Planning for a Needs Assessment
According to Noe, the three main focuses of a needs assessment are, organizational analysis, person analysis, and task analysis and depending on the organization’s criteria for training would determine the order of each or the need for training from just one.
The organization I decided to scope to see what they do and what service they offer is ResCare Workforce Services. The stakeholders within this organization would be the State of Arizona, ResCare and its employees, the community such as employer relationships and the actual participants in the program.
After looking in the website of Rescare.com and looking over their mission statement and goals the bottom list shows their commitment to workforce services. Below are the points that Rescare Workfoce Services promises to their stakeholders
• ResCare Workforce Services is a leading provider of workforce development services to job-seekers, workers, employers and communities nationwide.
• ResCare Workforce Services is the largest single supplier of job-related education, counseling and employment assistance under federally funded programs such as the Workforce Investment Act and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs. We currently operate career centers and other projects in more than 20 states and the District of Columbia.
• Workforce development is our core business.
• Our management and financial systems demonstrate the highest standards of integrity. In 40 years of operation, our programs have never had a serious audit finding or disallowed cost.
• Our professional staff has hundreds of years of combined experience in workforce development and includes many of the top practitioners in the field.
• We are known for our innovative “signature products” which we will customize to meet specific local needs.
• We apply the principles of continuous improvement, customer satisfaction and total quality management to our own operations and to every project we undertake.
• We are committed to building successful partnerships—both formal and informal—with local groups in the communities we serve. These partnerships enable us to provide an enhanced range of services for our customers.
• As an outside, nationally experienced organization, ResCare Workforce Services often serves as a neutral broker among the various training and service delivery agencies in a local labor market. Free from local conflicts of interest, ResCare Workforce Services can bring a fresh, success-focused approach to a community’s workforce program operations. We actively support the professional development of the nation’s workforce development system.
The highlighted areas show how they are committed to training and development within the 20 states that they offer services to. The questions to ask when doing an organizational analysis with Rescare based on these factors above would be:
-what persons or groups would benefit from a training program? (all affected by the program)
-How might the training content affect our employees’ relationship with the customers? (addressed to ResCare and its employees)
-What features of the training program may interfere with the work environment, which may cause issues to occur? (addressed to the State of Arizona as well as to policy that needs to be adhered to)
-What are the needs of the business (addressed to all affected by the program, State of Arizona, customers, ResCare and it’s employees)
Some of the documents or records that may be needed to be seen to conduct a needs assessment are the State policy and procedures, which has to be adhered to; the organization’s budget; old training materials; surveys conducted; samples of client cases; training timeline; and list of names of who would be in need of training
ResCare already conducts questionnaires weekly on each client to see how services are delivered and to get information as to what needs improvement based on the questionnaires. Online technology,(webinar training courses) are used to conduct training with ease to employees across the many states. The other technique that should be used and I am sure it is, is utilizing the weekly reports to measure improvement.
Resources:
Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee Training and Development (5th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill/Irwin.
ResCare, Inc. (2012). Workforce Services. Retrieved on 5/10/12 from website: http://www.rescare.com/workforce-services.php
Genie,
ReplyDeleteYou did a thorough job describing ResCare services. You identified the the stakeholders. The highlights enriched my understanding of the huge services in other states.Knowing that there are existing methods used to capture how this organization function will serve you well during the assessment process.
ResCare seems as a very big organization, how do you intend to select the teams that will participate in the assessment?
This is a great question. The assessment team will be the same team that conducts the training for each division. Each team will be trained to be on the same page by the corporate training department.
DeleteHi Genie,
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job describing ResCare on what it is and what it does. I wonder if there are any research studies or information on how well they used federal and/or state grant funding? It would be great to see if there is an increase of job employment assistance during these tough economic times? I would definitely look to see if a there is a program like this in New Jersey. Thank you for the information.
-Neal
Hi Neal,
DeleteThanks for your posting. I do agree with you on information needed on their site regarding federal and state grant funding as well as numbers on employment statistics throughout the 20 states that they services
Genie
ReplyDeleteThat was a good review of ResCare. Their commitment to staff training helps you as designer to work from a point of acceptance rather than starting a new frontier. you questions are also well researched and would certainly generate the information you are seeking.
David
Thank you, David
DeleteI hope one day I will be able to conduct one of these for a potential employer. It is time consuming but also fun and engaging.
Genie,
ReplyDeleteResCare Workforce Services as you stated has done a very good job identifying their mission, goals and objectives. I was impressed that they stated that they apply the principles of continuous improvement, customer satisfaction and total quality management to their own operations and to every project they undertake. During the organization phase of your analysis which stakeholders would you collect data from to determine if they're achieving their stated goals and objectives? What data collection method besides document review could be used?
You asked several very important questions, which stakeholders would be in the best position to answer those questions? How would you collect the necessary data? I liked the various sets of documentation that you would want to review.
Neal asked a god question regarding ResCare's use of federal and state funding. That would be good information to collect the organizational analysis phase.
Using the weekly questionnaires each client completes on the services they receive is a good start. How might you verify the accuracy of this data? Which stakeholder would you involve in the Person and task analysis phase?
Mike