Analysing company training and development needs: the usefulness of HRD activities to the organisation can be justified only by the effectiveness with which they meet the real needs of the organisation. The needs analysis approach to the design of specific contents of HRD activities is recommended as a means to achieving this effectiveness in meeting organisational needs.

DESPITE an upsurge in human resource development (HRD) activities in organisations, training departments are still hard put to justify their usefulness and importance to their employers. Part of the reason is that the proliferation of HRD activities has blurred the distinction between what is truly needed by the organisation to improve its performance and what is desired by employees as a "perk" or benefit.

Hence, even though there is a climate for the HRD function, its continued existence depends on whether organisations regard it as contributing to its efforts in providing products and services to clients and customers or as unnecessary but tolerated overheads.

For its survival, the HRD function has to meet organisational needs in order to enjoy the same credibility as other non-revenue generating functions that have established themselves as necessary to organisational performance like quality assurance, finance, and human resources.

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Needs Analysis Cycle

Each function in an organisation exists to provide solutions to the identified needs of the organisation. The needs identified specify the type of results desired--objective--which in turn provide the criteria for the selection of solutions. The solutions implemented lead to certain results obtained (See Figure 1).

If the results obtained coincide with the results desired, the solutions can be retained as the need is met. If the results obtained are less than what is expected then the solutions must be changed or modified and the results of their subsequent implementation are further measured to see whether the deficiency still exists. The same needs analysis process cycle can be applied to any function, including training and development.

Desired Needs and Results

Results desired imply value to the organisation. It is when the results obtained meet or exceed the results desired that an organisation derives value and benefit from training and development efforts. (See Figure 2). Needs help to define results more clearly.

For example, if the result desired (objective) at the end of training is that participants should be able to tie a bowline knot in one minute, the natural question is "Why do they need to be able to do that?" If they are training to be fire fighters, when rescue is urgent, then the ability to tie such a knot at that speed would be necessary.

We may be able to write technically correct objectives but if they do not serve a purpose, that is, meet a real need, then the training is a questionable activity. Hence, needs analysis and determination serve a valuable purpose in any endeavour and this applies to training and development efforts as well.

Desired Results and Solutions

The discipline required in establishing the results desired before looking for alternative solutions can often lead to more productive performance. It is more difficult to pinpoint needs and specific results desired than to suggest alternatives.

Each department or division within an organisation can offer suggestions within their areas of specialisation to address a need--human resources on manpower; engineering on machines, equipment, and processes; quality assurance on materials and goods; and finance on monetary resources and costs.

One of the difficulties in needs analysis and objective setting is that solutions or alternatives are sometimes mistaken for needs and objectives. For example, it is not uncommon to hear someone in the organisation urging that "We should have a communication course because we need it. The objective is that at the end of the course the participant should be able to communicate better." The real issue is to identify what has gone wrong that we need to communicate better? Better communications may not be the solution to the problem.

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Difficulties in Determining Needs

Needs can be real. They can be assumed or they can be created too. Consider the following three typical statements from a training needs interview:

1. "We are going to install an open appraisal system and our managers should be able to handle performance appraisal interviews."

2. "We've got a training problem. Our workers are not safety conscious."

3. "This looks like an interesting new way to do it. It will benefit my staff to go through this QCC programme."

The first statement refers to a real need. It is one basic requirement for the successful implementation of the new appraisal system, besides other measures.

The second declaration of need assumes that training will make workers safety conscious. If the workers are not safety conscious, is it because management itself has not demonstrated safety consciousness? Has management formed safety committees, conducted safety inspections, made safety audits and compiled safety reports?

Safety consciousness implies an attitude of mind for it does not require much skill to wear earplugs, safety shoes and Dec 2007-Jan 2008 Today's Manager 55 check machines before switching them on. Would more training help or is safety consciousness a function of the environment?

The following example will demonstrate more vividly the difference between a real and an assumed need. A new training officer was once asked by a manager to look for a good human relations course for his executive assistant. The reason was she had been rude and curt to him and his callers of late. He reckoned a course in human relations would change her attitude.

Dutifully the training officer secured the best human relations programme in town costing more than the usual amount. The executive assistant attended the programme with eagerness. It was a full five-day residential programme in a posh hotel with meals thrown in. At the end of the programme she returned to work. The manager later called the training officer up and complained to him that the training programme was useless as there was no behaviour change and the money was wasted.

It transpired later, after the manager had left the company, that the executive assistant was just peeved with him. He was getting her to do extra work for his associate and when at the end of the year, a huge festive hamper was presented to him for the assistance, the manager carted the whole basket home without giving her an item nor thanking her for the extra work done!

The last of the three needs statements represents a created need. A new need can surface with new technologies, ideas, circumstances, or intense promotion. When widely or popularly accepted, it becomes a felt or real need. In the quest for improved organisational performance and productivity, many new training needs were created.

The broader solutions to the national need for improved productivity lie among other measures, in people-centred management, which in turn depends on human relations techniques that in turn require training. The danger is that created needs that do not contribute to organisational improvements can ultimately be dismissed as fads and breed scepticism in future for new ideas.

Created needs can, therefore, be solutions in search of problems. Another type of created need is one assigned, for instance, by corporate headquarters to have everyone in the organisation trained in a particular system or technique. It actually represents a solution to a corporate need and is passed down as a created or special assignment need.

Some created training and development needs also represent opportunities for improvement and development such as computerisation or automation. They could be due, for instance, to the diversification of the company into new products and services requiring personnel to go on extended education programmes. For such cases, top management commitment is there and this can lead to acceptance and enhancement of performance in later training.

The dilemma facing an in-house training specialist is identifying the real needs and persuading management to address real needs rather than assumed needs whether created or self-identified. This is easier said than done especially for a junior in-house training personnel.

External consultants, on the other hand, find it easier to ask the right questions about needs, partly because as it is said, "prophets are not honoured in their own country" and partly, that is the role ascribed to them.

Nevertheless, there are some clients who still insist on prescribing their own medicine to treat a symptom rather than the cause. It is a truism that most of us go through our daily work and lives thinking we know our needs when we actually do not.

Approach to Needs Analysis

Most training handbooks would have suggested various methods and techniques for conducting training and development needs analysis. They range from observations, interviews, surveys, appraisal ratings, job analyses to tests and examinations.

It is not the intention of this article to go through the specifics of each method, but it does suggest an approach that could make use of some or a combination of these methods and techniques.

To determine the specific contents of training required for accomplishing performance, we can analyse them in terms of organisational, operational or individual performance considerations against the need to maintain performance standards, correct deficiencies or improve on existing acceptable levels of performance (See Table 1).

Maintaining Performance