How to Conduct a Training Needs Analysis + Templates

Skill gaps are haunting businesses. According to McKinsey & Company, 87% of companies currently have or expect to see deficiencies in their workforce.

The solution? A training needs analysis.

This powerful tool helps you maximize ROI on training by identifying skill gaps, pinpointing root causes and designing training programs that align with your company’s goals.

In this article, we'll explore the different types and methods of training needs analyses and show you how to conduct one for your business. You’ll also find tips and templates along the way to help you carry out your TNAs and develop exceptional training programs.

Table of Contents

• What Is a Training Needs Analysis (TNA)?
  
• Training Needs Analysis Methods
  
• How to Conduct a Training Needs Analysis
  
• 4 Training Needs Analysis Templates
  
• 15 Training Needs Analysis Questions to Ask
  

Quick Read

• A training needs analysis (TNA) is the practice of identifying, analyzing and proposing solutions for skill and knowledge gaps in an employee or within an organization.
• While a training needs assessment focuses on identifying the specific skills, knowledge and competencies employees need to perform their jobs effectively, a training needs analysis goes a layer deeper and explores why those needs exist in the first place.
• The different types of training needs analysis include organizational analysis, task or job analysis, individual or person analysis, performance analysis and compliance analysis.
• Some training needs analysis methods include surveys, interviews, focus groups, performance reviews, observations, tests and quizzes, customer feedback, reports, metrics and work samples.
• The six steps to conducting a training needs analysis include defining goals, reviewing job roles, analyzing assessment data, talking to employees and stakeholders, prioritizing training needs and developing a training plan.
• Visme lets you create professional training needs analysis documents with the help of ready-made templates, advanced customization, branding and other features. You can also use Visme to create presentations, infographics, training plans, employee handbooks and all kinds of training materials compatible with your LMS.

What Is a Training Needs Analysis (TNA)?

A training needs analysis (TNA) allows you to identify gaps between current and desired skills, knowledge and performance in an employee or within an organization.

It also helps you understand why the gaps exist and determine which training methods are needed to bridge those gaps, such as workshops, online courses or on-the-job training.

A TNA aligns training with business objectives so you can focus resources like time, budget and tools where they’re most relevant and impactful.

Training Needs Analysis vs. Training Needs Assessment

A training needs assessment focuses on identifying the specific skills, knowledge and competencies individuals or teams need to perform their jobs effectively.

It involves conducting surveys, interviews, observations and performance evaluations to assess the current state of employee capabilities and pinpoint where there’s a need for training.

A training needs analysis goes a layer deeper and explores why those needs exist in the first place. It looks at the root cause of the problem or training gap.

It also helps your business come up with a plan of action to fulfill those needs, such as by implementing a specific type of training within a certain time period.

Types of Training Needs Analysis

There are different types of training needs analysis, each tailored to identify and address specific training requirements in a company. Here’s a quick breakdown of those types:

• Organizational Analysis: This type of analysis aligns training with the organization’s overall goals and strategic direction. For example, if your company wants to expand into new markets, you might need to train employees on cross-cultural communication and global business practices.
• Task or Job Analysis: This involves breaking down a specific job or role. The goal is to identify the skills needed to do the job well. Let's say you're analyzing the role of a customer service rep. You might discover they need training on active listening, conflict resolution and the company's CRM software to excel in their position.
• Individual or Person Analysis: This involves understanding individual employees’ unique learning needs and preferences to create personalized training plans. For instance, a new hire might need training on company policies and procedures, while a seasoned employee might benefit from leadership development.
• Performance Analysis: This involves identifying why there’s a performance gap and determining if training is the appropriate solution. For example, if sales are down, it could be due to outdated product knowledge or a lack of motivation. By identifying the root cause, you can create training that targets the specific issue and improves performance.
• Compliance Analysis: Here, the focus is to identify what training is needed to keep employees compliant with any legal, regulatory and policy requirements. For instance, if you're in the healthcare industry, you might need to train employees on HIPAA regulations to protect patient privacy.

