HR Final

3

Training Need Assessment

China Brown

SNHU

01/23/2021

Training Need Assessment

Many reports have revealed that organizations enjoy several benefits through training need assessment. The previous survey conducted by International Labor Organization established that 80% of the top-performing companies such as Apple, Samsung, Wal-Mart, Caterpillar, and Amazon have succeeded in creating a sound Human Resource Framework that allows the organizations to conduct training need assessment before hiring employees (Kusmiatun, Suyitno & Basuki, 2017). Other reports have also shown that the HR strategies' alignment with organizational strategies helps organizations understand the need for education and training among employees. This paper will focus on discussing the benefits that Caterpillar enjoys through conducting training assessment need.

There are many benefits that organizations enjoy through conducting training need assessment. Caterpillar is one of the companies that have succeeded through its Human Resource activities. In 2015, Caterpillar was awarded a center of excellence for effective customer service and human resource activities. The report established that conducting training need assessment has helped the company save time and prevents the wastage of funds through training the wrong people or engaging in inaccurate training content (Mazhisham et al., 2018). Further, the report showed that the company often develops the right employees who require training, which has prevented it from wastage of resources. The New York Times also reported that having a training strategy can help the company obtain a competitive advantage. With the increasing competition and depleting resources, many sources have shown that having a training strategy can help companies identify areas requiring improvement in a company and focus on enhancing such areas instead of subjecting all employees to training without considering the need. There are also reports that training assessment is the best strategy that organizations can adopt to determine the need, focus scale, and target group for training and align them with the organizational strategies. Training assessment helps companies identify problems that can be fixed and the skills required for specific jobs. Also, it provides organizations with information regarding expertise required when determining future developing goals.

Components of need assessment

The need assessment components used to determine training requirements include organizational analysis, task analysis, and personal analysis. During organizational analysis, Maersk HR professional collaborates with the representative department to identify and ascertain training requirements and priorities that align the HR strategies with organizational strategies. The organizational analysis also involves comparing the desired outcome with the desired skills and the organization's requirements to achieve the outcomes. During organizational analysis, the existing obstacles are identified and minimized or removed when there is a need (Sahoo & Mishra, 2019). The organizational analysis is reflected in the partner job posting of the CARE Business. Task analysis involves dividing tasks into components, which are then used to establish a task list for the job and the necessary skills or expertise it requires. The personal analysis involves determining the best candidate for a given position after training.

Importance of SMART Objectives

The goals set by organizations play a significant role in determining their future success. Goals lead the organizations in their operations, and through the goals, the organization can achieve its mission and vision. Internal determination of training needs requires proper objectives, which may involve expanding the workforce, training the workforce, and employee motivation. The development of training assessment should be based on the SMART analysis. The SMART analysis provides a clear focus for the organizational management and employees by describing priorities employees and management can comply with when planning projects. Goal settings also help to increase morale and determine employees’ motivation strategies. Another advantage of this organizational tool is that it helps improve the cohesion of the group.

Importance of developing learning activities

Developing learning activities has been identified to have many benefits to organizations. The report issued by the HR department for Apple revealed that learning activities help increase employees' motivation to advance their skills, knowledge, and adjust their confidence and morale. For Caterpillar, its representatives are customer advocates who are keen on ensuring that employees and customers' wellbeing are achieved. The company’s representatives are determined to enhance the relationship between employees and customers. According to Sahoo & Mishra, (2019) building a strong relationship between customers and employees in the organization involves identifying customer needs by considering market trends. For Caterpillar to equip its employees with the knowledge they require to complete the tasks, the company should design its activities to allow its staff to acquire specific information, skills and use the skills they have acquired to engage customers.

Incorporation of adult learning principles and experiential learning methods

Adult learning is autonomous in many organizations, making the company allow its employees to make decisions and choices regarding their training. Adult employees should be allowed to identify areas that require improvement and make choices regarding their training. However, some testing techniques allow individuals to demonstrate mastery of a subject. For instance, monitoring programs help the employees to set specific learning goals.

In conclusion, the company should encourage collaborative relationships among its trainees and provide an experienced staff or expert who can guide the trainees on areas they need to improve or skills they require to accomplish their tasks. It is also important to consider adult training as significant because it improves the organizational outcome and helps companies achieve their goals.

References

Kusmiatun, A., Hs, W., Suyitno, I., & Basuki, I. A. (2017). Need assessment of learning materials of Indonesian for academic purposes for speakers of other languages. Researchers World, 8(3), 151.

Mazhisham, P. H., Khalid, M. Y., Nazli, N. N. N. N., Manap, R., & Hussain, N. H. M. (2018). Identification of Training needs assessment in organizational context. IJTMSS, 1(5), 20-30.

Sahoo, M., & Mishra, S. (2019). Effects of trainee characteristics, training attitudes and training need analysis on motivation to transfer training. Management Research Review.