The Importance Of Need Assessment For Training And Development Programs In Medtronic Company

Performance Gaps in Medtronic Company

Prepare a Training and/or Development Needs Assessment of an organisation/ organisational area that you are familiar with or have access to, based on the work you completed in assessment 1.

Training and development program is necessary for the organization to improve the productivity of the employee in an adequate manner (Koh, Teh, San & Abdullah, 2017). A need assessment facilitates a business to attain its objectives as it decreases gap between employee skills and required skills by the working environment (Ferreira & Abbad, 2013). It assists to outline the benchmark for deciding value of the training administered. Medtronic Company of Australia is taken to describe the needs of assessment in which performance gaps will be identified. It is a global leader in the medical technology, solutions and services that work on saving the lives of human beings by providing superior quality of care. A need assessment has various methods which help to evaluate the requirement of training and development program within the organization. It is necessary for the company to conduct need assessment in an appropriate manner otherwise it would create obstacles within the organization.

It is vital for the company to identify the performance gaps before deciding to conduct the training and development program within the organization. It can be identified by applying number of steps such as identify skills needed, evaluate team or individual of the organization, assess result and create a skill development program. Gap analysis includes the comparison of actual performance with desired performance. Medtronic has been using the effective quality deep clinical, therapeutic expertise and skills to prevent from potential obstacles and challenges that are faced by the healthcare system. The performance gaps are described below in the context of needs assessment.

It has been found that Medtronic is facing the issue of lack of organizational citizenship behaviour. Organizational citizenship behaviour is considered as the concept that every company want to have but few of them can attain it actually. The employee of the company does not go beyond task performance and technical proficiency. There is no initial step found by employee to improve the performance of the company.

Learning environment is vital for the organization because it can enhance the productivity of the employee (Nda & Fard, 2013). Lack of learning environment can be the cause of low morale of the employees where they do not understand about accomplishment of the assigned project. It is the big gap of performance in Medtronic which shows the needs assessment.

Methods of Need Assessment

Improper transfer of training methods is a gap which creates the adverse situation within the organization. It presents the needs assessment within the organization because the training is not to gain the knowledge but to transfer learning into performance. Training transfer is the dynamic process which requires planning (Sabzian & Gilakjani, 2013).

There is a lack of managerial skills and critical thinking skills in the manager of the Medtronic Company. It is necessary for the company to prevent bias and provide equal opportunities to the employee. It is the major reason to undertake the needs assessment for the organization.

There are a various methods of need assessment that helps to conduct the training program for the organization. Survey, observation, customer feedback and interviews have chosen to conduct the needs assessment for Medtronic Company.

Survey

It is an effective approach for identifying the deficiencies in specific areas. For conducting a survey, a questionnaire is being prepared and circulates among employees of Medtronic. It has been chosen because it reaches a large number of employees in less time. It is helpful to analyze, summarize and report of the gathered details. The questions in the survey are focused on the needs of the employee and the issues which are facing by them within the process of the organization (RHD Action, 2016).

Observation

The managers of the training look at the work of the employees in regular working situations. This observation facilitates to provide enough information on the performance gaps. Medtronic is the company where numbers of employees are working. It is the process which considers functional, behavioural and technical aspects at the time of observing.  There are various reasons that being the cause of lack of motivation and encouragement (Ferreira, da Silva Abbad & Mourão, 2015). Observation is the technique that helps to develop the real data without interrupting to regular work flow.

Customer feedback

The method of customer feedback is efficient to determine the needs assessment and it facilitates to know deficiencies of performance. It majorly indicates the improvement areas. Medtronic is the large company that is connected with huge number of customers. The feedback from them would be facilitated to know about the area which should be improved for enhancing the revenues of the company (van den Akker, Branch, Gustafson, Nieveen & Plomp, 2012). This approach gets valuable insights about the target audiences.

Interviews

An interview is the method that aid to gather data on performance gaps whilst taking with each employee and group of employees of Medtronic. It can be formal or informal and can be conducted in easy manner. This method helps to find out the issues within the process of the company by communicating with employee of Medtronic. It gives immediate feedback and recognizes performance issues and investigates possible outcomes.  

Survey

On completion of each method of needs assessment, it is necessary to evaluate the need assessment process. It has been evaluated after considering the factors of performance gaps that there is a need of training and development program in Medtronic Company in Australia as training is the desired solution.  Need assessment process can be evaluated by considering the Training Suitability Analysis to accomplish the need of improve productivity of the employees. Training is the solution of many employment problems within the organization. Training is the solution of reducing the issues in the organization as it helps to increase the productivity of the employee by making learning environment (Sajeev & Singha, 2016). It increases the managerial skills and proper transfer of training methods. Satisfied and encouraged employee will increase the organizational citizenship behaviour.  It is necessary for the company to know about the area where training and development programs are required. These specific areas are described below in the context of Medtronic Company

Organizational improvement to improve productivity

Organizational analysis helps to determine the overall approach of the organization to attain the goals of the company. Medtronic Company has approached various strategies to accomplish the task within time frame by providing effective quality of services to the customers. The high authority should conduct the training program in the company as there is a lack of learning environment (Sajeev & Singha, 2016). It has been found that there are various training programs conducted in the company with regard to employee training and other management interventions.

