Training Needs Assessment

The law and an executive order require agencies to review annually organizational, occupational, and individual needs for training. A systematic and continuing review of current and foreseeable organizational training needs provides a realistic basis upon which to plan, budget, direct, and evaluate an effective training program. The training needs of individual employees should be assessed within the context of the organization’s strategic goals to ensure employees’ performance competency and development. Many of our Bureaus use Individual Development Plans (IDPs) to document this assessment and to plan for individual employee training and development. The IDP is a helpful tool for assessing individual training. It is cooperatively developed between you and your employee, usually annually, to forecast, identify, and schedule individual training and development opportunities to meet mission, organizational, and individual requirements.

Training needs assessment also should be tied to the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993. GPRA underscores the importance of strategic planning in the Federal Government. The Department has established a strategic plan which includes specific goals and objectives designed to move us toward desired outcomes. GPRA thus links strategic planning to a systematic approach for the assessment of organizational needs and to a periodic evaluation of programs, including human resource development, to meet those identified needs.

Training is appropriate when the Government can be expected to gain more benefit from the training than it invested in its cost. Determining the value to the Department of any particular training investment, however, must rely on the vision and judgment of line supervisors and managers. You may authorize training to build skills and knowledge levels which help employees better contribute to your organizational mission(s). In some cases, the need is immediate and the training remedial; in other cases, the aim is to update and maintain professional knowledge; and in still others, the goal is to prepare for requirements anticipated by higher level officials.

Identifying training needs for your employees requires careful scrutiny of mission objectives, personnel, production, resources, costs, and other factors. The training requirements you identify factor into the total training budget forecasted for your organization, and have impact on the amount of funds that get allocated by your Bureau.

In January 1994 the Office of Personnel Management issued the Training Needs Assessment Handbook: A Guide for Conducting a Multi-Level Needs Assessment. This comprehensive resource is available from your Human Resources Consultant. It outlines a step-by-step process for training needs assessments at the organizational, occupational, and individual levels. As a supervisor, you need to plan on two levels: organizational/occupational and individual. The steps outlined in the OPM handbook include:

Step One - Obtain needs assessment data (through questionnaires, surveys, advisory groups, focus groups, interviews, etc.)
Step Two - Analyze data (discrepancy or gap between the desired knowledges and skills and those currently possessed by the employees);
Step Three - Define performance problems (changing technologies, etc.);
Step Four - Research performance solutions (ask what other Bureaus and agencies are doing; determine costs of training and non-training solutions; involve all affected employees);
Step Five - Determine best approaches to resolving problems and issues;
Step Six - Conduct a cost/benefit analysis or business case for selected approach to project what financial benefit will result from the investment of training dollars.