BUSI 444 Week 3 Discussion Board Forum 2 Example

Discussion Board Forum 2: Needs Assessment, Learning and Transfer

BUSI 444 Human Resource Development, Discussion Board Forum 2 Thread and Reply

Thread by [Student Name]

The forum prompt and the classmate are composites; the textbook and the research cited are real.

Thread

A familiar scene opens many training requests: a manager sees a performance problem and asks human resources for a course to fix it. Noe (2020) argues that the right first response is not a course but a needs assessment, which asks whether training is needed at all and, if so, what kind.

The assessment has three levels. First, at the level of the organization, the analyst checks that training suits the strategy and that leaders and budgets will back it. Person analysis asks who needs training and whether the problem stems from a lack of knowledge or skill rather than from unclear expectations, poor feedback or missing tools. Task analysis asks what the job requires, so that training targets the right knowledge and skills. Many performance problems turn out not to be training problems at all. If employees know how to do something but are not rewarded for doing it, a course will not help.

Even when training is the right answer, much of it fails at the next step: transfer to the job. Blume et al. (2010) conducted a meta-analysis of the predictors of transfer of training and linked transfer both to qualities of the trainees, among them cognitive ability, conscientiousness and drive to learn, and to the setting they returned to, where backing from bosses and coworkers and a climate that welcomed new skills made a difference. Training does not end in the classroom.

These two chapters belong together. A good needs assessment should ask not only what people need to learn but whether the workplace will let them use it. If supervisors will not make time for practice, or if the reward system punishes the new behavior, the organizational analysis should flag that before any money is spent on design.

Consider a call center that asked for de-escalation training after complaints rose. A needs assessment found that agents had been trained before but were measured only on call length, so they rushed upset callers off the phone. The solution combined a short refresher with a change in how agents were measured.

The lesson for anyone designing training is to treat needs assessment and transfer planning as one task. Before writing a single learning objective, the designer should know the problem the training targets, the people who need it, the performance expected of them, and what will help or hinder them in doing it on the job. A program built on those answers has a far better chance of changing performance than one built on a manager's first request.

Reply to Avery

Avery, your plan for a customer service refresher course at the bank branches makes sense, and I liked your idea of using real complaint examples in role plays. I would add a few supports for transfer, since the research suggests they may matter as much as the course.

Grossman and Salas (2011) reviewed the transfer literature to identify the factors with the strongest and most consistent evidence. Among trainee characteristics, they highlighted cognitive ability, self-efficacy, motivation and the perceived usefulness of the training. Among design factors, behavioral modeling, error management and realistic training environments stood out. In the work environment, transfer climate, support from supervisors and peers, the opportunity to perform the new skills and follow-up all mattered.

For your branches, that suggests two additions. Before the course, branch managers could tell tellers why the refresher matters and what they hope to see afterward, which builds perceived usefulness. After the course, managers could watch for the new skills during the first two weeks, praise them when they appear and discuss one difficult interaction at each weekly meeting. Noe (2020) describes this kind of follow-up as part of a work environment that supports transfer. Peers can help too. Pairing each teller with a colleague who handles difficult customers well, and asking them to compare notes after a hard interaction, would extend the role plays into the real work and give tellers a source of support when a manager is busy. Finally, a quick check of complaint numbers and mystery shopper scores three months later would show whether the refresher changed anything at the counter. Would the bank be willing to give managers a short guide for those first two weeks?

References

Blume, B. D., Ford, J. K., Baldwin, T. T., & Huang, J. L. (2010). Transfer of training: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Management, 36(4), 1065-1105. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206309352880

Grossman, R., & Salas, E. (2011). The transfer of training: What really matters. International Journal of Training and Development, 15(2), 103-120. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2419.2011.00373.x

Noe, R. A. (2020). Employee training and development (8th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.