Problem Definition
A state government’s Department of Transportation needed to determine how much money should be allocated to their training budget. Previously, the organization had charged training to the most applicable project. New federal guidelines required that they develop a separate training budget for its approximately 3,000 employees and over 200 job classifications.
The department asked Intulogy to conduct a training needs analysis that would estimate the hours of mandated and desired training per employee. Up-front difficulties included:
[checklist size=”bullet”]- Highly decentralized training records
- Few metrics on current training practices or efficacy
- No in-house registry of federally mandated training or certification training requirements
Approach/Method
Intulogy performed a wide-scope needs assessment in order to capture current training practices and estimate yearly training needs from a budgetary perspective. We designed a strategy to collect information from subject matter experts, supervisors, and representative employees.
Working with the department’s subject matter experts, Intulogy arranged the 200+ job classifications into 43 related groupings. We designed a web-based survey and distributed it to a random 5% sample of employees within each grouping. The survey captured focused information about their training history, training needs and desires, training availability, and training satisfaction.
A second survey was designed and distributed to 50 key supervisors and safety officers. This survey captured mandated training, currently unmet training needs, and information on specific courses desired or required per job classification.
We compiled the raw survey results into a database and presented a detailed analysis in a formal report.
Special Skills Used
This training needs analysis was conducted and completed on a remote basis, without requiring visits to the client’s site. Through teleconferencing and web-based surverys, Intulogy’s needs assessment captured the critical information for the client without incurring travel costs.
Benefit to Client
Intulogy supported its estimate of training hours per employee through primary research conducted within the department, and we corroborated the results with a literature search of studies conducted by other departments of transportation.
The department received key metrics on training satisfaction and accessibility, indicating areas where training dollars might be spent more effectively. Additionally, the department received a preliminary drill-down of courses appropriate to individual job classifications.
Result
The department used the report to present an appropriations request to the state legislature. Additionally, the department is evaluating centralized learning management systems and is preparing for a course-level training needs assessment.