IT skills and support for your staff

Before arranging IT training for your staff, you should carry out a training and learning needs analysis (TLNA). This will ensure that your training is cost-effective and better received.

Training needs analysis for IT skills

Training needs analysis can be very sophisticated, but a simple approach is suitable for most small businesses. The goal of a training needs analysis is to:

• decide if training is really needed
• find any causes of poor performance
• decide on the content and scope of training
• define the required training outcomes

Training needs analysis stages

Typically, you can carry out an IT training needs analysis in stages:

1. Identify the problem

Decide which business issues you need to address. For example, you may need to improve productivity in producing reports for clients. This may involve different staff carrying out different roles.

2. Plan the TLNA

This work will involve some or all of your staff. It's important to have a clear plan for the training needs analysis and keep all those involved informed. Tell staff how long the exercise will last, who you will interview and the outcomes that you expect from the TLNA.

3. Collect information

Interview your staff so that you understand their current IT skill levels. In a small business, this can be a fairly informal process. If you need basic office skills, you can use the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) programme to provide a structure for these interviews.

4. Analyse information

Review the interview results to determine where you should concentrate your training effort. Consider which training methods may fit your business.

5. Develop a training action plan

Define what training is needed by whom, and how soon, and develop a staff training plan.

6. Communicate the results to your staff

Once you identify your training needs, consider the ways in which you can deliver the required training. See more on the types of IT training available.