Training and Performance – My Learn Spaces

Performance Needs Analysis

A Performance Needs Assessment is similar to a Training Needs Assessment, but rather than determining the conditions of training, it focuses on the requirements for performance. In this example, it is assumed that the ‘Aligning Language Lessons to Industry’ course presented on the previous page failed to achieve its desired outcome: more industry-specific, work-related language lessons, faster language application at work, better work performance, and higher client satisfaction. As a result, a performance needs assessment of language instructors and the Learning and Development team is conducted at the global provider of corporate language training solutions, to uncover the performance problems with online language lessons for professionals and propose initiatives to improve client satisfaction. Often, the main factors affecting performance are environmental (rooted in the organization) rather than individual (rooted in the employee).

High Level Design

The High Level Design document describes the different interventions of a proposed Performance Improvement Campaign intended to address the performance issues identified in the above Performance Needs Assessment, and the interrelationships among these interventions. The campaign aims to close performance gaps and remove barriers that prevent performers from achieving their objectives, reinforce desired behavior, and ultimately achieve business and performance objectives. It’s important not to rely on a single intervention to work, since a performance intervention is only a part of a basket of solutions to a performance problem. It is also not advisable to design and develop every single intervention you recommend.

Detailed Design

The Detailed Design document describes the two most viable and promising non-instructional performance interventions of the Performance Improvement Campaign, selected from the basket of solutions proposed in the High-Level Design document above. For the two chosen interventions, the users, performance objectives addressed, genre, communication medium and design are described, and the materials for each intervention are developed (prototype online interface and detailed drafts). It’s important to always take a few steps back, put on your systems thinking lens and view things from a bird’s eye view, so as not to lose sight of the big picture, and ensure that each section of the performance improvement campaign is aligned with the next. The final selected performance interventions should actually close the performance gaps, and achieve the business and performance objectives established in the Performance Needs assessment.