My Strategies For Planning A Needs Assessment

  Needs Assessment Company: Steelcase Inc. (www.steelcase.com)

Company's Historical Description

This week's blog deals with Steelcase Inc.

Steelcase is a multinational company with headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This company touts over 50 more locations within the United States, Mexico, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. As I browsed around Steelcase's website, I learned the company was founded in 1912 by a few people with a strong commitment to integrity and doing the right thing for their customers, employees, business partners, associates and neighbors (American Business Interiors, n.d.).

Today the company's president and CEO is Jim Hackett, who has been with the company for thirty-one 31 years. The company has "transformed itself from traditional manufacturer to an industry innovator, known as much for the insights behind its furniture as for the products themselves" (Steelcase, n.d.). According to the company's website that claims, "Through research, insights and multiple brands, we have been able to extend our clients to include most of the Fortune 500, leading healthcare organizations, universities and government agencies;" therefore, from what I can tell, Steelcase produces ergonomic office furnishings designed through research of real workplace environments that promotes wellness to their customers. The results have catapulted Steelcase's innovative product lines of high-tech and high-end office furnishings into one of the most lucrative companies in the industry.

Products and Services

This company sells high-end, high-tech, high performance wellness furniture that tap into the following markets: anywhere and everywhere working and learning is taking place that need to maximize space, employee wellness, performance, effectiveness, and efficiency. "The Steelcase Inc. family of brands includes Steelcase, Coalesse, Designtex, Details, Nurture, PolyVision, Turnstone, eno family, interactive whiteboards, Verb Instructor Stations, walkstations, and workstations" Steelcase, n.d.).

Steelcase's Mission & Core Principles

Noe (2010) suggest researching and examining the company's mission, vision, values, and goals as a first step and that will determine the strategy an ID will use. Noe goes on to explain what mission statements address, "what the company does, customers served, why the company exists, or the values received by the customer" (p. 59).

The second step involves doing a SWOT Analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). Simply stated, it means the (ID) instructional designer analyzes the company's operating environment (e.g., product, markets, new technologies) in order to identify opportunities and threats as well as, an internal analysis of the company's strengths and weaknesses that includes people, technology, and financial resources."

President and CEO, Jim Hackett, reports, "We are introduced to the core principles that drive and sustain our objectives for over its 100 years' existence—serving people. According to Hackett, "Helping organizations achieve a higher level of performance by creating places that unlock the promise of their people…find things that will make people happier, and ideas that help make the world a better place" are the rich attitudes embedded and cultivated in Steelcase's culture that all customers receive regardless their background:

"Act with integrity

Tell the truth

Keep commitments

Treat people with dignity and respect

Promote positive relationships

Protect the environment

Excel" (Steelcase, n.d.).

The mantra articulated throughout Steelcase concerns their global perspective that comes directly from the head CEO, saying, "Understanding local culture is vital to using space as a key strategic tool for global organizations…"All politics is local," as the saying goes...So too with business: if you're going to operate outside your backyard, there's no substitute for knowledge of the local culture, work processes, and workplaces." That is such a true statement, as I had set up a business in Ibadan, Nigeria, that belief holds true to all business aspirations.

Steelcase says they are "conducting extensive research on different cultures and their ramifications for the workplace in eleven countries: China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Morocco, The Netherlands, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom, and the United States.

What stakeholders would you want to make sure to get buy-in from?

In that, Steelcase delivers products and services through a network of independent dealers in over 650 locations globally, I would need to get buy-in from the following stakeholders:


• CEO

• Managing directors/independent dealers/end users

• Supervisors

• Trainers

• Customers

• Designers

• Engineers

• Graphic artists

• Developers

• Installers

• Audiovisual technologist

What questions would you ask (and to whom would you address them) during the organizational, person, and task analysis phases?

