Workforce training is happening in every company nowadays. But at is crucial about this thing is that it needs to be done properly to get the best results. When the employees don’t have any clue about the requirements of such training, the entire effort can go to waste. The employers must have clues about the needs analysis because the money spent on employee training will have the greatest impact in terms of time and energy. When the employee training has been designed as per the needs of the employees, they take an interest in it. They also feel motivated to continue with the training; otherwise, their dropout rates can be high. The trainers also find it easy to design employee training because they know the skill level of employees in terms of digital literacy, so employees don’t find the training obscure. The company can get positive outcomes from training when designed in such a manner.  

What is needs analysis?

A needs analysis provides a lot of data to the company about how employees like to learn. For example, how much previous experience they hold which helps in designing training. The employees should not be taught basics if they are experienced employees. Also, a complete needs analysis also delves into information about how the employees like to learn whether a visual or textual method is feasible for them.

Advantages of needs analysis

Set up performance metrics:

This ensures that the employees have the maximum retention rate. The needs analysis is useful when the companies measure performance after the training. Since the L&D department knows what the employees must learn from training, they can easily design performance metrics. If the training does not improve the performance metrics, it needs to be redesigned. The needs analysis is the foundation of employee training because it ensures that a company’s goals are attained. A company conducts employee training to ensure that its goals are met. But when there is no improvement in the performance of its employees, the training money is not well spent. 

How should needs analysis be done?

What is the difference between needs analysis and workforce analysis?  

Needs analysis is a prerequisite to employee training.

Companies can learn about short-term and long-term goals through this analysis. For example, these days, skilled labor is not so easy to find. Hence, companies must find labor that can handle machines apart from adopting automation. 

Workforce analysis is an in-depth analysis, a much deeper insight into the workforce of an organization.

Workforce analysis is a prerequisite of needs analysis:

It ensures data is collected about a company’s employees, including their skills and their background, such as their qualifications. This helps a company plan for the future, whether certain employees can be promoted from within to handle the positions and, if not, whether they can be trained for it. 

When the company has analyzed the workforce, it knows how much labor from outside it will need in the future(succession planning).  

The salary demands of employees also change with time. Hence a company should be prepared to adjust to all these changes with time. These analyses are responsible before a company prepares itself for any training. When a company evaluates employees’ skills, it must consider their hard and soft skills so that it knows how much training will be needed.  

Demand analysis:

Apart from analysis based on the skillset of the labor and how much they will learn in the future, a company also has an external environment responsible for hiring new employees. This is called demand analysis. A company might need new products depending on the market changes, so it must change its portfolio. Some new regulations also affect a company, like higher import duties due to which it must set up manufacturing of certain goods on the premises.

Based on all this, when a company has done succession planning, it knows who will take the employees’ positions and who will retire or be promoted. There will be many vacant positions that the company can predict will advance. 

The workforce capacity can be analyzed by a company this way by which it knows how many people will be needed in distinct roles and how many people will be sufficient owing to the changes in the market and depending on their productivity levels. If any changes are required, and the forecast predicts a higher number of people meeting the goals, the training should be planned accordingly.

That’s how, training should be planned after doing a proper needs analysis.