Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Learning & developmentTraining needs analysis

First find the need

by Personnel Today 4 Oct 2005
by Personnel Today 4 Oct 2005

As part of his continuing series on the changing role of the trainer, Martyn Sloman, looks at how the training need is identified

How are training needs identified in your organisations?’ is a disarmingly simple question. It sounds like the sort of essay topic that would be set halfway through a college course. Traditionally, the starting point in any answer would be to list a whole variety of techniques: interviews, focus groups and repertory grids.

But is this how it really happens? Needs identification probably never worked in this way, except in manual operations, where performance could be closely defined.

Let me offer some thoughts on how needs are identified in the modern organisation. The first is straightforward. We are encouraging the individual learner in our organisations to take more responsibility for their learning – in some cases, and to some extent, it is down to them. The second is generally accepted, but we do not always admit it: many training needs are obvious and emerge as a clear consequence of the nature of the business – our job is to meet them as efficiently and, importantly, as quickly as possible. The third is that all staff, but particularly those who operate at first line manager and above, need to acquire and maintain a repertoire of basic skills.

The job of training and learning professionals is to deliver interventions in their organisation so that these categories of needs are met effectively. This requires good management of resources – time and money – and a good feel for the way the organisation works. We need to understand the culture in which we operate. Many different players are responsible for driving and delivering people development. It is our credibility and our relationship with these players – particularly senior management – that determine our success. These are far more important than a detailed knowledge and development of techniques. No-one was ever sacked because they didn’t undertake a repertory grid.

However, because the underlying need is evident, it does not necessarily mean that the training solution is obvious. An example from one of the new case studies on the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) website, and covered in the May edition of Training Magazine, illustrates this point well. The BBC has just produced a winning e-learning package on ‘editorial policy’ – the procedures that must be applied by 16,000 production staff in the corporation. The need was evident but the design took account of learner aspirations (‘where they want to be, not where they are’), so the scenarios in the module described the problems that the learner would encounter at the next level up the promotion ladder.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Martyn Sloman
CIPD adviser, learning, training and development

www.cipd.co.uk/helpingpeoplelearn


Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Usdaw seeks talks over Boots’ £7bn merger
next post
Skills timebomb threatens UK workforce productivity

You may also like

Skills shortfall in construction threatens housing target

4 Jul 2025

Data skills gap getting in way of AI...

3 Jul 2025

Employers bemoan Gen Z’s lack of ‘work readiness’...

24 Jun 2025

Employees want more upskilling and apprenticeships to narrow...

20 Jun 2025

AI is here. Your workforce should be ready.

18 Jun 2025

Multiverse to open up 15,000 apprenticeships

9 Jun 2025

Education secretary sets out priorities for Skills England

2 Jun 2025

Investing in skills when budgets are tight

12 May 2025

Leading with honest feedback: A responsibility in recruitment

24 Apr 2025

High-level apprenticeship spend doubles in five years

16 Apr 2025

  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+