Quick Summary:
A training needs analysis identifies the gap between current and desired performance, investigates what is causing that gap, and helps determine the right solution. A comprehensive training needs analysis includes six steps: define the desired future state, understand the current state, analyze performance gaps, conduct an audience analysis, determine the appropriate solution, and align on expected results before design begins.
What Is a Training Needs Analysis?
A training needs analysis (TNA) is a systematic process for understanding a performance problem before deciding how to solve it.
That last part matters.
Learning and development teams are often approached with a solution already in mind: “We need training.” “Build us a course.” “Managers need leadership development.”
A training needs analysis moves the conversation back to the problem. What does the organization need people to do? What are they doing now? What’s causing the difference? And can learning realistically help close that gap?
Not every project requires an extensive analysis. But when the problem is complex, the audience is unfamiliar, the investment is significant, or the cause of the performance problem isn’t clear, a more comprehensive TNA can prevent an organization from investing in the wrong solution.
Here are six steps for conducting a training needs analysis.
Step 1: What Should the Future State Look Like?
Before analyzing what’s happening today, define what successful performance should look like in the future.
A future state description creates a shared picture of where the organization is trying to go. What are people expected to do differently? What should successful performance look like? What business or organizational results should improve?
This is also a good time to find out whether stakeholders share the same expectations. A senior leader, manager, subject matter expert, and L&D professional may all have slightly different ideas about what success looks like.
Defining the future state gives you something concrete against which to compare current performance. Without it, you may find differences, but you won’t necessarily know which differences matter.
Creating a Future State Description
Step 3: What Is Causing the Performance Gap?
Once you understand the desired future state, establish the current state.
A good training needs analysis doesn’t rely on a single source of information. Gather evidence from multiple sources so you can compare what the organization expects with what employees actually experience.
|
Data source
|
What it can tell you
|
|---|---|
Business and performance data |
Where actual results differ from expectations
|
Existing documentation |
What employees are expected to know or do
|
SMEs and managers |
What is actually happening on the job and where they see challenges
|
Employees |
What they experience, know, need, and encounter while doing the work
|
Depending on the project, your methods might include interviews, surveys, focus groups, observation, assessments, performance-data analysis, and document reviews.
Whenever possible, use more than one method. Performance data may tell you what is happening. Interviews may help explain why. Observation may reveal workflow, tool, process, or environmental issues no one thought to mention.
The goal isn’t simply to gather data. It’s to build an evidence-based picture of what is happening now.
Step 3: What Is Causing the Performance Gap?
A performance gap isn’t automatically a training need.
Performance consulting literature has long emphasized looking beyond knowledge and skill when diagnosing performance problems. Employees may know how to perform but still lack clear expectations, timely feedback, appropriate tools and resources, supportive processes, incentives, or an environment that makes the desired performance possible.
When investigating the root cause of a performance gap, consider questions such as:
- Do employees know what is expected of them?
- Do they have the knowledge and skills required to perform?
- Do they receive useful feedback about their performance?
- Do they have the tools, information, time, and resources they need?
- Do processes and systems support the desired behavior?
- Are there consequences or incentives that encourage a different behavior?
- Do managers and the work environment support the expected performance?
Root-cause analysis helps you distinguish problems that learning can influence from problems that require a different intervention. It can also reveal situations in which training is only part of the answer.
Comparing the Major Performance Consulting Models and the Evolving Role of Instructional Design
Step 4: What Should an Audience Analysis Include?
Once you understand the performance gap and what may be causing it, take a closer look at the people who will be expected to perform differently. An audience analysis helps you understand who they are, what they already know and can do, and the conditions that may affect their ability to learn and apply new skills.
An effective audience analysis goes beyond job titles and demographics. Depending on the initiative, consider:
- Roles and responsibilities: What do people actually do, and how does the expected performance fit into their work?
- Current knowledge and proficiency: What do they already know or know how to do? Where do proficiency levels vary?