Person analysis

It has been evaluated that particular employee of the company is influenced due to lack of guidance from the managers. The company should provide the training session to each employee whether they are old or new ones (Grohmann & Kauffeld, 2013). 360 degree evaluations should be applied as it is able to recognize the strength and weakness of the employee. Along with that it identifies the area of improvement in regards to skills, behaviours and competencies. There is a different need of individuals of the company due to different expectancies and skills (Braun, Stepleman & Swift, 2016).

Performance improvement

Performance of the employees is important for the growth of the company. The high performance work system should be implemented by the company to improve the productivity of the employees. There is a need of training and development program as it provides to them for increasing their performances and made them perform to their potential (Rothwell, Hohne & King, 2018).

Observation

Work analysis

It has been evaluated that work analysis is able to collect the information about the particular job function. Managers of the company are belonged to different backgrounds and cultures, which can raise the issue within the organization in regards different understanding. Training and development program is essential for Medtronic to initiate a new heart therapy that should include the most skilled workers who possess proper knowledge and skills about the treatment procedures (Wilson, 2014).

Medtronic Company has to face adverse situation in case of improper planning of need assessment as it is the critical part for conducting the training within the organization. The possible outcomes are low morale within the organization, increasing rate of job attrition, less revenue and lack of decision making. It has been found that the specific need of the Medtronic Company to increase the productivity of the employees in an appropriate manner which can be done by conducting training program. Need assessment is essential process to identify the gap of performance if it is not conducted in proper manner than it would be difficult to analyze the area for improvement within the organization (Baker, 2015). There are number of employees working with Medtronic Company to provide the health best quality deep clinical, economic and therapeutic expertise and skills to address the complex issues. They will get discouraged due to improper planning of need assessment because it is integral for assessment to identify the real area to improve. For instance, if need assessment finds the need of improvement in infrastructure of Medtronic Company and various steps take in order to remove issues regarding infrastructure while it is not the issue. It will lead company in to adverse situation because steps of improvement will be taken on wrong identification of need which increase the rate of attrition and reduce the revenue of the company. It will reduce the decision making process and if accurate and timely information is not available, then employees of Medtronic Company making decision will have to depend on incomplete pictures (Data-driven Aid Logo, 2016).

It is recommended to Medtronic Company that training program is the effective process to improve the productivity of the employees. Training has various advantages which can be benefitted to the organization in order to reduce the obstacles of the company. Need assessment is the systematic process to recognize the gaps between current condition and desired condition that is why it should be implemented with great approach so that need of the organization can be identified in an appropriate manner. It is not compulsory that every employee has same skills so need assessment should be conducted by considering the different values and skills of the employee.  According to Data-driven Aid Logo, (2016), once the origin reason of a performance gap is decided and the solution is training then instructional objectives obtain from the organizational, individual or operational needs recognized in the assessment. It should be done by keeping different values, skills and potential of the employees in the mind so that incorrect need assessment do not lead organization into adverse situation. Company need to focus on increasing the productivity of the employee as it is the need and specific area to improve which may impact other area. Employees of the company should be guided in an adequate manner so that they do not get confused and discouraged due to lack of understanding about the task.

Customer Feedback

From the above discussion, it can be summarized that need assessment is vital to conduct before implementing training program in the organization; it helps to find out the need and specific area of the company in order to improve them by conducting training program. Medtronic Company has been chosen to conduct the need assessment process so that need of the company can be revealed. It has been evaluated that the process of need assessment should be cleared on specific need. Various methods have been mentioned for the need assessment such as survey, interviews, customer feedback and observations. Need assessment process has been evaluated by considering the Training Suitability Analysis to accomplish the need of improve productivity of the employees. The reasons have been emphasized in case of improper planning of need assessment.  

References

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Ferreira, R. R., & Abbad, G. (2013). Training needs assessment: where we are and where we should go. BAR-Brazilian Administration Review, 10(1), 77-99.

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Rothwell, W. J., Hohne, C. K., & King, S. B. (2018). Human performance improvement: Building practitioner performance. Routledge.

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Sajeev, M. V., & Singha, A. K. (2016). Capacity building through KVKs: training needs analysis of farmers of Arunachal Pradesh. Indian Research Journal of Extension Education, 10(1), 83-90.

van den Akker, J., Branch, R. M., Gustafson, K., Nieveen, N., & Plomp, T. (Eds.). (2012). Design approaches and tools in education and training. Springer Science & Business Media.

Wilson, J. P. (2014). International human resource development: Learning, education and training for individuals and organisations. Development and Learning in Organizations, 28(2