Needs Assessment

C. Hall Jones & Associates conducts needs assessments as arranged with our clients. Some projects require a full needs assessment, some projects require an abbreviated needs assessment, and some projects require no needs assessment at all.

A needs assessment is conducted to identify which individual and/or organizational need(s) may be successfully addressed through education and training to improve employee safety, effectiveness, efficiency, and/or productivity.

The focus is placed on needs as opposed to desires. The need may be improving safety, effectiveness, efficiency and/or productivity, or the need may be addressing a specific identified individual and/or organizational deficiency.

A needs assessment helps both the organization and the education and training designer to specifically identify the training need and/or the performance deficiency.

Needs assessments are conducted for one or more of three primary reasons:

• To determine if education and training will make a difference in safety and/or productivity and/or the bottom line.
  
• To decide what specific education and training each employee and/or each group requires to improve their job performance.
  
• To differentiate between the need for education and training and other organizational issues.

We work together with our clients to answer five questions:

Why conduct a needs assessment?

A needs assessment is conducted to tie a performance deficiency to a business need and to be sure that the benefits of conducting the education and training are greater than the problems being caused by the performance deficiency. Determining needs versus wants and conducting a feasibility analysis are both part of this process.

How can the performance deficiency be remedied?

The proper solution may be education and training or it may be some other type of intervention. A needs assessment will determine if the performance deficiency can be effectively and efficiently addressed by an education and training intervention.

What is the best way to proceed?

There is virtually always a preferred method of proceeding to best accomplish the desired task(s) and obtain the best results. Job performance standards may be established by the organization, by industry standard operating procedures, and/or by government regulations.

If education and training is the prescribed solution, who should be involved in that education and training?

The education and training must include all of the parties required to solve the identified deficiency including organizational leadership, management, and the intended recipients of the education and training, as required.

When will the education and training occur?

There may be a best time to deliver education and training. The time frame may be affected by attendance concerns based on business cycles, holidays, etc.

C. Hall Jones & Associates
HC-13, Box 300653
Fayette, Utah 84630
Phone: 321-652-3610