Very often, organizations get caught up in over complicating and over analyzing what employees need or want. As with most things, the more complicated a process is, the more opportunity for misunderstanding, miscommunication, and missing the mark.
This is definitely the case with needs analysis related to employee learning. We hear how important it is to drill down into the core of an organizational psyche so that we can prepare and respond to multiple employee challenges through various analytical methodologies. It does not have to be so complex.
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In this article, there are three simple questions to ask employees about their work life, including the very powerful but simple question, ‘What do you want to learn this year?’ . Simple questions can provide an abundance of responses. The answers to simple questions will give us a wealth of material that we, as HR Professionals, can work with in order to provide appropriate learning tools to fit what employees tell us they need.
Asking questions should be the easiest part to creating understanding about what employees need. Making sure we respond to what employees tell us they need is where the real challenge lies.
Discussion Questions:
- How would you respond to each of the three questions from this article in your current (or past) work environment?
- What types of responses from these three questions would indicate employee satisfaction?
- What types of responses from these three questions would indicate employee dissatisfaction?
- What tools would you use in the workplace to ask employees these three questions?
- What is the biggest risk to an employer when employees answer these three simple questions?