• 16
  May 2023

• Identifying Training Needs: What It Really Means

  
  

  Ms. Aditi Gosalia | Mass Media

Learning begins the moment we are born into this world. We must first learn to breathe on our own as infants before moving on to learn a wide range of other skills, starting with those related to survival before moving on to relationships, education, careers, and beyond. We have to accept that "I will someday become a picture," eventually.

When it comes to our professional front, training or education in behaviour modification or development in the appropriate direction for each situation and location is crucial. Our office, college, or school could be involved. With an emphasis on knowledge or information, skills or activities, and attitudes or beliefs, this behavioural change is achieved through the application of learning principles.

What does training actually mean? Training is task-based, time-bound and aimed towards the mastery of particular abilities. It is the act of educating or instructing trainees, participants, or employees on a particular topic or task in a sequential sequence using the most effective format.

Education has a greater scope and has historically focused on the "higher order" cognitive or knowledge-related aspects of learning across a longer time frame. According to the conventional view, development lies somewhere between training and education. The effects of a training programme end when a skill is learned, but development as a process continues after that, as learning is a lifetime process.

‘Identifying training needs’is the first stage in creating an activity that will have a significant learning impact. Training may cover functional or non-functional requirements. Functional requirements are always associated with many different responsibilities, such as marketing, sales, creativity, production and operations. Non-functional requirements means generic in nature and includes, among other things, corporate life skills, communication, presentation and interpersonal skills.

A training programme has three perspectives - The Trainee, The Trainer and The Organisation.

Designing a training module or programme is the first stage in carrying out a training session and it is essential information on the basis of which this is decided and prepared.

For instance, in the year 2019 a premium deodorant brand distributed their product primarily for customer purchase (Shopping malls such as Westside / Shoppers Stop and Lifestyle) but was unable to generate the projected sales revenue for about six months despite having their own sales personnel stationed at various selling outlets. The first step was to determine the cause of the sale's failure and whether it was the goods, the pricing, the promotion, the salespeople, or anything else. After further investigation using various sources, the management discovered that consumers would frequently come in looking for deodorant but would either not purchase it or occasionally wind up purchasing it from the rival shop located on the same premises. They later dispatched dummy clients to the locations and concluded that the customer journey during the purchasing process needs to be improved.

When the performance that was delivered did not match what was anticipated. There are times when the actual is less than anticipated and in those cases, steps must be taken to close the gap. Training the sales crew is one solution that works in this situation. In a sense, the initial necessity for training is recognised.

‘Sales’ is a profession that requires a variety of skills, including, but not limited to, product knowledge, brand consumer comprehension, competition updates, sales and closing abilities, and customer experience throughout the purchase journey.

‘Identification of training needs’ is the process of determining precisely what the sales force needs to learn in this situation. Identification of training needs involves taking a methodical approach to comprehending the trainees' or participants' current knowledge and skills and drawing comparisons with the desired skills level in order to close the gap between expected and actual performance. It will only be feasible to develop a pertinent training programme with the true aim in mind if this is done accurately. It is product sales in this instance.

Identification of training needs is essential for the following reasons:

• It reveals knowledge gaps
• It makes the best use of available training resources
• It maintains the relevance of the training with respect to its objectives
• It examines current and previous training
• It presents outcomes to higher management.

To identify training need it is important to:

• Consider overall performance
• Compare it with competitors
• Comprehend the business environment
• Conduct the essential assessments to determinant the necessity for training
• Prepare for common pain points

Different methods can be used to determine a training demand. Among them are:

• Employee feedback and manager feedback
• Questionnaires and surveys
• Conversations
• Assessments and Observations

Identification of training needs is therefore the first and most important step in creating a training module that fits the intended goal. The optimal training approach will be precisely chosen once the training needs are determined and the module is created using the same principles. If the sales team's communication or presentational abilities are what need to be improved, then an experiential training approach - typically in the form of role plays - will be appropriate.

In conclusion, I would say that precisely determining the training needs is what determines the training module design, and in turn, the training method to use.

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