Assessing HRD

Chapter 2

Needs Assessment
It is a process by which an organization’s HRD needs are
identified and articulated.

A needs assessment is a systematic process for

determining and addressing needs, or "gaps"
between current conditions and desired
conditions or "wants".

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Needs Assessment can identify:
• Organization’s goals and its effectiveness in
reaching these goals
• Gaps between employees’ skills and the skills
required for effective current job performance
• Gaps between current skills and skills needed to
perform the job successfully in the future
• The conditions under which the HRD activity will
occur

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The HRD Process:

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What is a “Need?”
• A discrepancy between expectations and
performance
• Not only “performance” needs involved

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Various Types of Needs
• Performance
• Diagnostic
• Factors that can prevent problems from occurring (see
p. 130)
• Analytic
• Identify new or better ways to do things
• Compliance
• Mandated by law or regulation

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Traps in Needs Assessment
• Focusing only on individual performance
deficiencies
• Doesn’t fix group of systemic problems
• Starting with a “Training Needs Assessment”
• If you know training is needed, why waste everyone’s
time?

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Traps in Needs Assessment – 2
• Using Questionnaires
• Hard to control input, often high developmental costs,
hard to write properly
• Using soft data (opinions) only
• Need performance and consequence data
• Using hard data only
• Easily measured data is provided, but critical, hard-to-
measure data is missing

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Levels of Assessment
• Organization
• Where is training needed and under what conditions?
• Task
• What must be done to perform the job effectively?
• Person
• Who should be trained and how?

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Why Strategic Assessment is
Needed
• Ties HRD programs to corporate or organizational
goals
• Strengthens the link between profit and HRD
actions
• Strengthens corporate support for HRD
• Makes HRD more of a revenue generator
• Not a profit waster

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Sources of Strategic Information
• Mission statement
• HRM inventory
• Skills inventory
• Quality of Working Life indicators
• Efficiency indexes
• System changes
• Exit interviews

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Task Analysis

• The collection of data about a specific job or group

of jobs
• What employee needs to know to perform a job
or jobs

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How to Collect Information For a Task Analysis

• Job descriptions
• Task analysis
• Performance standards
• Perform job
• Observe job
• Ask questions
• Analysis of problems

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Steps in conducting a task analysis

• Develop job description

• Identify job tasks
• What should be done
• What is actually done
• Describe KSAOs needed
• Identify potential training areas
• Prioritize potential training areas

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Task Analysis for HRD Position
Job title: HRD Professional Specific duty: Task Analysis

Tasks Subtasks Knowledge and Skills Required

1. List tasks 1. Observe behavior List four characteristics of behavior

    Classify behavior

  2. Select verb Knowledge of action verbs

    Grammatical skills

  3. Record behavior State so understood by others

    Record neatly

2. List subtasks 1. Observe behavior List all remaining acts

    Classify behavior

  2. Select verb State correctly

    Grammatical skills

  3. Record behavior Neat and understood by others

3. List knowledge 1. State what must be known Classify all information

  2. Determine complexity of skill Determine if a skill represents a series of acts that must be
learned in a sequence

     
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Person Analysis
• Determines training needs for specific individuals
• Based on many sources of data
• Summary Analysis
• Determine overall success of the individual
• Diagnostic Analysis
• Discover reasons for performance

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Performance Appraisal in person analysis

• Relied on heavily in person analysis

• Hard to do
• Vital to company and individual
• Should be VERY confidential
• Based too often on personal opinion

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The Employee Appraisal Process

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Performance Appraisal Process

• Determine basis for appraisal

• Job description, MBO objectives, job standards, etc.
• Conduct the appraisal
• Determine discrepancies between the standard
and performance
• Identify source(s) of discrepancies
• Select ways to resolve discrepancies

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Prioritizing HRD Needs
• There are never enough resources available
• Must prioritize efforts
• Need full organizational involvement in this
process
• Involve an HRD Advisory Committee.

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