- Prior experience: What previous training, work experience, or knowledge might influence how they approach the new task?
- Motivation and perceptions: Do they see a reason to change? How do they view the new process, skill, tool, or expectation?
- Work environment: Where and under what conditions will they need to perform?
- Technology and tools: What technology do they use today? What access, experience, or constraints should you understand?
- Barriers and support: What might make successful performance easier or harder? What support is available from managers, peers, systems, and resources?
- Language and accessibility needs: What factors need to be considered so the solution works for the full audience?
Don’t assume that employees with the same job title have the same needs. People doing similar work may have very different levels of experience, proficiency, technology use, confidence, support, and exposure to the task.
The work environment matters just as much. If employees need to apply a skill while talking with a customer, working on a manufacturing floor, using a complex system, or making a decision under time pressure, those conditions should influence the eventual solution.
A training needs analysis helps determine what needs to change and why. Audience analysis helps you understand the people who need to make that change and the context in which they will have to make it.
That understanding becomes critical when you move from analysis to deciding what type of solution will actually work.
Audience Analysis in Instructional Design:
Step 5: What Solution Will Address the Performance Gap?
By this point, you should understand the desired future state, what’s happening today, the causes of the performance gap, and the audience and work environment. Now you can determine what will actually help close the gap.
If employees lack knowledge or skill, training may be appropriate. But your analysis may point to other factors that training alone won’t solve. Employees may need clearer expectations, better tools, easier access to information, changes to a process, manager reinforcement, coaching, or performance support at the moment they need it.
Often, the best recommendation includes a combination of solutions. For example, employees learning a complex new process might need initial instruction and practice, a job aid they can use while performing the task, and manager reinforcement once they’re back on the job.
Your recommendation should connect directly to what you uncovered during the analysis. A Needs Analysis Report can document the business need, performance gaps, root causes, audience findings, recommended solutions, constraints, priorities, and next steps.
The goal isn’t to recommend training simply because the request began with training. It’s to recommend the solution or combination of solutions most likely to improve the identified performance.
Step 6: What Results Should
You Agree on Before Design Begins?
Once you have a recommendation, don’t immediately start designing.
Before committing significant resources to design and development, make sure L&D and key stakeholders agree on what the solution is expected to accomplish.
Clarify questions such as:
- What should people be able to do differently as a result of the solution?
- What evidence will show that performance has changed?
- What business or organizational result should that performance change influence?
- What measures are available now that can provide a baseline?
- Who is responsible for supporting the desired performance on the job?
- What conditions need to be in place for people to apply what they’ve learned?
- How and when will results be evaluated?
One way to capture these agreements is with a Results Contract. Despite the name, it isn’t a legal contract. It documents the results that L&D and stakeholders expect from the initiative and creates shared accountability for supporting those results.
The Results Contract doesn’t always have to wait until the end of the needs analysis. For some initiatives, expected results are clear from the beginning and can help guide the analysis. In others, the right measures don’t become apparent until you’ve investigated the performance problem and developed a recommendation.
What matters is that L&D and stakeholders reach agreement before significant resources are invested in design and development.
That agreement gives the design team a much clearer target. Instead of designing primarily around content that needs to be covered, they can make decisions about practice, application, reinforcement, and measurement based on the performance and business results the initiative is intended to influence.
Copy of Performance Consulting and Results Contracts:
Do You Always Need a Full Training Needs Analysis?
No. The depth of your analysis should match the complexity and risk of the project.
If your team already understands the audience, performance expectations, business need, and work environment, a shorter analysis may provide enough information to make a good decision.
A more comprehensive training needs analysis is especially valuable when:
- The cause of the performance problem isn’t clear.
- Stakeholders disagree about the problem or desired outcome.
- The initiative affects multiple or unfamiliar audiences.
- The organization is making a significant investment.
- The initiative involves major organizational or technology change.
