The Evaluation Process

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NeedsAssessment.doc

Running Head: NEEDS ASSESSMENT 1

NEEDS ASSESSMENT 4

Needs Assessment

Nasser Miranda

University of Phoenix

July 19, 2020

Preparation

Goals of the need’s assessment

Identifying the necessary training needs in the organization is important for creating effective training plans. The following are the goals;

· To identify employee training needs: different groups of employees in the organization have different training needs. It is therefore important to identify the needs of each group.

· To understand the current training issues: Currently, the human resource (HR) department uses different training approaches to enhance employee skills. The assessment can play an important role in identifying issues in the training methods.

· To identify the most suitable ways to enhance employee productivity: Training is essential for increasing employee productivity. Nevertheless, it can be useless if it does not meet employee needs. Thus, a needs assessment is necessary.

· To create better training methods. Once training needs are identified, the HR team will devise better training methods to advance employee skills.

· To identify employees that need special training: Special training programs may be needed for certain categories of employees. It is necessary to encourage employees with special talents to say in the company. Also, it is needed for those with low performance.

Description of participants

Different categories of employees will participate in the need’s assessment. Training needs for the management staff will be obtained from managers in different departments. The purpose of collecting training needs from managers is to identify appropriate ways to enhance their performance. Another group of participants is subordinate staff from different departments. Various methods of data collection will be used to collect data from the participants.

Project Plan

Project activities including data collection, data analysis, and staff training. Staff training will be conducted on the research team which includes data collection personnel and data analysts. The following table shows the timelines and budget for each activity:

Activity

Cost($)

Duration (weeks)

Staff training

200,000

2

Data analysis

150,000

4

Data analysis

120,000

8

Total

470,000

14

Methodology

The methodology includes approaches to data collection and analysis.

Data collection methods

Quality data is needed to provide a clear picture of the necessary training needs. Therefore different methods will be used to gather information. The research team will interview selected individuals from various groups of participants. One of the reasons for using interviews is to allow researchers to seek clarity when questioning participants. Unlike other data collection methods, an interview is advantageous because researchers can ask questions to get clarification on the subject matter. It is advantageous because it allows interviewers to ask questions that encourage respondents to share more information (Paradis et al., 2016).

Another methodology for data collection is observation. In this method, the data collection team visits the location of interest to observe certain processes. The research personnel will go to different sections of the organization to observe how employees perform their tasks. Behaviors depicted by workers and approaches of task execution used in the workplace will be recorded for analysis. Observation is a useful method for the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data.

Also, the researchers will administer questionnaires to collect data from the staff. To ensure that quality data is collected, both closed-ended and open-ended questions will be included in the questionnaires. Closed-ended questions are the ones that prompt respondents to answer them based on a set of questions. On the other hand, open-ended questions allow respondents to answer questions based on their understanding, knowledge, and feeling. Questionnaires are mainly used on many respondents. The organization has many employees and therefore, questionnaires are necessary. Data collected from many audiences is useful for establishing relationships and creating patterns.

A literature review will be used to analyse the documentation of similar research activities. The research will primarily use online sources for the literature review. Some technology companies have developed modern tools for literature review that can be useful to the research team. The other method that will be used to collect data for determining the necessary training needs is document review. It will entail the evaluation of company documents such as job descriptions and supervision manuals.

Data analysis methods

The main method of data analysis for this project is thematic analysis. It is a qualitative approach to data analysis used in qualitative data. It entails the identification of themes and subthemes from the collected data and the creation of relationships to come up with patterns (Terry et al., 2017). Thematic analysis is an effective method of analysing data because it facilitates the generation of patterns that can be easily understood by the management. Another methodology of data analysis for this project is statistical analysis. The essential aspects of statistical analysis needed for this project are mean, regression, and standard deviation.

Use of resulting data

After data collection is completed, thematic analysis and statistical analysis will be applied to analyse the data. The resulting information will be used in strategy formulation. The organization needs the data to create better training programs for the employees. The HR team is aware of the need to improve the quality of the workforce. Thus, the resulting data will be for enhancing employee quality through training. Even though the department uses various training methods, they have not been effective due to the failure to understand employee needs. The data will be critical in addressing this issue.

Training programs developed by the HR department are expected to achieve three main objectives thanks to the resulting data. Employee productivity will improve after training. Notably, employee productivity has a direct relationship with the success of an organization. An organization with productive personnel tends to have continuous success in terms of growth and profitability (Kenny, 2019). The new programs will be geared towards improving employee skills at an individual level. Hence, the needs of all employees must be considered during training. Also, the programs will increase employee satisfaction which is crucial for staff retention. Organizations that support their employees through talent promotion and training have high retention rates. Finally, the programs will create a culture of lifelong learning, a form of learning done throughout one’s life to improve personal and professional skills and knowledge.

Next steps based on the data

The first step is to identify employees with performance issues and design employee-specific programs to help them. In some organizations, low-performing employees are fired and replaced with new ones. This can be an expensive and ineffective approach. Enhancing staff performance through training is ethical and beneficial to the organization's mission to increase its competitiveness through better productivity. The next step is creating training programs for other employees to build their skills and motivate them to reach their full professional potential.

An instrument of gathering data

Interview questions

The following is a list of interview questions that will be used to collect data from various participants.

1. What do you like about your job position? Please explain.

2. Do you think training can improve your skills? Please explain.

3. What improvements should be done in the workplace to make you work better?

4. What aspects of the current training method do you like?

5. Should the HR department use other training methods for the workforce?

6. What aspects of your professional skills should be improved? Please explain.

7. How many employees in your group reach their weekly or monthly targets?

8. Do you think training can act as an incentive to make you stay in the company?

9. What is your favourite training approach and why?

References

Paradis, E., O'Brien, B., Nimmon, L., Bandiera, G., & Martimianakis, M. A. (2016). Design: selection of data collection methods. Journal of graduate medical education8(2), 263-264.

Terry, G., Hayfield, N., Clarke, V., & Braun, V. (2017). Thematic analysis. The Sage handbook of qualitative research in psychology, 17-37.

Kenny S, V. (2019). Employee productivity and organizational performance: A theoretical perspective.