Training Needs Analysis (TNA)Pleas read in full before answering__Answer all questions in full in complete paragraphs Paragraphs consists of a minimum of 5 sentencesPlagiarism report MUST be attached**Original and graduate level work required. I have attached the article at the bottom.Any questions feel free to ask!!

Presented at the end of chapters 4, 5, 8 and 9 of the Blanchard and Thacker (2013) text, are examples of what would be done in a real situation regarding a small business that requested training. Review the Fabrics Inc. example at the end of chapter 4. In the Fabrics Inc. example, Blanchard and Thacker (2013) have demonstrated, needs analysis, the first phase in the Training Process Model.

In an 800 to 1,000 word paper (excluding the title and reference pages), discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the approach and what might be done differently using the Fabrics Inc. example. Identify the sources of data used in the analysis. Discuss how closely the approach correspond to the ideal model presented in the Blanchard and Thacker (2013) text. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of the assessment methods used. Then, describe at least two additional methods that could have been used, providing rationale as to why these methods could be used.

Your paper should include an introduction (a thesis statement and a preview of your paper), APA formatted headings to organize and identify each section of your paper, and a conclusion paragraph including restatement of the thesis. An Abstract is not required. Your paper must be formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. Your paper must also include citations and references for the Blanchard and Thacker (2013) text and at least three scholarly sources from the Ashford University Library.

The paper

Must be 800 to 1,000 words, double-spaced in length (excluding the title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

Must include a separate title page with the following:

Title of paper

Student’s name

Course name and number

Instructor’s name

Date submitted

Must use at least three scholarly sources in addition to the course text from the Ashford University Library.

Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.

The Training Program (Fabrics, Inc.)

This section is the beginning of a step-by-step process for developing a training program for a small fabrications company. Here, we examine the TNA for the program, and in subsequent chapters, we will continue the process through to the evaluation.

Fabrics, Inc., once a small organization, recently experienced an incredible growth. Only two years ago, the owner was also the supervisor of 40 employees. Now it is a firm that employs more than 200. The fast growth proved good for some, with the opportunity for advancement. The owner called a consultant to help him with a few problems that emerged with the fast growth. “I seem to have trouble keeping my mold-makers and some other key employees,” he said. “They are in demand, and although I am competitive regarding money, I think the new supervisors are not treating them well. Also, I received some complaints from customers about the way supervisors talk to them. The supervisors were all promoted from within, without any formal training in supervising employees. They know their stuff regarding the work the employees are doing, so they are able to help employees who are having problems. However, they seem to get into arguments easily, and I hear a lot of yelling going on in the plant. When we were smaller, I looked after the supervisory responsibilities myself and never found a reason to yell at the employees, so I think the supervisors need some training in effective ways to deal with employees. I only have nine supervisors—could you give them some sort of training to be better?”

The consultant responded, “If you want to be sure that we deal with the problem, it would be useful to determine what issues are creating the problems and, from that, recommend a course of action.”

“Actually, I talked to a few other vendors and they indicate they have some traditional basic supervisor training packages that would fit our needs and, therefore, they could start right away. I really want this fixed fast,” the owner said.

“Well, I can understand that, but you do want to be sure that the training you get is relevant to the problems you experienced; otherwise, it is a waste of money. How about I simply contract to do a training needs analysis and give you a report of the findings? Then, based on this information, you can decide whether any of the other vendors or the training I can provide best fits your needs in terms of relevancy and cost. That way, you are assured that any training you purchase will be relevant,” said the consultant.

“How long would that take?” the owner asked.

“It requires that I talk to you in a bit more detail, as well as to those involved; some of the supervisors and subordinates. If they are readily available I would be done this week, with a report going to you early next week,” the consultant replied. The owner asked how much it would cost, and after negotiating for 15 minutes, agreed to the project. They returned to the office to write up the contract for a needs analysis.

The interview with the owner (who was also the manager of all the first-line supervisors) was scheduled first and included an organizational and operational analysis. What follows is an edited version of the questions related to the organizational analysis.

The Interview

Direction of the Organization

Q: What is the mission of the company? What are the goals employees should be working for?
A: I do not really have time for that kind of stuff. I have to keep the organization running.
Q: If there is no mission, how do employees understand what the focus of their job should be?
A: They understand that they need to do their jobs.
Q: What about goals or objectives?
A: Again, I do not have the time for that, and I have never needed such stuff in the past.
Q: That may be true, but you are much larger now and do need to communicate these things in some fashion. How do employees know what to focus on: quality, quantity, customer service, keeping costs down?
A: All of those things are important, but I get your point. I never actually indicated anything about this to them. I simply took it for granted that they understood it.
Q: What type of management style do you want supervisors to have, and how do you promote that?
A: I assumed that they would supervise like me. I always listened to them when they were workers. I believe in treating everyone with dignity and respect and expect others to do the same. I do not have any method to transmit that except to follow my style.

