Woman using VR to learn soft skills

4 Questions You Can Expect During a Needs Analysis

aUnderstanding Needs Analysis for Online Training Requirements

Your workforce needs training, whether you’re working with in-house learning and development teams or reaching out to a vendor. Expect instructional designers to ask many questions. We do this to identify gaps between the current state and the desired future state, ensuring we address the skills, knowledge, or attitudes needed to bridge that gap and complete a proper requirements analysis for your online training.

Let’s explore four key questions you are likely to be asked during the needs analysis phase.

1. What is the Business Goal You Are Trying to Achieve?

Businesses don’t want to invest in unnecessary training programs. It’s crucial to understand how online training will support business objectives. We focus on the core reason for the need.

Training is essential when behaviors need to change. A common follow-up question is: What should employees be doing differently in the future?

In some cases, the solution may not be training at all. If employees simply need to “know” something rather than “do” something differently, the need may be for a communication strategy rather than a training program.

2. What Does Success Look Like to You? Next step of a needs analysis.

Once we determine the training need, we need to define how success will be measured as the next step of the requirements Analysis. Planning for evaluation ensures the effectiveness of the training program.

Success metrics may include:

  • Increased production output

  • Fewer calls to the Help Desk

  • Improved customer satisfaction scores

If your business doesn’t plan to measure training impact, how will you know if it’s working? Make sure to include KPIs to your requirements analysis plan.

3. What Have You Tried So Far?

We don’t want to propose a learning solution that has already been attempted without success. Understanding past efforts helps us avoid repeating ineffective approaches.

  • If this is a new issue, we can start fresh.

  • If it’s a recurring issue, expect additional questions to uncover why previous solutions did not work.

4. Who is Your Audience?

To develop an effective online training program, we need to understand the learners. This includes:

  • Age range of participants

  • Number of learners expected to take the training

  • Delivery method (classroom, smartphone, tablet, laptop)

  • Language requirements

  • Current knowledge on the topic

  • Expert users available for insights

  • Attitude and interest level towards the topic

  • Potential resistance and strategies to address it

Preparing for a Successful Training Partnership

These are just some of the essential questions in a needs analysis. If you come prepared with answers, you’ll streamline the process and help create a training solution tailored to your organization’s goals.