How to Conduct a Needs Assessment for Employee Training

Introduction 

Customer service is among the essential elements in all businesses. The life and success of the business depend on the revenue generated from the goods or services sold. Excellent customer service plays an important role in promoting customer loyalty and improving the firm's image, resulting in increased sales, revenue, and profits. Excellent customer service requires dedication and time to ensure that the customer service team, salespeople, and employees create good relations with the customers. Better customer service can be achieved through effective employee training, receptive communication, and being empathetic to customer needs. All these can be achieved by offering customer service training to the staff of the organization. This paper analyzes the importance of a needs assessment, the best methods for training employees, and how to gather feedback after a training. 

Needs Assessment 

Needs assessment is the procedure employed by companies to identify their needs, which enables them to make improvements. It entails identifying the gaps between the current position of the organization and where it wants to be in the future. The needs could be in terms of workforce or technology. Often a need assessment is crucial before the process of employee training, where the qualities, skills, and abilities of the employees are assessed (Westover, 2008) . A need assessment is tailored to provide information on how to design employee training to improve their performance. The organization needs to ensure that the training offered aligns with its objectives. This requires a critical analysis of what prevents the organization from achieving its goals. 

A needs assessment in the organization will help determine the pressing requirements of the organization. It helps identify what the organization requires in its workforce that is lacking. Recognizing the talent gap in employees and fixing it through training will improve customer service. It will also help identify gaps in the workforce (Cekada, 2011) . In the retail industry, customer service is crucial and should be a priority for the organization. Employees require specific skills to deal with customers, such as effective communication. A needs assessment will help identify the essential skills necessary for customer service that the employees lack. After identifying the skills, the training in the organization will concentrate on this gap. A needs assessment can also identify employees who require training in the organization. Employees in the organization have different potential; some are better than others. A needs assessment helps identify employees who require training to help minimize the cost of training. This is important in achieving the objectives of the organization. 

It also helps uncovers performance inadequacy in organizations in various ways. The first way is identifying individual employees' needs. All employees have their strengths and weaknesses; identifying their strengths and weaknesses will help the organization train the right employees in the right way (Cekada, 2011) . Secondly, a needs assessment will identify the needs of the organization by evaluating its performance. This will help understand the skills the company requires from the employees, which will help instill the best-required skills that suit the organization's objectives. Thirdly, a needs assessment can expose deficiencies by identifying the occupational needs of the employees. This assessment helps identify the existing knowledge and skill gap in employees and their job performance. The job performance and skills are compared to the organization's expectations to determine what needs to be done. 

The fourth way is by conducting a personality assessment. The retail industry requires individuals who are empathetic, kind, calm, among other attributes. These attributes help individuals to tolerate the customers and assist them when they need help. Some individuals lack these qualities and are unsuitable for a customer service job. Finally, a needs assessment can determine the mental ability of employees to handle customers. Customer service in the retail industry could be stressful at times. Some employees may be unable to handle the pressure and stress associated with the job. Employees with better psychological resilience are better suited for the job. 

Training Implementation Plan 

Training is an important part of learning increasing knowledge. Training employees help better their skills and understanding of the organization and its objectives (Nda & Fard, 2013) . For new employees, training helps understand the company's history, culture, and objectives. Various methods could be applied in training employees based on factors, like number of employees and type of training. Some training methods include presentations, discussions, on-job training, among others. The training methods must incorporate either one of the learning and training styles: audio, visual, and kinesthetic. This helps employees understand what is expected of them when serving customers. 

The training in the organization will be done through presentations, on-job training, and discussion. Presentation is a good method of training employees. It will be applied when the number of employees is high or when there is a need to visualize some information, like graphs and statistics. This will help employees understand what is required of them in the organization. On-job training will involve working with highly experienced individuals in the retail industry who understand how to handle customer needs. The employees will work together with them to learn valuable lessons, which will improve their customer service skills. The final method will be discussions, which involve sharing ideas with the employees on how to handle customers. Employees will learn valuable lessons from their colleagues and the trainer. This plan will be essential in necessitating the training program in the company. 

Training Methods Justification 

The best methods of training in the company are presentations, discussions, and on-job training. Using presentations is an effective method of training employees, particularly where visual aids are involved. The trainer provides the content to the employees (learners) directly without interaction. The learners listen to the explanation of the trainer and follow the information displayed visually (Lari, 2014) . Since this method involves both audio and visual, remembering the information becomes easier. This method is appropriate when the number of employees involved is high. A large number of employees requiring one trainer cannot be effectively taught using other methods, such as on-job training. Lecturing the inform ation to them is the best way for them to understand. This method is also essential when visual aids are required. Visual aids help learners understand the content better since they can relate the visuals with real life, and it allows employees to remember things easily. 