- Poor performance carries significant business, safety, compliance, or customer consequences.
The goal isn’t to conduct analysis for its own sake. It’s to gather enough evidence to make a sound recommendation.
What Comes After the Training Needs Analysis?
If your analysis indicates that learning is part of the solution and stakeholders are aligned on the expected results, you now have a much stronger foundation for design.
You know what people need to do differently. You understand more about the audience and their work environment. You’ve identified the barriers that learning can and cannot address. And you’ve established the results the organization expects.
Those findings can inform learning objectives, instructional strategies, practice activities, delivery methods, performance support, technology decisions, and evaluation.
More importantly, your team isn’t simply designing training. You’re designing toward an identified performance need.
Sample Needs Analysis Report
What to Read Next:
Do you want to learn more about conducting a needs analysis? These articles continue the conversation:
Ready to Work With Us?
Does your L&D team have more projects than people?
Many organizations in this position turn to contract performance consultants to analyze the need for performance initiatives without overloading internal teams. If you’re exploring options or comparing performance consulting companies, you should learn more about how organizations design and scale these solutions.
TrainingPros is a learning and development company that connects organizations with experienced instructional designers, eLearning developers, and performance consultants. We’ve been named a Top 20 Staffing Company by Training Industry and a Champion of Learning by the Association for Talent Development (ATD), recognition that reflects our commitment to delivering high-quality, tailored learning solutions. To hear ongoing conversations with senior learning leaders, listen to our Learning Leader Spotlight podcast: Apple | Spotify | YouTube
If your learning initiatives require additional support, whether for a single project or a large-scale rollout, our relationship managers can help you find the right expertise quickly and confidently.
When you have more projects than people™, let TrainingPros find the right consultant to start your project with confidence.
Frequently Asked Questions
About Training Needs Analysis
What is the purpose of a training needs analysis?
The purpose of a training needs analysis is to understand the difference between current and desired performance, determine what is causing the gap, and identify the solution or combination of solutions most likely to improve performance. It helps organizations avoid investing in training before they know whether training will actually address the problem.
What are the six steps of a training needs analysis?
The six steps are:
- Define the desired future state.
- Understand the current state.
- Identify and analyze the causes of performance gaps.
- Conduct an audience analysis.
- Determine what solution will address the performance gap.
- Align with stakeholders on expected results before design begins.
The depth of each step can vary depending on the complexity, risk, and scope of the initiative.
What is the difference between a training needs analysis and a gap analysis?
A gap analysis identifies the difference between current and desired performance. A training needs analysis goes further by investigating why the gap exists, examining the audience and work environment, determining appropriate solutions, and establishing the results the organization expects.
Does a training needs analysis always lead to training?
No. A training needs analysis may reveal that employees already have the necessary knowledge and skills but face other barriers to performance. The appropriate solution could involve better tools, clearer expectations, process changes, performance support, coaching, manager reinforcement, or a combination of learning and non-learning interventions.
What data should you collect during a training needs analysis?
Useful data can come from business and performance measures, existing documentation, subject matter experts, managers, and employees. Common data-collection methods include interviews, surveys, focus groups, observation, assessments, performance-data analysis, and document reviews. Using multiple sources can provide a more complete picture of current performance and what may be contributing to the gap.
When is a full training needs analysis necessary?
A comprehensive training needs analysis is especially useful when the cause of a performance problem is unclear, stakeholders disagree about the desired outcome, the audience is unfamiliar or varied, the initiative represents a significant investment, or poor performance creates substantial business, safety, compliance, or customer risk. For simpler or familiar projects, a shorter analysis may be sufficient.
What should happen before instructional design begins?
Before significant resources are invested in design and development, L&D and stakeholders should agree on the expected performance change, the business or organizational results the initiative is intended to influence, how success will be measured, and what support will be required on the job. A Results Contract is one way to document these expectations and clarify responsibilities.
- 2shares
- LinkedIn1
- Love This1
