Steelcase is a company that designs workplace products, furniture,
and services with over 630 dealers in 800 locations worldwide. Founded in 1912, the company has been in
operation for over 100 years. One of the
company’s main goals is to provide environmentally sustainable designs. The stated values of the company are
integrity and valuing customers as their greatest asset. They see value in continued education and
provide courses in various areas that are available to the public. The following outlines what a needs
assessment may look like for the Steelcase Company.
Organizational Analysis
Stakeholder
|
Leadership Team
|
Dealers
|
Managers
|
Trainers
|
Employees
|
|
Question
|
Strategy Used
|
|||||
How does your training program align with
the needs of the business?
|
Interviews/
Focus Groups
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
||
Do we have experts that can help us develop
the program content and ensure that understand the needs of the business as
develop the program?
|
Interviews
|
x
|
||||
What persons or groups have interest in seeing training succeed?
|
Interviews/
Focus Groups
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
What features of the work or training environment might
interfere with training?
|
Interviews
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
|
What do we need from management to see this program succeed?
|
Interviews
|
x
|
x
|
|||
Do employees perceive training as an opportunity for growth?
|
Interviews/
Questionnaires
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
||
Has management supported past training opportunities?
|
Interviews/
Questionnaires
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
Person Analysis
Stakeholder
|
Leadership Team
|
Dealers
|
Managers
|
Trainers
|
Employees
|
|
Question
|
Strategy Used
|
|||||
Do workers feel confident performing their current duties?
|
Interviews/
Questionnaires
|
x
|
x
|
|||
Do employees have the basic skills necessary to complete their
current tasks?
|
Interviews
|
x
|
||||
Do employees receive sufficient feedback on their performance?
|
Interviews/
Questionnaires
|
x
|
x
|
|||
Do managers and employees feel there is a need for training to
address performance issues?
|
Interviews/
Questionnaires
|
x
|
x
|
|||
Are employees meeting the performance expectations?
|
Interviews/
Questionnaires
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
Task Analysis
Stakeholder
|
Leadership Team
|
Dealers
|
Managers
|
Trainers
|
Employees
|
|
Question
|
Strategy Used
|
|||||
What tasks are employees required to perform?
|
Questionnaires/
Documentation
|
x
|
x
|
|||
How frequent do employees perform each task identifies?
|
Questionnaires/
Documentation
|
x
|
x
|
|||
What is the difficulty of the tasks identified?
|
Questionnaires/
Documentation
|
x
|
x
|
|||
What is the importance of each task identified?
|
Questionnaires/
Documentation
|
x
|
x
|
Requested Documents:
-
Technical manuals
-
Job descriptions
-
Performance Appraisals
-
Performance Measures
-
Turnover Data
-
Safety Incidences
-
Product Returns
-
Customer Complaints
Kristy,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your analysis. You did an AWESOME job! I particularly liked that you used customer complains, product returns and safety incidents in your analysis. Furthermore, I like the use of interviews to gather information. You can't find a lot out when you interview people and build relationships in the process. I have to be honest though, I am not a fan of focus groups with non-salaried workers as contributors. Because of the amount of time it takes to conduct them, it takes them away from productivity, which effects the bottom line of the company which may cause an issue.
Hi Kristy, I like the approach that you took to analyze Steelcase Inc. using a grid format. your approach clearly shows who is responding to what question. You also were also sure to involve the employees as to their understanding of what they think is needed to perform their jobs. Yours is a very thorough post.
ReplyDeleteKristy,
ReplyDeleteI like your analysis, specifically that you included the trainers in the organization analysis. I think they also would be able to provide a lot of valuable input during the task analysis phase.
Kristy,
ReplyDeleteYou did a very nice job identifying the different stakeholders that you would involve in your needs assessment for a training program at Steelcase. Would there be any value in including the Suppliers of the resources for Steelcase products?
You have an excellent set of questions for the organizational, person and Task analysis. I also like the fact that you are using a variety of data collection techniques; documents, questionnaire, interviews and focus groups. Using a variety of data collection tools will help you to triangulate your findings. I specifically liked the question asking what features of the work and/or training might interfere with the success of the training.
You also did very good job identifying the list of documents you want to review during your analysis.
You asked how the training program aligned with the needs of the business. How will you determine what benchmarks should be used to determine if a training program is successful?