Pepsi’s Needs Assessment Essay

Every organization at some point must design a training and development program to make sure that the managers and employees get the skills that it would take to perform their job. In order to design a training and development program, the organization must conduct a need assessment. â€Å"Need assessment is the process used to determine if training is necessary; it also is the first step in the Instructional System Design model (Raymond A. Noe). In order a training need assessment to be conducted, the training manager need to know the organization goals and objective, must know the jobs and its related tasks that need to be learned, must know the skills and competencies that are needed to perform the job, and also must know who will need to be trained. The need assessment has three levels of analysis such as organization analysis, individual analysis, and task analysis. Through this paper, there will be some discussion on the three levels of analysis and Pepsi’s training nee d assessment. Levels of Analysis  The first level of analysis is organization analysis. â€Å"Organizational analysis looks at the effectiveness of the organization and determines where training is needed and under what conditions it will be conducted (http://www. ispi. org/pdf/suggestedReading/Miller_Osinski. pdf). † Organizational analysis is identified by the environmental impact (OSHA, FMLA, etc. ), changing work force demographics, changing technology and automation, political trends such as sexual harassment and workplace violence, and how effective is the organization in meeting its goals. Information needed to conduct an organizational analysis can be found through; strategic plans, turnover rates, accident reports, customer complaints, mission statements, cost of materials, audits, change in equipment, annual reports, and employees attitudes and satisfaction. The second level of analysis is task analysis. â€Å"Task analysis provides data about a job or a group of jobs and the knowledge, skills, attitudes and abilities needed to achieve optimum performance (http://www. spi. org/pdf/suggestedReading/Miller_Osinski. pdf). † Organization can collect task analysis from job, KSA, performance standards, observe the job, perform the job, and conducting a job inventory questionnaire, and find out all the operating problems if any. Without the task analysis, the organization would not know what areas to train the employees in when it comes to their job performance. The third level of analysis is the individual analysis. Individual analysis analyzes how well the individual employee is doing the job and determines which employees need training and what kind (http://www. ispi. org/pdf/suggestedReading/Miller_Osinski. pdf). † There are many sources an organization can use to conduct an individual analysis. The first sources are performance evaluation, which shows areas of weakness. The second source is employee’s performance, which includes absenteeism, productivity, lateness, product waste, quality in work, and customer complaint. The third source is interviews. HR can simply have a talk with the managers, supervisor, and employees to what it is they need to learn more about. There so many other sources that can be used to conduct an individual analysis. After the individual analysis, the individual that needs training will be able to get the additional help that they needed. Pepsi’s Need Assessment â€Å"Pepsi believes that for their associated to thrive, they must continue to provide a supportive and empowering workplace. Which includes giving associates the opportunity to learn and grow professionally through regular training and proven career development tools, as well as the transfer of best practices, skills, knowledge and technology across the businesses (http://www. pepsico. com/Purpose/Talent-Sustainability/Associate-Learning-and-Development. html). † Pepsi offers their associate’s specific job training that is required in order for them to perform their job. Pepsi also offered associates the opportunity to attend professional conferences to enhance their skills. Pepsi’s year-long proprietary career process includes objective-setting, performance and development reviews, development action plans, midyear reviews and 360-degree evaluations—all supported by training and materials. Executive leadership training focuses on helping high-potential managers learn to be more effective leaders and to gain a broader perspective on our business. All associates are included in some form of the performance management process across PepsiCo (http://www. pepsico. com/Purpose/Talent-Sustainability/Associate-Learning-and-Development. html). Pepsi’s 360-degree feedback is used to focus on building self-awareness by linking to a best-in-class personality assessment inventory. Pepsi also uses survey to help them find ways for improvement. With Pepsi being all over the world, it is important to Pepsi that every employee conduct the survey. Pepsi recognize the concerns of their employees and they look for more and more ways to make sure employees and trained properly and become very successful within their career. Conclusions Implementing the needs assessment is very important for any organization. Needs assessment focus on the urgent training needs within and organization which is based off the information that is provided from the managers, supervisors, and employees. Pepsi being a billion dollar company knows the importance of need assessment. The three levels of analysis must be conducted or weighted out in ordered to have a successful training need assessment. At the end of the need assessment, you must evaluate the training and development program to make sure that all the needs were met.