Speaker 1: Are you a trainer or a head of department perhaps taxed with the coming up designing training programs and you're wondering how best can I be able to conduct a training needs assessment? Join me in this discussion as we expound on some of the key areas or tools that you can be able to use to conduct a proper training needs assessment and even how best you can be able to ensure that the training needs assessment reflects or is in line with the organizational goals. As usual, my name is Mary Amondo and I am joined by Evelyn Parasa, one of the career advisors we have here at Corporate Staffing, who will be joining me in this discussion. Thank you so much, Evelyn.

Speaker 2: Thank you, Mary, for having me here.

Speaker 1: Yes. I know training the trainers course is one of the courses that you spearhead. And today we are looking at conducting training needs assessments as a key aspect of the entire training process. Yeah. So what is training needs assessment? Some people refer to it as training needs analysis. So you can use either analysis or assessment. Someone is watching, they're wondering what is it in the first place and why is it important for organizations to conduct one?

Speaker 2: Okay. A training needs analysis basically is a process that identifies the gaps between current and desired performance levels in employees, and also just ensuring training initiatives align organizational goals and even employee needs. And these gaps could include skills, knowledge, and even attitude. These are some of the gaps that employees get to have while working. So it is important to address them so that they can achieve the best when it comes to performance. It is important for organizations to carry out a training needs assessment, and this is because it identifies skill gaps in employees, just getting to identify the gap between the skill and the knowledge of what employees currently have and where they need to, of course, work on to improve their performance. And then we also have improving employee performance as a whole. This is because when you do a training needs assessment, it helps in addressing that particular deficiency of a skill that the employees have so that they can be able to perform well. And lastly, it supports organizational goals, and this is because training needs assessment help training initiatives to be aligned with the overall organizational goals so that it can be able to achieve its desired goals or objectives.

Speaker 1: I like the last part on aligning the training program to the desired goals or objectives of the organization. But then before we get into that, what are some of the tools or softwares perhaps that trainers or organizations can use to be able to streamline the training needs assessment process?

Speaker 2: Trainers can use various tools to do a training needs assessment, and this includes questionnaires. We also have surveys where they can do unknown surveys to employees so that they can get to understand the gap so that it can be filled. And then we also have interviews. Getting to conduct interviews on employees, it helps get to understand where the gap is. Is it a skill that they are lacking? Is it knowledge? Or is it even a behavior?

Speaker 1: Yeah, the behavior or the general attitude.

Speaker 2: And also, a software that can use is learning management systems. It is very, very key. It really helps a lot.

Speaker 1: Interesting. I know what most trainers prefer using or maybe sometimes even questionnaires or just running out a test on the different respective departments where you feel needs training as a solution to some of the challenges they are going through. You had mentioned about aligning the training program to meet the organizational goals or objectives. Now, how best can trainers ensure that the training needs assessment that has been conducted will help to align with the respective goals of the organization?

Speaker 2: So they really have to be careful with this. And first of all, they have to involve stakeholders. And stakeholders are basically individuals who are going to be directly be affected by the impact of these trainings. It could be employees, even the management itself, or even the owners of the company as a whole. They are also required to align the training assessments to suit or rather to be in line with the organizational goals and also gather feedback from employees, get to understand what is the gap so that they can work on. And also lastly, they should update training assessments to reflect changing priorities and even needs of employees. Yes, Mary.

Speaker 1: Interesting. This is one of the key areas that I'm equally very passionate about. And actually what I tell trainers as far as conducting training needs assessment is concerned is that organizations should not even wait to see a problem, to encounter a problem or a challenge for them to carry out training needs assessment. It should be something that is continuous. Interesting. Thank you so much for sharing with us, Evelyn. Thank you so much, Mary, for having me here. Great. Indeed, as Evelyn has mentioned, as you have heard, as far as conducting training needs assessment is concerned, it's a very important aspect of the entire training process. This is where it all begins, because through training needs assessment, you are able to set objectives for the training program that will be in line with the overall goal or objectives of the organization or the department. So it is important for you to get to know how best can I be able to carry out my training needs assessment, depending on the kind of people I'm supposed to train. And that is why we encourage you to sign up for our upcoming train the trainers course, because this is one of the areas that we get to dive deeper into just to get to know how best depending on the industry or sector that you're in, you can be able to carry out a proper training needs assessment. We look forward to seeing you in the next video. Thank you so much for watching.