Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Kevin Rutherford. Welcome to RG Talent Tips. Today, I'm going to show you how to conduct a strategic training needs analysis. While most leaders are sold on the idea that learning is crucial, some have serious doubts about whether the training in which they invest consistently yields learning that truly helps the business. In short, they do not question the value of learning, but they do question the value of training and development. So how do we make sure we're delivering value? By focusing on the strategic objectives of the organization first. I'm sure most of us have done a training needs analysis, which quite frankly is not very helpful to business leaders and makes us more of order takers. And I'm going to explain here in just a moment. What we want to do actually is what we call strategic training needs analysis. The difference between regular TNA and STNA is its impact on strategic outcomes. In short, strategy drives everything. Our job is to ensure that we have a workforce that's capable of meeting or exceeding the strategic business objectives of the organization today as well as the future. So all training should be based on five buckets. At least that's our opinion. And I'm going to walk you through them in order of the impact. So the first area we want to be concerned with starts at the top. We have to look at organizational. We don't start with individuals. We start with the organization. Specifically, there's a couple of key areas that we want to focus on. The first one is on what we call the C-suite. And at the C-suite, I'm focused on two specific things. Succession. Do I have successors prepared for their replacements in the future? And the second thing is, do I have to have customized training that is required for a member of that team? So as an example, let's say I've got a CFO. One of the countries that we may be working in has changed some of the accounting laws. The CFO may need to have specific training that is customized for them based on that market. Or another area of, let's say, maybe a CHRO. They might have labor laws that change that they need to have specific training. So the key here is focus on succession and customized training. The second key area that we want to focus on is one that is probably overlooked a lot but is one of the most important. And that is building out or having a leadership academy. And the reason you want to have a leadership academy is twofold. One, I need to have a pipeline of leaders that can come up through that succession plan and replace people in the C-suite. By the way, this typically includes people at the N-2 level, N-3 level, and based on your organization size, maybe N-4. So I want to create this group of people that I can build and grow in the way we need today but also in the future in terms of how we lead. So that's critical. The third thing is really looking at our business and how did we do last year versus where we wanted to be. Were there strategic gaps that could be addressed by some training that is delivered at an organizational level? So maybe what we saw last year is we stunk at project management as an entire organization because that was a lot of what we did. So maybe I look at training organizationally only focused on that specific area. The second key area that we want to focus on is what we call departmental training. And departmental training is important because it takes it down another level and looks at those departments that actually contribute more to the strategic objectives of the organization. So it's really here about strategy, contribution. So let's say I'm in a department that is, let's say I'm in sales. Obviously if I'm in sales, I have a much bigger contribution to organizational success say than maybe another department like HR or accounting or maybe even IT. But regardless of the case, I'm really zeroing in and saying how much does each department actually contribute to organizational success, specifically strategic success. And so when it comes to strategy execution, knowing which departments drive it is most important. The other key thing is as I look at those departments, where do I see my business going? If we have a three to five year strategic business plan that says over the next five years, this geography, this department, these roles, these skill sets are going to be the big drivers of our business, I'm going to want to be there. So I'm going to look at what are the future skills that are required for organizational success at a strategic level. Those are the key things I'm going to focus on at a department level. The third key area I'm going to look at, this up here, is what I call occupational. Now occupational, some of you may say what exactly does that mean? For those of you that have worked in workforce planning or strategic workforce planning at all, you'll know a couple things. All roles are important, but not all roles are critical to success. So by that, what I mean simply is this. Strategic roles and pivotal roles are the primary roles that we want to be looking at. Strategic and pivotal roles. And then we also want to look at critical roles. These are roles that are kind of like next level down. And then when I want to look at rare critical skill sets, these are people that may have legacy knowledge in the business and may not necessarily have skills that are relevant today, but they know something about where we were in the past or they have legacy knowledge of systems. The fourth area is what we call hot skills. And in hot skills, these are typically skills that are required for people in, let's say, your organization is looking to make a change or a shift to artificial intelligence. If they were going to do something in artificial intelligence, that means those people in these particular roles, let's say maybe development roles in IT, need to have that skill set. That's where I'm going to focus. So again here, it's focused on the key and primary roles. Fourth key area that we want to look at is what we call individual. Now this, quite frankly, is where most organizations focus. And they look at it by individual and say, we're going to provide person A with this kind of training, person B with this kind of training, and person C with this kind of training. And that's based on the recommendation of their boss. The boss recommends, hey, they have this competency gap or, hey, this would be good to help them provide skills in the future. Well, that's not bad, okay, but the reality is if we're looking at it from a strategic perspective, I only have so much money to spend. And so we want to focus on those who have the highest level of performance, who contributes to our business more than others. So quite frankly, I'm going to look at their performance ratings. And I'm going to quite, and I'm going to quite frankly look at it and say outstanding, let's say very good and good. Those are the three levels that I'm going to look at. And I'm going to cascade that level of investment that we have based on their role. So this person who is in an outstanding role, they may get international training. They may get personalized one-on-one coaching. Let's say somebody who's in that very good role, they may also get training, but they're going to get a longer, maybe a five-day training or maybe a training at an executive leadership course or something to that effect. And the average player is going to get training as well, but it's not going to be as great. Now, what about those other people, the below average and the, you know, the other people? What I would say is this, all of their training should be self-directed. There is training that can happen, but it should be primarily self-directed or on-demand for them. Nothing where you're going to make a significant investment in them individually because performance matters and we want to reward those and build the capability of those who are primary contributors to our success. And then lastly, the thing that we want to focus on here is what we call project-related. And project-related training is simply this. Let's say I'm an organization and the CEO has launched a new initiative and said, as an organization, I want us to be, I want us to move towards a lean environment. I want us to practice lean skills. That means two levels. I could look at that organizationally and say, that's an organizational level mandate, or I may say, it's a project related to a specific skill in certain areas. Lean or agile is only going to be applied in these specific departments, not the entire organization. So, I'm going to look at something that typically is going to take us six to 18 months to install, but more importantly, it's temporary. It's not something that's going to be ongoing and permanent in terms of our requirements for training. So, that's the five key levels. Again, I want to recap those for you. First, organizational starting at the top with the C-suite and the Leadership Academy. Second is departments, departmental, focusing on those organizations, those departments that contribute most to strategy. Third is occupational, which roles deliver the most performance and have the biggest strategic contribution to success. Fourth is individuals, and I'm going to be, you know, quite frankly, I'm going to focus on those who are my highest performers, invest in my best. And then lastly, project. Is there something that we have as an organization that requires our temporary focus and attention? So, in closing, I hope you enjoyed this video and learned something that will help you in your daily work. And if you did, and you want more, please subscribe to our channel below and check out our website for even more content, handouts, and free tools that will help you transform your job and your company, take you from where you are to where you want to be. Until next time, take care.