to the time spent by the participants in training programs, career development, and/or organization development activities. In training, costs due to lost production and travel time can be as much as 90-95% of the total program costs. Direct and indirect costs for the delivery of training are about 6% of the total cost, and design and development count for only about 1-2% of the total. Realistically, it makes sense to invest in an assessment of needs to make sure we are making wise investments in training and other possible interventions.

Friday: 4 steps to conducting a Needs assessment.

Happy Training and comments, concerns and guests are welcome

Leigh

—

For more resources about training, see the Training library.

– Looking for an expert in training and development or human performance technology?
– Contact me: Leigh Dudley – Website – Linkedin – 248-349-2881
– Read my blog: Training and Development

« Previous Next »

Search Our Site

Meet the Blog’s Host

Jack Shaw is a communicator who does training and has been in the trenches as well as in management and development areas. His priority is how to communicate credibily in the workplace. [Read more ...]

Recent Blog Posts

  • Training Day – Professional Development
  • The PowerPoint Crutch and How to Fix It
  • Performance Management: Why Aren’t We Using Performance Information
  • Risk Averse? Me?
  • Failure Résumés—A Training Guide for Success
  • Rating Training
  • Are We Falling Into Internet Space?
  • Résumés Can’t Speak
  • Preparing Millennials–A Matter of National Interest
  • Training the “Educated” Consumer

Categories

  • Adult Learning
  • Assessments
  • Basics and Overviews
  • Coaching
  • Communication
  • Continuous Learning
  • Corporate Universities
  • Customer Service
  • Designing Training Plans
  • Developing Training Methods
  • Evaluating Training Results
  • Evaluations During Training
  • General Resources
  • Human Performance Technology
  • Implementing Training
  • professional development
  • Self-Directed Learning
  • Talent Management
  • Uncategorized

Blogroll

  • Jack Shaw

Related Library Topics

  • Communications Skills
  • Training and Development
  • Learning (Maximizing)
  • Adult Learning
  • Learners (Requirements of)
  • Terms in Training & Dev.
  • Types of Training & Dev.
  • Types of Learning
  • Self-Directed Learning
  • Student Skills
  • Corporate Universities
  • Facilitation
  • Designing Training
  • Learning Objectives
  • Training Methods (Designing)
  • Personal Development
  • Distance Learning
  • Talent Management
  • Evaluating Training
  • Continuous Learning
  • Human Performance Technology
  • Jack Shaw

Library's Blogs

  • Boards of Directors
  • Building a Business
  • Business Communications
  • Business Ethics, Culture and Performance
  • Business Planning
  • Career Management
  • Coaching and Action Learning
  • Consulting and Organizational Development
  • Crisis Management
  • Customer Service
  • Facilitation
  • Free Management Library Blogs
  • Fundraising for Nonprofits
  • Human Resources
  • Leadership
  • Marketing and Social Media
  • Nonprofit Capacity Building
  • Project Management
  • Quality Management
  • Social Enterprise
  • Spirituality
  • Strategic Planning
  • Supervision
  • Team Building and Performance
  • Training and Development
About Feedback Legal Privacy Policy Contact Us
Free Management Library, © Copyright Authenticity Consulting, LLC ®; All rights reserved.
  • Graphics by Wylde Hare LLC
  • Website maintained by Caitlin Cahill

By continuing to use this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy.X