Get the ANSWER

Have you noticed the increasing pressure and accountability within the industry? We have, too. Whether you’re being forced to prove ROI on your training initiatives or simply need to show successes and lessons learned, getting it right from the get go is key.

Unfortunately, our experience has shown that most organizations aren’t taking the time upfront to get it right. There’s plenty of talk about assessing training needs, but who really has the time for it? Well, the question ought to be: Who doesn’t have the time for it?

Getting the right mix of learning activities and approaches takes some thought upfront, but pays huge dividends long term. That’s why, at Allen, we’re such advocates of conducting thorough needs assessments. It doesn’t matter if you’re on a seasoned and fully functional team about to launch new courseware or a new head of training thrown into the corporate learning fray—a needs assessment will help you build a solid foundation for performance improvement.

In fact, we believe so strongly in performing thorough needs assessments that we created a program, called the ANSWER Analysis. I encourage you to take a minute to learn more about it, then take advantage of the program by calling us and setting up a consultation to go over the program. In a nutshell, though, the ANSWER Analysis is a short-term consulting engagement that involves a four-hour workshop with one of our instructional designers who will work with you to assess your training needs, then create a short report of findings and recommendations.

During the session, our instructional designer will lead you through an analysis of your training initiative with a focus on Audience, Needs, Successes, Weaknesses, Existing content, and Results (ANSWER). By the end of the session, you'll have a description of the best custom blended solution for your project, a list of action items to get the project underway, and information that will help you write a request for proposal (RFP) if you are considering an outside vendor to collaborate with you.

All in all, it’s a simple, small engagement that helps any new training project get off to the right start.

Whether you decide to have us conduct an ANSWER Analysis for you or not, we encourage you to make sure you don’t skip or skimp on the needs assessment step of your training initiatives. After all, these days, there’s just too much at stake to not have a solid plan and solid foundation.