Skill-building is a top priority for L&D and HR leaders, yet many organizations still struggle to find the right approach to address widening skills gaps.

This doesn’t need to be the case—with a training needs analysis, identifying the skills gaps that need to be filled to meet business objectives is a simple process. Let’s dive in.

A training needs analysis (TNA) is a structured assessment that pinpoints gaps in employee skills and competencies in order to identify training programs and methods that will close those gaps. A TNA can be conducted across an entire workforce, within specific departments, or at the individual level depending on the use case and need.

This exercise helps you determine if your organization’s training methods meet the unique skills needs of your workforce and whether your training strategy is cost-effective.

A training needs analysis can also reveal skills gap areas that require more than just an update to training policies. If this is the case, your organization can supplement training efforts with access to education such as degrees, professional certificates, and other credentials.

You can conduct an effective training needs analysis in five easy steps.

Step 1: Understand your organizational goals

Start by taking a step back to define the business outcomes you need to achieve through training. This might include things like filling more roles internally, improving customer service, or building skills to support the roll-out of a new technology.

Anchoring your training needs analysis in your broader business outcomes helps you better assess which training methods are most effective for achieving those outcomes.

Step 2: Identify high-need skills and competencies

You can’t identify skills gaps if you don’t know which skills you need in the first place. This critical step focuses on pinpointing the specific skills and competencies that your workforce needs to succeed in their existing roles as well as future ones. 

Many organizations use competency mapping to identify their skills gaps. Your company might already have a similar process in place; if that’s the case, make sure that your process pinpoints the skills needed for employee and business growth.

Step 3: Assess employee skills

Once you’ve identified the skills and competencies needed for your workforce, you can then conduct an assessment to understand where your skills gaps are. There are lots of different types of assessments; the key is to pick the right one (or a combination of multiple) for your particular needs. 

Step 4: Evaluating training methods and content

Now that you have a clearer picture of your organization’s skills gaps, it’s time to evaluate what training is needed to close them.

This involves determining whether your existing training programs are efficient and potentially evaluating new ones. It’s important to consider how training is delivered, in addition to the actual training content. For example, you might have the right content in place, but the way that it’s delivered is difficult to access or doesn’t align with the learning styles of your employees.

Step 5: Reassess and make adjustments

A training needs analysis shouldn’t be a one-time thing. You should regularly evaluate the effectiveness of your training initiatives. Some questions to ask include:

Continuous reassessment ensures that your training remains relevant, cost-effective, and impactful.

It’s tempting to jump straight into skill-building when there are noticeable gaps in the workforce. But without doing a proper assessment to develop the right training strategy, those efforts might not be aligned with your business objectives. 

A training needs analysis makes it easy to find the skills gaps that are standing in the way of employee and business growth. 

Want to fast track skill-building? Download this step-by-step guide on how to implement effective and efficient skills training for your workforce.