Training Needs Analysis Methods

There are dozens of ways to collect data for a training needs analysis. Here are some common methods organizations use to gather TNA insights:

• Surveys and questionnaires: Surveys help you quickly gather information from a large group of employees and identifying common training needs, preferences and gaps in knowledge or skills. Use Visme’s survey templates to collect this data easily online. Here’s a template you can customize right away.

• Interviews: One-on-one interviews give you a more in-depth and personal understanding of individual training needs. Ask open-ended questions to gain deeper insights into employee experiences, challenges and goals.
• Focus groups: Bring together employees with similar roles or experiences to discuss training needs and share insights. This creates a collaborative environment where participants can build upon each other's ideas and identify common themes.
• Performance reviews and appraisals: Study performance evaluations and talk to managers to understand your employee’s strengths, weaknesses and needs. You might detect patterns in performance that may indicate a need for training.

• Observations: Monitor employees on the job to get a firsthand look at how they perform their tasks and interact with others. This lets you uncover gaps in skills, knowledge or processes that may not be apparent through other methods.
• Skill assessments: Conduct tests, quizzes or simulations to measure your employee’s proficiency in specific areas. They’re more engaging and objective than surveys and can help you pinpoint exactly where there’s a skill or knowledge gap.
• Customer feedback: Analyzing customer feedback from surveys, reviews or complaints can reveal areas where employees may need additional training to better serve clients and improve customer satisfaction. Collect customer feedback easily with Visme’s feedback form templates.

• Reports, KPIs and metrics: Analyzing performance metrics, such as from the marketing campaigns or sales reports, is a data-driven approach that can help you pinpoint areas for improvement.

• Work samples: Reviewing work, such as projects, presentations or written materials, is a practical way to analyze an employee’s skills and knowledge in action. It can help you identify if and where training is needed to improve the quality of work.

Keep your training materials
on-brand and engaging

• Keep your team informed with branded materials on company news, announcements and upcoming events
• Ensure employees have the information they need to perform their roles and responsibilities
• Keep information across all documents up-to-date with Dynamic Fields

How to Conduct a Training Needs Analysis

Conducting a training needs analysis is about more than just identifying needs and skill gaps. You also need to analyze those gaps and come up with effective training solutions.

Below, we’ll walk you through the process of conducting a training needs analysis after a training needs assessment has already been done.

Step 1: Define Goals and Objectives

The first step in conducting a training needs analysis is to define SMART goals for both your business and training programs.

For instance, corporate goals could be related to:

• Financial performance (revenue, profit, growth etc.)
• Customer satisfaction
• Customer loyalty
• Organizational culture

If you’re conducting a personal analysis, these goals could be specific to the individual employee or department in question, such as meeting sales targets or generating leads. Here’s an infographic template to help you visualize business goals:

Equally important is laying out your training goals. What are the expected outcomes of the training? How do they relate to individual, team or larger business goals?

Keep in mind that while it’s possible to define high-level training goals at this point, you might not be able to set targeted and relevant objectives for your training programs. You need to first analyze and prioritize training needs for employees.

Step 2: Review Job Requirements and Roles

Before you can pinpoint or analyze gaps, you need to define your targets. What skills are needed to succeed in a role? What are the benchmarks for good performance?

Start by carefully examining job descriptions and roles across your company or department. Study existing workplace profiles, or survey and interview employees, managers and stakeholders to fully understand the expectations from each role.

Also, look outside your organization and study competitors and industry trends. What type of skills or technologies are they using? What are customer expectations from businesses in your niche? Are there any changes in processes that may have contributed to skill gaps?

For instance, as more companies adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) in their business processes, you might find your employees need training in AI software to keep up with the competition.

Here’s a competitive analysis template you can use during your training needs analysis process.

Step 3: Analyze Assessment Data

You know what the standards are. But how well are your employees meeting those standards? Evaluate your employees’ current skill levels, performance and knowledge and weigh them against the benchmarks you set in the previous step.

