A Practical Guide to Needs Assessment, Third Edition

For fifteen years, A Practical Guide to Needs Assessment has been the go-to text for those who are seeking useful, systematic approaches to needs assessment. Needs assessment is the first step in training, performance improvement, and community development projects.

This thoroughly revised and updated edition contains a treasury of resources including a toolkit of ready-to-use templates and job aids that you can customize for your own use. Illustrative case studies and tips show how to assess needs for individuals, teams, organizations, government agencies, and communities.

This book combines a how-to text and reference tool for trainers, performance improvement professionals, and students. Managers and community leaders use it to get to the root of their learning and performance problems, make effective decisions, and obtain support for their most pressing issues.

Updates to the third edition include:

• Links to online resources, including a needs assessment book that you can download for free, ethical guidelines, and vendors who assess individual, group and organizational needs.
• A new chapter on the complex needs assessment approach with new toolkit forms.
• A summary of the recent advances in our knowledge about learning, training, and performance that you can use to quickly prepare for client meetings.
• Guidelines on workforce surveys, such as employee engagement surveys.
• An Instructor’s Guide that contains discussion questions, assessments materials, and new exercises for each chapter.

You can use this book to quickly access up-to-date information on the fundamentals of needs assessment including current models, theories, and resources. You can also learn how to manage and report a needs assessment project and access professional ethical guidelines. Learn five approaches to needs assessment: knowledge and skills analysis, job and task analysis, competency-based needs assessment, strategic needs assessment, and complex needs assessment. 

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A Practical Guide to Needs Assessment

Third Edition

For fifteen years, A Practical Guide to Needs Assessment has been the go-to text for those who are seeking useful, systematic approaches to needs assessment. Needs assessment is the first step in training, performance improvement, and community development projects.

This thoroughly revised and updated edition contains a treasury of resources including a toolkit of ready-to-use templates and job aids that you can customize for your own use. Illustrative case studies and tips show how to assess needs for individuals, teams, organizations, government agencies, and communities.

This book combines a how-to text and reference tool for trainers, performance improvement professionals, and students. Managers and community leaders use it to get to the root of their learning and performance problems, make effective decisions, and obtain support for their most pressing issues.

Updates to the third edition include:

• Links to online resources, including a needs assessment book that you can download for free, ethical guidelines, and vendors who assess individual, group and organizational needs.
• A new chapter on the complex needs assessment approach with new toolkit forms.
• A summary of the recent advances in our knowledge about learning, training, and performance that you can use to quickly prepare for client meetings.
• Guidelines on workforce surveys, such as employee engagement surveys.
• An Instructor's Guide that contains discussion questions, assessments materials, and new exercises for each chapter.

You can use this book to quickly access up-to-date information on the fundamentals of needs assessment including current models, theories, and resources. You can also learn how to manage and report a needs assessment project and access professional ethical guidelines. Learn five approaches to needs assessment: knowledge and skills analysis, job and task analysis, competency-based needs assessment, strategic needs assessment, and complex needs assessment.

Praise for the Third Edition of A Practical Guide to Needs Assessment

"It's often said that the first steps in a process are the most important and for those involved in the development of any type of learning program, this book should be one of the very first steps. It's a great update to a classic in the field, a practical guide to needs assessment that's well suited to meeting the current and emerging needs of individuals and organizations."
—Sam Stern, professor and former dean, College of Education, Oregon State University

List of Figures vi

List of Needs Assessment Toolkit Forms ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xiv

Introduction 1

PART ONE: FUNDAMENTALS OF NEEDS ASSESSMENT

ONE Overview of Needs Assessment 15

TWO Ideas and Models Th at Guide Practice 35

THREE Strategies for Collecting and Analyzing Data 51

PART TWO: GETTING DOWN TO BRASS TACKS

FOUR Knowledge and Skills Assessment 89

FIVE Job and Task Analysis 117

SIX Competency-Based Needs Assessment 145

SEVEN Strategic Needs Assessment 173

EIGHT Complex Needs Assessment 205

PART THREE: MANAGING A NEEDS ASSESSMENT

NINE Writing Proposals and Reports 231

TEN Dealing with Ethical Issues 257

ELEVEN Answers to Frequently Asked Questions 271

PART FOUR: NEEDS ASSESSMENT TOOLKIT

Toolkit Forms 291

Glossary 367

References 379

Index 393

About the Authors