Noe, 2010 says, "The first step in the instructional design process involves conducting a proper needs assessment." There are three types of analysis involved in the needs assessment and the causes and outcomes resulting from the needs assessment show "pressure points" that suggest training is necessary. "Pressure points include performance problems, new technology, internal or external customer requests for training, job redesign, new legislation, changes in customer preferences, new products, or employees' lack of basic skills" (p. 104). In order to confirm training is really needed, we examine three elemental causes and outcomes listed below:

1. Organizational Analysis

Noe (2010) states, "It is important to consider the organizational business strategy, its resources available for training, and support by managers, peers for training activities. (p. 103). Conducting organizational analysis to determine the appropriateness of training I selected questions that will be directed to organizational leaders, mid-level managers, and trainers. Noe states that if a company decides to purchase a training program from a consultant or vendor rather than build the program in-house , it is important to choose a high-quality provider (p. 112).

Ask the following questions:
 
i. How does training support the strategic needs of Steelcase Inc.?

ii. What resources are allocated for training?

iii. How do employees perceive training in your organization?

iv. Considering the size of your organization, how would training improve employee workplace   performances?


2. Person Analysis

Noe (2010) states this, "Helps to identify employees who need training that can be determined by pressure points…To determine whether training is needed to solve a performance problem, managers need to analyze characteristics of the performer, input, output, consequences, and feedback. 

Performance problems 
Changes in job 
Use of new technology 
Person characteristics:

i. Basic skills

ii. Cognitive ability

iii. Reading level

iv. Self-efficacy

v. Motivation to learn

vi. Awareness of training needs, career interest, goals.


Ask the following questions:

i. What are your strengths and weaknesses in getting your job done?

ii. Do you feel that your performance now satisfy your job expectation?

iii. How can organizational training assist in your job performance?


3. Task Analysis--a task analysis involves four steps:
 
1. Select the job or jobs to be analyzed

2. Develop a preliminary list of tasks performed on the job

i. Interviewing and observing expert employees and their managers

ii. Talking with others who have performed a task analysis.

3. Validate and confirm the preliminary list of tasks. This step involves having a group of SMEs answer in a meeting or on a written survey several questions regarding the tasks.

Ask the following questions:

i. How frequently is the task performed?

ii. How much time is spent performing the task?

iii. How important or critical is the task for successful performance of the job?

iv. How difficult is the task to learn? v. Is performance of the task expected of entry-level employees?

4. Once tasks are identified, it is important to identify the knowledge, skills or abilities necessary to successfully perform each task. This information is collected through interviews and questionnaires. Through examining causes and outcomes, we can ascertain where needs assessments are most beneficial, not only to identify outcomes that show the causes, but also to provide important input into most of the remaining steps in the training design process (Noe, 2010). Noe (2010) states the order of the three elements does not matter for conducting a proper needs assessment.

What documents or records might you ask to see?

Documents to examine would come from historical and current research studies. Interviews and focus group studies with SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) by asking SMEs to complete questionnaires designed to identify tasks and knowledge, skills abilities, and other characteristics required for a job (Noe, 2010).

I would also need to collect mission statements of the specific department/unit to identify their purpose and interconnectedness to the overall functioning of the organization to authenticate gaps in performance that will further help me develop the needs assessment. Depending on the purpose of the needs assessment, I would gather competency studies and former project checklists to identify relevant tasks. If training the trainer were the performance problem, then I would conduct an observation of new and experienced instructors to identify strengths and weaknesses of instructors' presentations (person analysis).

I would also interview instructors and non-instructors in order to validate the information gathered through the written documentation and surveys. Another area of review would come from the engineering design and technical writing departments relevant to product features for end-users if the problem relates to customer satisfaction rates.

What techniques would you employ and why?

In order to conduct the needs assessment information need be readily available on the company's database or on file at the site. Observations would constitute an accurate unbiased approach to generate data relevant to work environment (Noe, 2010, p. 108). Moreover, questionnaires are inexpensive, I could collect data from a large number of persons, and data could be quickly and easily summarized and interpreted. I would consider designing an online anonymous survey because most trainees are afraid of retribution if they think their employer will know what they report. Another approach I would employ for this particular company is documentation (Technical Manuals, records because it is a good sources of information on procedure, objective, good source to inform for new jobs and jobs in the process of being created.

References

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Steelcase. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.steelcase.com/en/Company/Careers/Pages/Careers.aspx.

Steelcase. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://360.steelcase.com/articles/qa-with-jim-hackett-2/.