Use methods like tests, quizzes, simulations, surveys and observation to collect this data. Gather insights from managers, peers and customers to paint a complete picture of each employee's strengths and weaknesses.

Then, analyze this data and dig deeper into the assessment findings to uncover potential root causes. Visme’s data visualization tools can help you transform raw data into engaging charts and graphs. This makes it easier to spot patterns and trends.

Look for common themes, issues or challenges that may indicate underlying causes of skill gaps, such as lack of proper onboarding, outdated training materials or slow IT systems.

Analyzing data from multiple sources lets you accurately pinpoint where gaps exist, how much and why. This is important for prioritizing needs and create training programs that deliver results.

Pro Tip: Create engaging training needs analysis reports to share your findings with stakeholders and training managers. Visualize data with charts, graphs and widgets, and even make your reports interactive if you’re sharing them online. If you need help writing a report from scratch, Visme’s AI Report Maker can do the hard work for you.

Step 4: Talk to Employees and Stakeholders

To understand the underlying reasons behind skill gaps or performance lags, you need to go directly to the source—your employees. Conduct interviews or focus groups to get their perspective on any challenges in their ability to perform well in their roles.

When you talk to employees and stakeholders, really listen to what they have to say. Ask questions that get to the heart of the issue, like:

• What's holding you back from doing your best work?
• What skills or knowledge do you feel you're missing?
• How do current processes or resources help or hinder your performance?
• What are your biggest challenges or frustrations at work?

Create a safe space for honest conversations. Encourage people to share specific examples. Don't just talk to employees, but also involve managers, experts and leaders.

Pro Tip: You can collaborate with team members and stakeholders and have them add their input directly to a mind map or brainstorming whiteboard in Visme. Multiple users can edit, comment and annotate to share insights and feedback on the same project.

Step 5: Prioritize Training Needs

No business has the time or budget to address every single issue or training need that arises. That’s why it’s so important to prioritize training needs. It helps ensure your resources are focused where they’ll have the biggest impact.

Focus on the most critical skill gaps that are holding people back. Consider factors like:

• How urgent and important is the skill gap?
• How will training support key business objectives?
• How many employees are affected, and what's the potential impact?
• Are employees ready and motivated to learn?
• How much will training cost?
• What resources do you have available?

Use a ranking system to objectively decide which employees or departments will receive training first. Get input from stakeholders to ensure everyone's on the same page.

Pro Tip: Use Visme’s dynamic fields to personalize the training needs analysis for each department or team, automatically updating the department name, manager and specific training objectives throughout the document.

Step 6: Develop a Training Plan

Finally, it’s time to translate your analysis into action by developing a comprehensive, targeted training plan that checks all the boxes. Here are some key elements to include in your training plan to help your training programs succeed:

• Define learning objectives: Lay out clear and measurable goals for each training initiative or program. For example, "By the end of the training, participants will be able to effectively use the new CRM software to manage customer interactions and track sales."
• Choose training methods: Select the most effective training formats based on the learning objectives, audience and resources. Consider blended learning programs that combine various methods like instructor-led training, self-paced online courses, on-the-job coaching and experiential learning.
• Develop high-quality content: Work with subject matter experts and instructional designers to create engaging, relevant and practical training materials. For example, you could partner with the sales team to develop interactive case studies or simulations.
• Create an implementation plan: Outline a detailed action plan that includes the schedule, milestones and responsibilities for each training program. Consider factors like participant availability, trainer capacity and logistical requirements.
• Allocate budget and resources: Determine the costs for development, delivery, materials and technology. Also, identify the human resources required to support the training efforts, such as external trainers or partners.
• Plan for training evaluation: Create a review process to measure the success and progress of your training programs at various levels. Determine data collection methods like post-training surveys and assessments, list the performance metrics to track, how to calculate ROI and also mention reporting specifics.

Need help? Here’s a training plan template you can customize right away in Visme. It’s designed with all the necessary sections, and you can simply add, remove or edit any information to fit around your content and branding needs.