HR Systems

Q: What criteria are used to select, transfer, and promote individuals?
A: I hired a firm to do all the hiring for me when I was expanding. I told them I wanted qualified workers. As for the promotion to supervisor, I picked the best workers.
Q: Best how? What criteria were you using?
A: Well, I picked those who were the hardest workers, the ones who always turned out the best work the fastest, and were always willing to work late to get the job done.
Q: Are there formal appraisal systems? If yes, what is the information used for promotion, bonuses, and so forth?
A: I do not have time for that. I believe that people generally know when they are doing a good job. If they are not, I will not keep them.

Job Design

Q: How are supervisors’ jobs organized? Where do they get their information and where does it go?
A: Supervisors receive the orders for each day at the beginning of the day and then give it out to the relevant workers. They then keep track of it to see that it is done on time and out to the customer.

Reward Systems

Q: What incentives are in place to encourage employees to work toward the success of the organization?
A: Well, I think I pay them well.
Q: Does everyone receive the same amount of pay?
A: At the present time, yes, because they are all relatively new supervisors. I do plan to give them raises based on how well they are performing.
Q: But you indicated that you do not really have a method of informing them what you are measuring them on. How are they to know what is important?
A: Well, I will tell them. I guess I need to be considering that issue down the road.

Performance

Q: How do the supervisors know what their role is in the company?
A: I told them that they needed to supervise the employees and what that entailed.
Q: How do they find out how well they are doing in their job? Is there a formal feedback process?
A: I talk to them about how they are doing from time to time, but I get your point and will think about that.
Q: Are there opportunities for help if they are having problems?
A: Take this problem with the yelling and getting employees angry at them. I have talked to them about it and have offered to get them training.
Q: How do they feel about that?
A: Actually, they thought it was great. As I said, none of these supervisors have had anything in the way of supervisory training.

Methods and Practices

Q: What are the policies, procedures, and rules in the organization? In your view, how do they facilitate or inhibit performance?
A: I really do not think there is anything hindering their performance. I am always willing to help, but I also have work to do. That is why I promoted employees to supervisors, so I would not have to deal with that part of the business.
After gathering information on the organization, the consultant gathered operational analysis data from the manager (owner). The consultant used the method provided in Figure 4-3. What follows is a portion of the completed form.

JOB TITLE: SUPERVISOR	SPECIFIC DUTY: BE SURE WORK IS COMPLETED AND SENT TO THE CUSTOMER ON TIME
Tasks	Subtasks	KSAs
Organize jobs in manner that ensures completion on time	Examine jobs and assess time required	Knowledge of types of jobs we get Knowledge of times required for jobs to be completed
	Sort and give jobs to appropriate employees	Organization and prioritizing skills Knowledge of employees’ capabilities
Monitor progress of work	Talk to employees about their progress on jobs	Knowledge of proper feedback Effective feedback skills Helping attitude
	Examine specific job products during production to ensure quality	Knowledge of quality standards Quality assessment skills
Listen effectively	Provide feedback to employees about performance	Knowledge of effective listening skills Knowledge of conflict styles Conflict resolution skills Knowledge of proper feedback Effective feedback skills Positive attitude for treating employees with respect
And so forth . . .

Next, the consultant met with the supervisors, first as a single group of nine to do an operational analysis and then individually to discuss individual performance. He chose to use a slightly different approach to the operational analysis because he expected that they might have some problems working from the form used with the owner. The following excerpt comes from that interview.

To begin the meeting, the consultant said:

I am here to find out just what your job as supervisor entails. This step is the first in determining what training we can provide to make you more effective in your job. First, we need to know what it is you do on the job. So I am going to let you provide me with a list of the things you do on the job—the tasks. Let me give you an example of what I mean. For the job of a salesperson, I might be told a required task was to “sell printers.” This description is too general to be useful, or you might say you must “introduce yourself to a new client,” which is too specific. What we need is somewhere in between these two extremes, such as “make oral presentation to a small group of people.” Are there any questions? OK, let’s begin.

Q: Think of a typical Monday. What’s the first thing you do when you arrive at work?
A: Check the answering machine.
Q: That is a little too specific. Why do you check the answering machine?
A: I need to return any important calls from suppliers or customers.
Q: What do these calls deal with?
A: Complaints usually, although some are checking on the status of their job.
Q: Anybody else do anything different from that?
A: No.
Q: What do you do next?
A: Examine the jobs that have come in and prioritize them based on their complexity and due date.
Q: The task, then, is organizing and prioritizing the new jobs you received. What next?
A: Meet with each subordinate, see how they are doing, and distribute the new work.
Q: Tell me what “see how they are doing” means.
A: I make sure that they are on schedule with their work. I check their progress on the jobs they are working on.
Q: OK, so check on progress of subordinates is the task. What next?
A: After all the work is distributed, I check to see what orders are due to be completed and sent out today.
Q: OK, but I guess that assumes everyone is on schedule. What do you do if someone is behind in their job?
A: Depends how far behind the job is. If it is serious, I may simply take the job away and give it to someone I think can do the job faster.
A: I do not do that. I find out what the problem is and help the person get back on track.
Q: So you spend some time training that person?
A: Well, sort of. It is not formal training, but I will see why the person is having problems and give some of my “tricks of the trade” to speed things up.
Q: Anybody deal with this issue differently?
A: I do not usually have the time to do any training. I will give it to someone who can do it, or in some cases, just do the job myself. Sometimes that is faster. After all, we have all this useless paperwork that we have to do.
Q: I want to come back to the paperwork, but first, are you saying that no standard exists for dealing with employees who are having problems with particular jobs?
A: Sure there is. The boss expects us to train them, but with the pressure for production, we often do not have time to do that.
A: Well, I agree with that. Even though I do stop and spend time helping, I often feel the pressure to rush and probably do not do a good job of it. I do try and tell them what they need to do to improve in the particular area.

