Training needs analysis template: a TNA guide with a scoring sheet

The framework

The three levels of training needs analysis

How individual gaps become development plans

Inputs

How performance review data feeds a training needs analysis

Reading competency reports across a team

The scoring sheet

From gap score to training action

The training needs analysis template

TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

Scope of the analysis:
Business priorities:
Proficiency scale:
Evidence sources:
Training budget and period:
Owner:
Date of analysis:
Re-assessment date:

GAP 1
Level and scope:
Competency or skill:
Required level:
Current level:
Gap:
Business impact:
Priority score:
Is training the answer?:
Training action, owner and date:
Success measure:

GAP 2
Level and scope:
Competency or skill:
Required level:
Current level:
Gap:
Business impact:
Priority score:
Is training the answer?:
Training action, owner and date:
Success measure:

GAP 3
Level and scope:
Competency or skill:
Required level:
Current level:
Gap:
Business impact:
Priority score:
Is training the answer?:
Training action, owner and date:
Success measure:

GAP 4
Level and scope:
Competency or skill:
Required level:
Current level:
Gap:
Business impact:
Priority score:
Is training the answer?:
Training action, owner and date:
Success measure:

GAP 5
Level and scope:
Competency or skill:
Required level:
Current level:
Gap:
Business impact:
Priority score:
Is training the answer?:
Training action, owner and date:
Success measure:

GAP 6
Level and scope:
Competency or skill:
Required level:
Current level:
Gap:
Business impact:
Priority score:
Is training the answer?:
Training action, owner and date:
Success measure:

GAP 7
Level and scope:
Competency or skill:
Required level:
Current level:
Gap:
Business impact:
Priority score:
Is training the answer?:
Training action, owner and date:
Success measure:

GAP 8
Level and scope:
Competency or skill:
Required level:
Current level:
Gap:
Business impact:
Priority score:
Is training the answer?:
Training action, owner and date:
Success measure:

GAP 9
Level and scope:
Competency or skill:
Required level:
Current level:
Gap:
Business impact:
Priority score:
Is training the answer?:
Training action, owner and date:
Success measure:

GAP 10
Level and scope:
Competency or skill:
Required level:
Current level:
Gap:
Business impact:
Priority score:
Is training the answer?:
Training action, owner and date:
Success measure:

How to do a training needs analysis in seven steps

The steps move from the organisation down to the individual and then back up to evaluation. Run them once a year after the performance review cycle, and again whenever a major change creates a new requirement.

1. 1

   Start from the business priorities

   Write down the two or three things the organisation must achieve in the period — a new site, a new system, a regulatory change, a quality or customer target — and ask which capabilities each one depends on. This is the organisational analysis, and it decides which roles and capabilities deserve a closer look and which can wait.

2. 2

   Set what each role requires

   For the roles the priorities point at, list the five to ten competencies that matter most and set a required level for each on one proficiency scale. Take them from your competency framework or role profiles where they exist, and set the level for the role as it will be after any coming change, not as it was last year. This is the task analysis.

3. 3

   Assess current levels from the evidence you hold

   Take competency ratings from the latest performance review, backed by a second source such as a self-assessment, 360° feedback or a practical test for new skills. For a group, record the average and how many people sit below the required level. This is the individual analysis, and most of it already exists in your review records.

4. 4

   Score and rank the gaps

   For every row, subtract the current level from the required level and multiply the gap by its business impact to get a priority score. Sort within each level. A small gap in a critical capability will often outrank a large one in a skill the role rarely uses.

5. 5

   Decide whether training is the answer

   Before writing any training action, ask what is causing each gap. Error reports, process documentation and a conversation with the people doing the work will show whether it is a skill or knowledge gap, or a broken process, a missing tool, an impossible workload or an unclear role. Record the non-training causes and give each its own owner.

6. 6

   Choose the training action, owner and measure

   Turn each genuine training need into an action. Gaps most of a group share suit one programme; gaps held by a few people belong in their individual development plans; new requirements need training timed before the change. Give every action an owner, a date, a cost where there is one, and a success measure, then total the costs against the budget and cut from the bottom of the priority list.

7. 7

   Re-assess and evaluate

   At the re-assessment date, rate the same competencies on the same scale and compare the result with the success measures. Close the rows where the gap has gone, carry forward the ones where it has not, and ask why. That evaluation is the evidence for next year’s training budget.

Training needs analysis example: one company, three levels

A worked example from a 300-person distribution company preparing to open a second distribution centre and replace its warehouse management system, while cutting the number of orders shipped with errors. It runs the TNA after its annual review cycle, at all three levels, on the 1–5 scale above.

The company, roles, people and figures in this example were written for this page to show how a training needs analysis works. They do not describe a real organisation, a real employee or any CLEAR Talent customer.