Staff training: effective learning needs analysis
Each employee has individual skills and learning needs. By assessing these early on it becomes easier to plan future training and development opportunities.
Planning and implementing a learning needs analysis system
Identifying your skills needs
Identifying your current 'skills bank'
Highlighting areas for development
Identifying learning options
Further resources to help you
Learning needs - skills checklist Learning needs - personal review checklist Learning needs - learning options questionnaire
Planning and implementing a learning needs analysis system
Fundamental to successfully supporting your staff through training and development is an effective learning needs analysis system.
Each employee has individual skills and learning needs. By assessing these early on, you will find it easier to plan future training and development opportunities to make the best of your staff and your budget.
Planning and implementing an effective learning needs analysis system will enable you to:
- identify what skills and knowledge your staff already have
- gain a comprehensive overview of current training and development opportunities and schemes across your entire organisation
- highlight areas where current provisions are not as effective as they could be
- raise the credibility of the training and development scheme and offerings within your company, increasing the recruitment and retention of quality, motivated staff
- increase the sense of ownership and involvement of your staff
- build a firm foundation for evaluation of learning activities
- increase involvement of management in identifying the requirements of their own staff
- educate all staff within your organisation as to the benefits of learning and the contribution it can make to the overall success of the company
- maximise the value of your training and development budget
Implementing a structured learning needs analysis system needn't be a complicated process.
Getting started can be easy. Just follow these suggestions, modifying and tailoring them to your needs.
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Identifying your skills needs
What are the skills that your staff need? Are they technical accounting or financial skills, in particular topics (eg audit or taxation)?
Do they include personal skills and IT? Assess too the level of the skill gap. It may be that the skills exist but perhaps they are out of date, or not to a high enough level.
You should make your assessment not just in terms of your individual members of staff but in the context of the team, and if relevant resources beyond your immediate section or department.
Identifying your current 'skills bank'
By helping your staff to identify the skills they already have, you'll have a solid foundation for identifying and building future development opportunities.
To ensure a productive skill check, follow these simple steps:
1. Explain what a skill is. It's anything that your employee feels they can do particularly well, whether it be in work, home or leisure capacity.
2. Work through the skills checklist [link to PDF] with each employee, highlighting their existing skills, and adding to it as and when either you or your employee identifies skills that they have.
3. Encourage staff to talk their checklist through with colleagues, friends and family who may be able to highlight skills that have been forgotten about.
Learning needs - skills checklist
Highlighting areas for development
Having identified current skills and knowledge, you should be well equipped to highlight areas for future development. You can do this by:
1. Working through the first part of the personal review sheet below with each employee, helping them and you to identify areas for short-term improvement initially.
2. Complete the second stage of the "personal review sheet"- helping you both to think about future development needs.
3. Summarise the previous two points with the individual, agreeing on skills identified and putting in place an action plan detailing any areas for development in order of priority.
Identifying learning options
We are all different, and it's largely due to the mix of individual skills and personal qualities of each of your employees that your business functions as it does.
We all have different behavioural patterns, attitudes and outlooks on life, and different ways of learning. It's important to treat individual employees learning needs as exactly that - individual.
Some employees will thrive in a structured and formal learning environment, whereas others will benefit from a more hands on approach and will learn more if they are able to 'have a go' themselves.
Understanding individual learning needs is a significant step towards a truly effective learning and development programme for all parties concerned.
Completing a "learning options questionnaire" (available to download from the employers' section of the AAT website), with each employee will help you to identify the best learning options for your staff, as well as prioritise future development plans.
Further resources to help you
In addition to these simple steps, you may benefit from some further reading.
The following resources may be of interest to you:
Learning guidance and learning styles questionnaires
Peter Honey Learning
www.peterhoney.com
t: 01628 633946
Learning Needs Analysis by Beverley Williams
Published by Fenman, this comprehensive and practical guide and resource pack will help you steer your staff through this process.
For more information visit www.fenman.co.uk