Although the format used in the session starts first thing in the morning and continues through a typical day, clues often emerge as to other tasks that are done. The mentioning of “tell them what they need to do to improve” causes the consultant to focus on that task and what other tasks are related to it, because the owner did indicate that providing feedback was an important task.

Q: OK, let’s look at the issue of telling them how to improve. We could think of that as giving feedback to employees. What other tasks require you to discuss things with subordinates?
A: We are supposed to deal with their concerns.
A: Yeah, that’s right, and also we are supposed to meet one-on-one with them and discuss their performance. Trouble is, these new employees are know-it-alls and not willing to listen.
A: You’re right about that. On more than one occasion, many of us resort to yelling at these guys to get them to respond.
A: Boy, is that ever true.
Q: What about the paperwork?
A: Well, it is stupid. A clerk could do it, but we are expected to do it. If we do not, then billing and other problems come up, so we have to do it or else. …
A: Yeah, it takes away from us being out here where we are needed.

And so forth. …

Other questions that might be asked:

What is the next thing you would do in the afternoon?

The next?

What is the last thing you do in the day?

That pretty much describes a typical day (Monday in this case). Is there anything you would do at the beginning of the week (Monday) that is not done at other times?

How about at the end of the week? Is there anything you do then that is not done during the rest of the week?

Is there anything that you do only once or twice a week that we missed?

Now think about the beginning of the month. What do you do at the beginning of the month that is not done at other times?

How about the end of the month?

Is there anything that is done only a few times a month that we might have missed?

The beginning of the year?

The end of the year?

Are there any tasks that we may have missed because they occur only once in a while?

You will note that often it is necessary to redefine the task statements for the incumbent. This art comes with practice. The following list contains some of the tasks and relevant KSAs obtained from the TNA.

Tasks	KSAs
Deal with customer complaints	Knowledge of effective listening processes Knowledge of conflict resolution strategies Listening skills Conflict resolution skills
Organize and prioritize jobs	Knowledge of types of jobs received Knowledge of time required for various jobs Organization and planning skills
Check on progress of subordinates’ work and provide feedback on performance	Knowledge of proper feedback processes Communication skills
Deal with concerns of employees	Positive attitude toward treating employees with respect Knowledge of effective listening processes Knowledge of communication strategies Positive attitude toward helping employees

Next, for the person analysis, individual meetings with supervisors and one with the owner (supervisor of the supervisors) were conducted. The questions came right from the job analysis and asked about the supervisors’ knowledge of the areas identified, the skills needed, and their attitudes toward issues identified as important in their job. The introduction to the interview was as follows:

From the interviews, I have listed a number of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are necessary to be an effective supervisor here at Fabrics, Inc. I would like to ask you how proficient you believe you are in each of them. By the way, do not feel bad if you have no understanding of many of these concepts; many do not. Remember, the information gathered will be used to determine how to help you be a better supervisor, so candid responses are encouraged. In terms of having knowledge of the following, indicate to me if you have no understanding, a very low level of understanding, some understanding, a fair amount of understanding, or complete understanding.

The results of the TNA identified a number of KSAs (training needs) that were deficient, as well as some nontraining needs.

Addressing Nontraining Needs

The following nontraining issues need to be addressed to help ensure that supervisory training will be transferred to the job:

Have owner (either with others or on his own) determine the goals and objectives of the company and which aspects of performance should be focused on.
Set up a formal appraisal system where, in one session, the owner sits down with each supervisor to discuss performance and set objectives. In another session, performance development is discussed.
Use objectives set for the year and clarify how rewards (bonus, pay raises, and so forth) will be tied to the objectives.
Set up similar sessions for supervisors and subordinates in terms of developmental performance review (at a minimum). Also, consider incentives based on performance appraisals.
Hire someone to relieve the supervisors of some of their paperwork so they can spend more time on the floor.
And so forth. . . .

Training Needs

Several training needs were evident from the needs analysis beyond what was indicated by the owner. Specific to those issues, however, supervisors were particularly candid in indicating that they had never been exposed to any type of feedback or communication skills. They had no knowledge or skills in these areas. Attitudes in this area were mixed. Some believed that the best way to provide feedback is to “call it like it is.” “Some of these guys are simply not willing to listen, and you need to be tough” was a typical comment from these supervisors. Others believed that treating subordinates the way you would like to be treated goes a long way in gaining their support and willingness to listen.

A partial list of training needs includes lack of knowledge and skill in:

Effective listening
Communication
Conflict resolution
Effective feedback
Employee performance measurement
Employee motivation . . . and so forth

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