The various data collection techniques for training needs assessments.

There are many ways to assess the needs of an organization, a job, or an individual. All three levels require different methods for assessing training needs. Here is a list of techniques for data collection that can be used in the assessment process.

Organizations have their own specific needs assessment. Organizational analysis, for example, focuses on ‘where’ the training will be provided and person analysis deals with ‘who’ will take part in it. Certain instruments are used to collect data during each stage of the process.

Techniques for Collecting Data at the Organizational Level

In order for an organisation to succeed, it is important that their employees have been properly trained. One recent study found that managerial training was the fastest growing form of intervention among corporations and also, 98% of all successful jobs are due to managerial competencies.

There are many types of technique that an organization can use to collect data for training needs analysis, such as personnel and skill inventories, organisational climate and efficiency indices, management requests, exit interviews and management by objectives.

Essentially, these tools collect data in an inferential manner and do not offer a detailed understanding of how to improve processes or address challenges. For example, this information may lead an organization to deduce that “there is a need for aligning work processes with organizational goals/objectives” but it doesn’t provide any diagnostic details.

The techniques for data collection at the job level include job description, performance standards, and work sampling.

The tutorial breaks down the various data collection techniques that can be conducted by a researcher at the different levels of organizational analysis. The third point in the series is to collect information from within a company, or micro-analyze. Researchers should consider which methods will lead them closer to obtaining relevant knowledge about their organization: what jobs are needed; what skills are required to perform each one? What additional factors could impact these calculations?

These techniques are aimed at understanding the target of training, what should be taught in training. One key intervention considered is time management in project handling/management.

This level of job is not sufficient in identifying who needs training and when. Given this example, time management may be a critical intervention for Projects people but there are already some that well-manage their time and require the intervention at another level – which can only be ascertained with these techniques used on an individual or person.

If training is not individualised, and performed without relying on data specific to each participant in the team, it can have negative results.

It is important, therefore, to know the tool that can be used for interventions at the individual level. Performance appraisal data, questionnaires, attitude surveys, 360 degree feedbacks and critical incidents are some of these tools.

All of these techniques are necessary to make any training program successful. You can use each one individually, but the combination is more beneficial for everyone.