Glancing back to the past shows that the concept of Management is not new. The Ancients Egyptians had captured the basic principles of Management and imparted their knowledge of management in their bravura achievement of building pyramids in the age of antiquity. While Managerial practices has been operating since time began, it is not the preserve of minority and is seen operating as a part of our daily lives. Back at home, parents have the task of running a family: another organization. Its task or you can say the strategy would be to provide a reasonable quality of life for its members and to support the life chances and opportunities for their children and relatives. They have to manage the household budget and to take some crucial decisions about spending money or to save money for raining days.
It is amazing that for a country like Pakistan, where management should be prime area of concern, no effective strives are underfoot. What is the secret of the desirable productivity levels of the Japanese versus the rest of world? The answer is efficient, effective and dynamic management. A good profit oriented prosper organization can suffer from hazard not only to lack of capital but also due to lack of management.
A very generic rule may be laid down that bad performance reflects the existence of ghastly management. So, to avoid from this situation, management training has become the need of the day. More and more managers are looking for opportunities to equip themselves with state-of-the-art managerial skills. For the sake of management training, some Institutes and several individual consultants are now available within the country to provide management training to the managers.
Before deciding who should be trained in what, when and where, a formal Training Need Assessment (TNA) is essential. Need is to be defined as “ want of something which one cannot well do without.” Thus, a training need is the want to acquire the fresh, up to date knowledge.
Let’s see another point of view, the gaps between the goals of an organization and total capabilities of its members to achieve those goals indicate the type of training required for fulfilling organizational needs. On the other hand, the gap between what an individual is and he/she is required to be, indicates the individual’s training needs. Once you assess the individual training needs, ultimately you can manage organizational needs.
Several methods are available for assessing individual training needs Most commonly used among these are Observation, Interviewing, Projective technique, Appraisal, and self assessment. Newly inducted person should be subjected to go thorough training needs assessment (TNA) before placement.
Observation
Observation is a simple method of training needs assessment. It is a great deal can often be learned by carefully watching what is happening, or by looking to see what conditions exist at the present time. Just watching is a way of learning and some basic questions are there that must be answered before using this technique.
What to observe
We should observe the normal routine behavior as well as the bizarre behavior under extra-ordinary circumstances.
When to observe
Individuals or groups should be observed at frequent intervals.
How to observe
Observer should record each observation in a properly designed Observationnaire. When several persons are involved in TNA through observation technique, it is very important that standardized format should use.
Who should observe
The purpose of TNA may be made for the employees no matter they are on flexible pay system or on contractual assignments.
Interview
Interview may be conducted with the help of structured schedule. A questionnaire should be carefully prepared and should aim at identifying the gaps in the interviewee’s knowledge, skills, and/ or attitude, without hurting, biasing, misleading, and embarrassing the interviewee. Furthermore, superfluous, personal, and double barrel questions should be avoided.
Projective Technique
When people are not willing to share their feelings openly, this technique helps in bringing out highly individualized responses. It consists of
• Pictorial Test
• Thematic Test
• Verbal Test like word association and sentence completion
Performance Appraisal
It is the way through which, the performance of the employee is discussed with him. The appraiser identifies the gaps in individual’s knowledge, skills, attitude and performance. Normally, performance appraisal covers four main facets of individual’s performance i.e.
1. Competence
2. Commitment
3. Congruence
4. Cost effectiveness
Self-Assessment
Last but not the least important method of individual training needs assessment is Self-Assessment by the individual training need assessment is self-assessment by the individual takes the initiatives to assess his/her own training needs.
While conducting self-assessment one should have a GRIP (Goals should be defined, Role should be clarified, must have strong Interpersonal Skills and Personal Mastery) on one’s capabilities.
Critical Incidents, action learning and assessment centers can also be used for training need assessment (TNA).
If your managers can start practicing these various tools of TNA, many of our problems would be solved immediately. Our level of productivity would escalate and we could march towards having a prosperous and welfare society. Time and tide wait for none. Those who cannot swim against the current are destined to sink. On the other hand, those who willingly to learn how to swim, may find the SWIM analysis helpful.
S----strengths
W---Weaknesses
I---Interpersonal development
M---Measure
In the end, we should be willingly to assess our strengths and weaknesses, translate them into training needs and to take the necessary measure to fulfill these needs.
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