This week I’m talking about Needs Assessments. Why? 1 – They are critical (and I’ll tell you why) and 2 – I received a call yesterday from a developer at another university; they were inquiring about the cost of developing 1 hour of training – when I asked them a few probing questions, they were clearly in the infancy stage of their process and had not considered many of the variables they should have been considering. This happens often.
So, you’ve got my attention, but what IS a needs assessment?
A needs assessment typically occurs within the Analysis phase of development and involves a collection and synthesis of information to appropriately determine training needs or if training is even necessary. A needs assessment will identify whether there are any training gaps that need to be closed, and if so, which training needs exist.
Not all problems are training problems (although many are).
But why is a needs assessment so important?
As I mentioned to the developer yesterday, it is essential to assess your client’s (or potential client’s) needs and have all of that information documented so they can sign off on (or agree to) what they want developed. Your needs assessment may identify what type of training may be deemed most effective in addressing the training need, and this information is important for clients.
A needs assessment will help you write a detailed Statement of Work (more on that in a coming week), and will provide your clients with greater clarity with regard to their training needs. For example, a 1 hour computer-based training session may be more effective (and efficient) than a half day seminar. Or perhaps the issue is one necessitating practical training, in which case on-the-job training may be needed.
Alright, Alright
Basically a needs assessment can save your tail (and time) and keep your clients happy. You want to be revered as one who develops necessary training and as someone who solves problems, not someone who wastes the time and resources of their clients and/or their client’s employees.
That’s really a high-level overview of needs assessments, so if you’re looking for more information, here are several resources:
Learning and Training Needs Assessment, as explained by Don Clark
Methods for Conducting an Educational Needs Assessment – Paul F. McCawley
Learning Needs Assessment: Assessing the Need – Janet Grant
Needs Assessment Idea (Free Download) – Craig Von Korlaar
This may be a bit off topic but this blog gave me an idea about having this sort of assessment before working with a client in my business. I am a copywriter but find that there is a bit of training/education that goes on when working with someone, and I’m wondering if it would be helpful to create a needs assessment to be clear about what needs to be taught. Every client is different with their understanding about copy and working with a copywriter and I think something like this would be extremely helpful. Thoughts?
Hi Teri – I guess it depends; in this case, are you looking to educate your clients on your process? In that case, a job aid/PDF may be appropriate and less time consuming. Let me know, and I’ll try and help you out with appropriate recommendations!