Why conduct a needs assessment?
Needs assessments can serve as a valuable tool to help manage the rapid changes taking place within organizations today – including mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, downsizing, globalization, and technological advances, just to name a few. Needs assessments are appropriate when: • You have been asked to implement a training solution; • You have been asked to help with a performance issue; or • Your organization is implementing a change that will have a large impact on one or more areas. Many needs assessments are developed by generating a list of competencies required to perform a job well. To develop this list, the needs assessor typically asks the person whose job is being assessed (and/or his or her supervisor) what skills and knowledge are required to adequately perform this job. The list of competencies is then compared to the training content to determine if the appropriate skills and knowledge are covered. Although this form of needs assessment is expeditious,
