Rethinking The Learning Needs Analysis

Performance-Based Approach To Needs Analysis

There are many attitudes and mindsets that we quickly attribute to nameless others without fessing up to them ourselves. Is it possible that some of us have an unconscious bias against learning needs analysis? We might fear that it wastes time, provides too little insight, puts off stakeholders, or that it only serves to highlight our inability to act on the findings. I’m sure we can all think of examples of when these concerns were valid.

As DIY and rapid development learning tech lowered the cost of designing, developing, and distributing learning, it highlighted the seemingly disproportionate cost and time necessary to do a formal needs analysis. One could easily spend more on the analysis than on developing the training. Better to be agile and get a rapid solution in place, right? That would be true if we were measuring learning efficacy and revising the program based on learning analytics. Then, in effect, we’d be doing our analysis as we go.

The compromise has been to minimize the learning needs analysis, at least in practice. If it tells us what the learning objectives should be, we settle and move on. It’s time to rethink both the justification for a needs analysis and our in-name-only approach. Yes, it’s easier than ever before to produce training, and if you need a recommendation on the best modality or design, ChatGPT will helpfully oblige. This, however, is the trap. The real goal isn’t to produce training or to come up with a design—it’s to improve human performance on the job.

Rather than focusing on what learners need to learn, a more performance-based approach looks at the needs of the individual learner, their team or group, and the organization as a whole. Similarly, instead of evaluation and measurement based solely on the completion of learning objectives, LX designers should look at assessing employees’ performance before learning, over the course of the journey, and on the job. We also need to understand if that boost in on-the-job performance supported the business priorities.

Expanding the scope of the learning needs analysis in this way leads to much more than a conventional training program. Ideally, it results in a more personalized LX journey—one that transforms current behaviors into impactful performance, drives success, strengthens a culture of continuous learning, and brings about positive change and growth to the organization. In most cases, it also diminishes the amount of training that is required, because there is a targeted focus on the capabilities necessary to achieve the desired performance.

The Critical Role Of Performance Analysis

For a learning solution or corporate training to be truly effective, a detailed performance analysis should be done beforehand to determine the exact cause of the performance gaps that are preventing the organization from reaching its objectives and to identify the proficiency required to reach those objectives. A performance analysis is a highly collaborative process that involves surveys, interviews, in-person observations, tests, assessments, performance reviews, and other methods to help determine how to align learning objectives with performance goals and, more specifically, how to design a training that will successfully engage employees and improve how they function on the job. The data gleaned from the performance analysis offers critical insights into:

• What learning processes can be used to ensure employees successfully learn, develop, and practice the competencies they need.
• What will make the learning experience meaningful for the team.
• How to ensure the training meets the needs of the organization and provides desired outcomes.
• How to measure the impact of learning on performance.

“When we talk about performance, we understand that it needs to be aligned with business priorities, expectations, and changes the organization is trying to achieve. Often that alignment is not there, and that’s why employee performance may be suffering,” explains Anna Sargsyan, Chief Learning Officer at AllenComm, a provider of award-winning learning advisory, design, tech, and talent solutions. “So, it’s important that we focus more on how and what learning innovations can improve this performance. Instead of looking at what needs to be learned, we target root behaviors and their gaps. This enables us to target and prioritize learning and practice.”

Addressing Performance Gaps

Performance mapping is the process by which an organization identifies the necessary employee behaviors and skills that it is looking for and then connects the dots with the behavioral outcomes and acquisition of skills that will be needed to fill those performance gaps. The methodology can be flexible and customized to the specific needs of the organization. At a high level, most approaches will reveal desired outcomes from 3 key perspectives:

Business Needs

• What in the organization has sparked the need for this initiative, and why now?
• What problems need to be solved with this new learning and performance solution?
• What business objectives need to be achieved?

Learner Needs

• What is the audience, and what are their needs?
• What is their current mindset?
• Can their needs be segmented based on role or experience?

Behavior Outcomes

• How will learners need to act differently on the job to support business goals?
• What measurement will indicate readiness?
• What measurement will demonstrate successful on-the-job application of the new behavior?

Using insights and information from the above analyses, a more detailed mapping of performance to organizational outcomes can be developed, including specific performance goals, learning experiences, and measurement strategies. The insight should be actionable. Knowing the goals is valuable, but identifying a high-level strategy for the performance journey, one that identifies learning as well as the experience needed to develop proficiency, provides prescriptive design requirements.

Improving The Learner Experience

“Learner experience” is often used to describe a level of engagement. But a design approach that focuses on learner experience does more than enrich content delivery; it uses experiential learning approaches. Such approaches look at relevancy and fidelity to the work context and environment. They look at team dynamics and provide opportunities for cohort and project-based learning. They have the goal of building experience and not just knowledge.

“In the last analysis, improving employee performance is all about creating training that gives learners the experiences they need to be ready to perform the desired functions once they’re on the job. It’s about providing a work context during the learning process. The learning has to ‘feel’ more like real work,” explains Sargsyan. “You need to put employees in the middle of a challenge, make them solve real-life problems and address situations in which they may find themselves when they’re on the job so they feel the learning is realistic, practical, and relevant. That’s what engagement means in a performance context.”