What is TNA (Training Needs Analysis)?
A training needs analysis (TNA) is a structured investigation of the gap between current and required performance. It looks at three levels, the organisation, the tasks or roles, and the individuals, to decide whether training is the right answer, who needs it, and what it should cover. Its output is a prioritised list of learning needs.
How Personal Academy handles it
Personal Academy supports needs analysis with skills and competency mapping on the Advanced plan, so required skills per role can be compared with the skills people hold.
A worked example
Suppose a 300-person logistics company sees rising delivery errors. A needs analysis interviews dispatchers, reviews error reports and maps the skills each role needs. It finds that route-planning errors come from one new tool that half the dispatchers were never shown, while other errors come from unclear handover procedures. The team builds a short course for the first gap and fixes the procedure for the second.
Training is expensive, and much of it is built in response to a symptom rather than a cause. A training needs analysis asks first whether a performance problem is really a lack of knowledge or skill. Many problems come from unclear expectations, missing tools, poor processes or incentives, which training will not fix.
The classic model, described by McGehee and Thayer in 1961, looks at three levels. Organisational analysis asks where the business is going, which goals depend on people performing differently, and what resources and support exist. Task or role analysis breaks jobs into the tasks performed and the knowledge, skills and behaviours each task requires. Individual or person analysis compares each person, or group, with those requirements.
Data comes from many sources: business metrics, quality and incident reports, interviews, focus groups, surveys, observation of work, assessments and performance reviews. A competency framework, a list of skills and proficiency levels for each role, makes the comparison repeatable.
The output is a set of prioritised needs, each with the gap, who has it, how important it is to the business, and the recommended response. Some responses will be training: a course, coaching or practice. Others will be job aids, process changes or tool fixes.
Needs analysis also sets up evaluation. If the analysis states the performance gap and the business measure it affects, the same measures can be checked after training to show whether the gap closed, connecting naturally with levels 3 and 4 of the Kirkpatrick Model. Even a light analysis, done in a few interviews, is better than none.