A different approach to training needs assessment

Here is a slightly outside the box idea that we came across recently and liked (but not at first). We will tell you more about it in a moment.

But first a question
How do you currently carry out your training needs assessments?

(Assuming you don’t do it online) You probably have a meeting with the staff member concerned. Maybe annually, maybe every 6 months. Maybe in conjunction with an appraisal or similar, you ask the staff member how its going and fill in a form of some sort.

The result for the staff member
A completed form which they have struggled to fill something in because they didn’t understand it or didn’t want to have to “defend” it at a meeting.

The results for you
(Depending on how many staff you supervise) a frazzled few days where you carry out a lot of meetings, feeling completely shattered by the end of it AND have a pile of normal work to catch up on.

But is there an alternative?

Maybe, but first, think of what HMRC do with tax returns, think of what happens if someone is off sick (for the first few days anyway), even, think of what is starting to happen at the humble swimming gala - where swimmers count their own lengths…

So why not get staff to self certify their training needs?

Staff are much more likely to be forthcoming if they don’t have a slightly artificial meeting.

It will save A LOT of management time and be a good way to build trust between managers and staff.

Does this sound too “far out” for you?

It did for us at first..

If anyone has any thoughts, please leave a comment. If there is enough interest, we will design a “training self cert form” for you to use (free of course…)

But is there an alternative?

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