Discussion is another important method of training employees. It involves an open forum where the trainer and employees can interact and share ideas about their experiences and the best attributes required for customer service. Being part of the discussion fosters faster learning, which is essential in obtaining new skills and ideas that will improve performance. The last method is on-the job training. It involves having employees or recruits work with experienced individuals in the retail market. The employees learn by observing what is done and by receiving advice on what they should do at different situations. This method is effective as employees acquire skills directly and apply them instantly (Timsal, Awais, & Shoaib, 2016) . It is effective where a small number of employees are involved, as it can be time-consuming and expensive if a large number of employees are involved. 

Motivating Employees for Training 

Motivation is an important element in every individual for better performance. Motivating employees is not only important when working but also essential when persuading them to attend training. Training is important to employees, particularly in improving their professional skills. However, some employees may be reluctant to attend the training due to low motivation. The organization can offer some incentives to act as a push for employees to join the training (Salas, Weaver, & Shuffler, 2012) . The incentives act as a motivation factor for the less motivated employees. This can be achieved in two ways: 

Paid training. Most organizations offer training while the employees are still working. Often, the training is done at times when the employees are free. The company can decide to pay the employees when they attend training. Paying employees to attend training is enough motivation, which shows the employees that the company values them. Payments should, however, be made after the successful completion of the training. For recruits, training should be mandatory to increase their knowledge about the organization and what they are required to do. Since the company is spending resources on the training, attending the training should not be optional. It is a way of fostering professional development for the employees and improving the company's performance. 

Promotion credit. The company can offer the employees a chance for professional development by offering points that are considered during promotions. Every training session should have a certain amount of credit points, which accumulates as the employee attends many sessions. Employees can gather this information from the training sessions or training advertisements. All employees are interested in professional development and will be motivated to attend the sessions to earn more points. Earning a certain amount of points will make the employee worthy of promotion consideration. This is an extremely effective way of motivating the employees to join the training. 

Feedback Survey 

A feedback survey is essential in obtaining feedback about the training. It helps the employer know the effectiveness of the training. The management also learns what was accomplished in training and what is required in future training to make the training better for the employees. Other information obtained in the survey is the challenges that employees underwent during the training and whether more training is required to enhance customer service. The survey will be through a questionnaire, and the questions are as follows: 

Were the goals of the training well explained? Why? 

Did the trainer leave room for discussions and interaction? How effective were the interactions? 

What topics were covered in training? Were they relevant? 

What aids were used during the training? Were they helpful? 

How organized was the training? Why? 

Will the training benefit your work in any way? If yes, how? 

Was the trainer knowledgeable? How did this help? 

Were you satisfied with the training? Explain. 

Were the goals of the training met? Explain. 

What challenges did you encounter during the training? 

Would you attend another training? 

What is the most important thing you learned from the training? 

What areas of the training would require some improvements? 

How satisfied with the rewards of the training? 

What other training would you recommend? 

Customer service is an important part of retail companies. The management and the employees should always strive to improve customer service to increase customer loyalty and company image. The management could use training to improve the skills of the employees in the retail industry. Before implementing the training, the company should conduct a need assessment to determine performance deficiencies in the organization to identify the type of training required, and the methods to use. After training the employees, it would be essential to assess the effectiveness of the training. The management should ensure that the customer service is top-notch to promote customer loyalty, increased sales, and revenue. 

References 

Cekada, T. L. (2011, December). Conducting an Effective Needs Assessment. American Society of Safety Professionals . Retrieved from https://aeasseincludes.assp.org/professionalsafety/pastissues/056/12/028_034_F1Cekada_1211Z.pdf 

Lari, F. S. (2014). The Impact of Using PowerPoint Presentations on Students' Learning and Motivation in Secondary Schools. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences , 1672-1677. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.592 

Nda, M. M., & Fard, R. Y. (2013). The Impact of Employee Training and Development on Employee Productivity. Global Journal of Commerce and Management Perspective, 2 (6), 91-93. 

Salas, E., Weaver, S. J., & Shuffler, M. L. (2012). Learning, Training, and Development in Organizations. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199928309.013.0011 

Timsal, A., Awais, M., & Shoaib, O. (2016). On job Training and Its Effectiveness: An Employee Perspective. South Asian Journal of Banking and Social Sciences, 2 (1). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305699923_On_job_Training_and_Its_Effectiveness_An_Employee_Perspective 

Westover, J. H. (2008). Effective Human Resource Training and Development: Examination and Application of Adult Learning Theory in the HR Management Context. The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning, 4 (1), 1-8.