Training Need Analysis

A TNA is a systematic method for determining which gaps need to be bridged in order to bring performance at a level of a specific activity, or set of activities, and given an expected level.

• TNA Framework

Organization analysis: An initial investigation named organization analysis shall be conducted in order to identify the organization goals, related plans, and current status. A discrepancy analysis shall follow, in order to identify relevant areas of focus.

Operations analysis: In parallel, an operations analysis examines specific jobs and activities in order to determine the KSA (Knowledge/Skills/Abilities) requirements with respect to job performance expectations and benchmarks.

Individual analysis: In addition, an individual analysis is undertaken in order to examine the adequacy between KSA's and actual organization chart. Personal interviews by an external interviewer will be conducted. It is a mean of obtaining high quality information about each team member.

• TNA Outputs

The TNA shall distinguish between three separate degrees of training needs: Irrelevant training needs; micro training needs; and macro training needs.

Irrelevant training needs: The purpose of the TNA is to identify actual training needs. Therefore the TNA may identify areas where training would not contribute to performance improvement.

Micro training needs: These exist for just one person, or for a very small population. For instance, a manager in a specialized department may develop a micro training need when some new technology is introduced into that field.

Macro training needs: These typically apply to larger groups of employees under identical job classification.