Identify training needs from the gap between required and actual performance, not from a list of available courses. Start with company goals, then the requirements of each role, then each employee's performance, and confirm the gap is a real lack of skill or knowledge rather than a problem with tools, incentives or unclear tasks.
Step by step
- 1
Company level
What are this year's goals, and which skills does the company need to reach them: a new branch, a new system or a new service?
- 2
Role level
Compare the skills and competencies in the job description with what the work actually needs today.
- 3
Employee level
Use performance appraisals, interviews with managers, surveys and skills tests to find each person's gap.
- 4
Separate training from other fixes
If the cause is a missing tool, an unclear goal or an absent incentive, the answer is not a training course.
- 5
Set priorities
Start with the gaps that most affect customers, sales, quality and safety, and write a measurable objective for each gap.
- 6
Write the plan
For each group: the skill, the right method among in-house, external or on-the-job training, the timing, the cost and how impact will be measured.
Asking employees only which courses they would like produces a wish list, not needs. Link every request to a performance gap.
- training needs analysis TNA
- how to know what training my staff need