Put Them in a Hat and Draw One Out
by Maureen LoBue, Training Services Manager, Service Strategies

So your team needs some training. How do you decide on a training solution? How do you know whether the training will produce the desired results? We’d like to offer two methods in this article: one, put all the names of potential training courses into a hat and draw one out or two, conduct a thorough, step by step needs analysis before making a decision.

We all know that training is a requirement to gain and reinforce both technical and soft skills in the support industry. We also know that if you do a search on training, the result will be a vast number of offerings, all claiming to be what you need. As you read through descriptions, it all starts to sound the same; proven results, improved productivity, increased customer satisfaction. If they all promise the same thing, then the choice must be easy. Put the course names in a hat and draw one out. This method will work very well…if you have no responsibility to justify the training investment or link the results to your organizational goals and metrics. It will work very well if you have no need to evaluate post-training success.

However, if you must justify the training investment and demonstrate its contribution to the organizational goals, the hat method will prove difficult to use, no matter which catch phrases and current acronyms are employed. Instead, we recommend the needs analysis method.

Needs analysis employs a structured process of four steps. Its purpose is to link the business goal with training needs and then with a training solution. If conducted properly, it results in clear, specific mapping of the business goal to performance goals and links to exactly what the course will teach. It provides a framework from which to conduct post-training evaluation of behavior transfer to the job as well as return on investment. Needs analysis enables you to demonstrate the value of the training to individuals and to the organization, including the bottom line financial value, prior to the training event. It enables you to follow the progress and results as you would any project that is created with a structured plan.

The four steps are outlined below:

1. Identify the business goal
2. Conduct needs analysis based on the identified goal
   1. Gather preliminary data
   2. Plan
   3. Develop assessment tools
   4. Analyze collected data
   5. Prepare report
3. Map needs analysis results to training course objectives
4. Evaluate training for behavioral transfer and ROI

Needs analysis is a detailed process that requires knowledge of training requirements and processes for data gathering. It is clearly more complex and time consuming than the first method of drawing names from a hat. The plan must be carefully developed and carried out.

Some organizations are able to conduct training needs analysis internally, while others outsource the analysis from a training company with the expertise and experience in this process. The decision whether to outsource may be influenced by the size of the training need and/or the background and expertise of people in your organization. Its importance should not be underestimated. The resulting ability to justify the investment for individuals and the organization is well worth the time, effort and cost.

When considering your training plans, consider these two methods. If needs analysis is the method of choice for you, as is usually the case in today’s world of budget justification, look carefully at the process and determine whether this can be conducted internally, or whether it will be more effective to outsource the process.

If you would like to learn more about the needs analysis process, please visit www.servicestrategies.com/pdev or contact Service Strategies at info@servicestrategies.com.