Does your current training meet your business objectives?

Overview:

Before any training takes place it is essential that a training needs analysis is conducted first. This could be formal or informal, it doesn't really matter. What matters is that you must have a clear picture of where you are, or where you are going. There must be accurate and relevant learning objectives that meet your business needs together with measurable outcomes. Detailed below is the process that we follow when being asked to conduct a Training Needs Analysis (TNA).

The Discovery Process

The discovery process collects key information at the start of the project.

• Ensures the training specialists have access to key documents and resources at the start of the project
• Places learning and knowledge gathering at the front of the project
• Brings the training specialist up-to-speed on the project
• Reduces the time commitment required from the client's subject matter experts (SMEs)
• Limits the risk that training specialists might move forward without critical information
• Saves time and backtracking later in the project
• Serves as the project's first major quality checkpoint

Your Business Goals

We believe that it’s important to align each training project with your company's business goals. When you define what success will look like, you’re more likely to achieve those results. So, if the training project will be successful, how will it affect people and how will it impact the company's bottom line?

Instructional Analysis

For learners, training is a journey; they rely on you to provide them with an accurate set of directions. An instructional analysis ensures that the course will:

• Cover all information and steps that learners will need to know
• Exclude information that learners already know
• Exclude information that learners don't need to know

The more accurate the instructional analysis, the easier the journey will be for the learners.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the analysis phase, all of the data collection and analysis comes together into a cohesive, concise document that describes the course's learning objectives.

There are several different styles of learning objectives, and each uses a specific linguistic formula. However, learning objectives generally contain the following elements:

• An observable task that a learner will be able to perform at the end of the course
• The conditions utilised to perform the task
• The criteria that will be used to measure a learner's success

Instructional Design

Once a training specialist has written the course's learning objectives and confirmed them with the client, it's time to begin the instructional design phase. During the design phase, the training specialist plans what the course should look like when it's complete.

Developing an Instructional Strategy

At this point in the instructional design process, the training specialist makes important choices about the course's structure and its methods. Overall, these choices combine to form a comprehensive instructional strategy to help people achieve the course's learning objectives.

Designing Assessments

At the end of the needs analysis phase, the training specialist created learning objectives that defined measurable tasks and criteria for success. Now, in the instructional design phase, the training specialist creates assessment tools that will measure the learners progress.

Course Format

The training specialist chooses the course's delivery method during the instructional design phase. This seemingly simple choice will affect almost every aspect of the design document and the final course content.

The course delivery format should mesh with the learners' needs, the content, and also the client's business goals. Some types of course material can be easily presented through job aids and self-study materials, but other courses work best when learners come together as a class under the direct guidance of an expert instructor.

Design Document

At the end of the instructional design phase, the training specialist writes an instructional design document. This document provides more than just a simple course outline; it provides a high-level overview of the entire training solution.

A training specialist's instructional design document provides detailed instructions on how to build the course, but it doesn't contain any actual course content; it's similar to an architect's blueprint or a software engineer's design document.

Invite Feedback about the Design

After our training specialists present the instructional design, we ask for feedback from the client. We often collect suggestions from project leaders, leadership champions, subject matter experts, and other stakeholders.

The instructional design document specifies what the final course will be like. It's important to build consensus and agreement before starting course development.

Sometimes, when we walk through the instructional design with the client, we hear someone say, "oh, we really should add . . ." or even "that's been changed . . ." However, that's exactly the feedback we're looking for. It's much easier to revise the instructional design than to revise a fully-developed course.

Training Development

In this section, we'll look at the training development phase. We'll focus our discussion on the high-level steps that are common to most training projects. If you're looking for specific advice on how to format a leader's guide or how to create an e-learning template, this section probably won't help you. Instead, we look at the strategic processes that our training specialists use to create training materials for our clients:

• Create a prototype
• Develop the course materials
• Conduct a tabletop review
• Run a pilot session

The Goal of Tabletop Review

After the course has been developed, the training specialist delivers a first draft of the course materials to the client. It's now time for a tabletop review of the course.

During the tabletop review, the training specialist and client check the content's accuracy and completeness. They walk through the course materials as experts looking for errors rather than as learners interacting with the course.

The tabletop review serves as a quality assurance step. The training specialist and client check the course's content before any learners interact with the course.

Pilot Testing with Actual Learners

In the tabletop review step, project members reviewed the course content for completeness and accuracy. Now, it's time to put the course in front of the learners and measure how they interact with the materials. In most cases, the pilot test will be the first time actual learners experience the course.

The pilot test of the course takes place before the official course implementation. It provides the training specialists and the clients a final chance to review the course prior to its official launch.

Launching the Course

This model provides a systematic methodology to plan, develop, and test the course before it launches. If you follow this model, you'll have a high degree of confidence about the course when it's ready to launch:

• The course meets important business goals
• The course covers content that learners need to know
• The course reflects the learners existing capabilities

Evaluating the Course

This model stresses the concept that good training programs require planning, review, and revision. Each of the five phases provide review checkpoints that allow the training specialist and the client to evaluate the work that has been produced so far.

The evaluation phase can produce pretty graphs and metrics, but that's not its main purpose. The evaluation phase measures the course's efficiency and locates opportunities to improve learners' on-the-job performance.

How to get TNA support

Contact: Alan Smith 01536 408188