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The analysis of needs, especially training of the personnel may be a challengeable task. Nevertheless, managers should be able to conduct an effective and reliable needs analysis to assess the current potential of their employees. The analysis of training needs will help to define the training process, its goals and methods to be applied to meet the goals. In this respect, the analysis of training needs should be grounded on the plan which defines clearly steps which have to be undertaken by a manager to assess the training needs of employees. In this regard, it is important to focus on clear understanding of the essence of training needs, define training goals, strategies to use, and control system.
First of all, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that in the contemporary business environment, the training needs analysis play a crucial role because the training needs analysis influences not only short-term training programs but also long-term strategies applied by organizations in terms of human resource management. In other words, the training needs analysis influences substantially the development of modern organizations in both short-run and long-run perspectives. In such a context, it is worth mentioning the growing importance of training proper because the increased significance of training stimulates organizations to develop more and more efficient training needs analysis. The growing demand for training of the personnel is determined by the consistent technological progress made by the contemporary society which naturally stimulates organizations to introduce innovations. The latter apparently need additional training of the personnel to insure that employees do use the full potential of innovations.
Specialists (Hesselbein, et al., 1997) stress the positive impact of the training needs analysis on the human resource management and training process at large. The training needs analysis does not simply help to identify basic needs of organizations and their employees, but, what is even more important, it helps to reveal the major problems organizations are currently facing or may face in the future because of the lack of training of the personnel. The revelation of major problems naturally influences the human resource management and stimulates organization to pay more attention to training of employees and their needs.
In such a situation, managers should be flexible in the practical implementations of recommendations developed by specialists. What is meant here is the fact that the application of various types of needs analyses and different techniques can be efficient, but managers should use them only on the basis of the background information concerning their own organizations. In other words, managers should take into consideration specificities of the organizational culture, human resources and their potential, organizational structure, the current business environment and other factors that can influence the organizational performance and, thus, the organizational needs and training process. Therefore, the training needs analysis should be based on a profound knowledge of the organizational background and business environment.
The analysis of training needs should start with the definition of goals of the analysis, namely the revelation of the current skills and abilities, potential of employees and desirable outcomes of training. After that, it is necessary to focus on elaboration of effective strategies of analysis and approaches to analysis of training needs of employees. In this respect, it is necessary to start with the context analysis because it provides the basic information concerning the training needs and it is grounded on the analysis of the business needs of organizations. At the same time, it is possible to combine the content analysis with the training suitability analysis. In such a way, it is possible to define whether the training is needed, while the content analysis reveals reasons the training is desired. Thus, managers justify the need for training and they need to continue their analysis to get detailed information on the current training needs of the organization. At this point, it is possible to apply the user analysis. In fact, managers should understand the current needs and potential of their employees because if employees are highly-qualified they may not need any training at the moment. Or else, if employees do not have any potential for the further professional growth, managers may find it more reasonable to employ new professionals who have a higher qualification. At the same time, mangers need to analyze the potential and professional level of instructors to insure that they will be able to provide employees with efficient training.
Furthermore, while analyzing training needs of employees, it is very important to use an individual approach to each employee. In fact, every employee has his or her own training needs because the professional level or qualification of employees varies consistently. Therefore, they have different training needs. At the same time, it is important to understand psychological peculiarities of each employee because they may affect consistently the overall effectiveness of training. What is meant here is the fact that managers normally apply certain strategies and methods of training to all employees but these strategies and methods do not work effectively in relation to all employees because employees have different psychology. In such a situation, the use of the individual approach to each employee may be very effective and helpful in the developing of an effective training strategy and methods of training. On the other hand, the implementation of the individual approach to the definition of training needs of employees raises a number of problems which can be unsurpassable for managers. To put it more precisely, if the number of subjects is large, managers cannot apply the individual approach to absolutely all employees. Furthermore, managers cannot always assess adequately psychological characteristics of their employees. Moreover, the individual approach to each is difficult to find because it needs time and experience from the part of a manager.
Finally, it is necessary to develop a system of control which helps to define the extent to which the analysis of training needs of employees is adequate and reliable. In this respect, it is possible to conduct interviews and questionnaires to monitor the extent to which the training needs analysis is effective. In such a way, it will be possible to find out whether employees are satisfied with their training and what improvements can be made, as well as it is possible to find out whether employees believe that managers can or are willing to meet their training needs, and so on.
Thus, in conclusion, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that the analysis of training needs is essential. However, this is a very complex process, which involves a lot of efforts from the part of managers. To succeed in the analysis of training needs, it is necessary to use a clear and comprehensible plan which allows to control the analysis of training needs step by step.

 
References:
Dessler, G. (2004). Management: principles and practices for tomorrow’s leaders (3rd ed.). New Jersey: Upper Saddle River.
Garvin D. A. and Artemis M. (1997, November). A Note on Knowledge Management, Harvard Business School Case Study.
Hart, J.L. (2004). “Organizational Communication in an Age of Globalization: Issues, Reflections. Practices”. Business Communication Quarterly, Vol. 67.
Hesselbein, F., et al. (Eds.). (1997). The Organization of The Future. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.