You are the internal training manager of your organization. As a staff of one, you are the main contact for everyone who needs training or who thinks they need training.Because you are a department of one, you consistently call upon members within the organization when it comes to determining training needs, developing and delivering the training, and then determining if the training actually met the needs. Of course, if there are needs in which there is no organizational expertise, it may be necessary to outsource some of the training by hiring external vendors.

Throughout the course, you will be asked to perform specific training functions based on the material you have learned in the unit. When performing the specific training function, keep in mind the various people in the organization who can lend support, such as the manager of the trainees and the trainees themselves. Indicate how you will draw on their resources in your responses to the discussion questions, individual projects, and group project.

In this unit, you will design a needs analysis survey in the form of a Word document for 1 of the following positions:

Accountant

Human resource generalist

Customer service representative

In the document, please include the questions you would ask to perform a(n):

Organizational analysis

Job analysis

Individual analysis

To help you identify the type of work each of these functions performs, check out the Occupational Outlook Handbook published by the U.S. Department of Labor – Bureau of Labor Statistics (using the resources in course materials). Perform your search by job title (such as sales representative) or by using an alphabetical search.

After you finish creating your survey, answer the following questions in the same document:

How will you use your survey (individual interviews, focus groups, and self-administered questionnaires)? You may administer different parts of the needs analysis to different groups or use different methods.

Explain your reasoning for why you will collect data in this way. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods?

Why would a human resources development specialist conduct a needs analysis?