role of Director of Learning
paper requirements :
Last week you were promoted to the new role of Director of Learning & ; Workplace Performance in your current organization. Congratulations. Today, your boss the SVP of Human Resources, asks you to prepare a brief white paper she can present to the executive team. She states: “You know I see the value of conducting an organizational needs analysis, the HPI way, but my peers don’t get it. I need your thought leadership in helping me get them to drink the Kool-Aid and ‘get it’ that we’re not just a training department anymore.” With this as the backdrop, your assignment is to prepare for your boss a brief (less than three (3) single-spaced pages) white paper you present your argument to conduct a needs analysis of a current (real life) mid-level organizational / human performance issue. Beside getting a go-ahead to conduct the analysis, your boss wants her peers to appreciate via the white paper your grasp of the organization as a living “system”, the systemic impact of poor performance, and your professional orientation as a performance consultant, which a penchant for “analysis first, action second.” She tells you that you can present your white paper to her in a business memo format or as a briefing report. Your white paper should contain your approach and the key points you would make for each of these elements: A clear and specific description of the organizational issue defined and described in human performance terms / language. Specific description of the impact of the human performance issue being left unresolved. Explain the link between the inadequate performance and the business’s priorities and or its competitive advantage. A clear expression of your argument / position for why a thorough needs analysis of the performance issue must be conduct to prevent construction of pre-mature conclusions or solutions, as well as why “thorough” does not mean “slow.” A high level introduction and orientation to the needs analysis approach you would deploy to analyze the performance issue. How will the analysis ensure your HPI intervention is really a systematic and systemic solution?
HRA 4220: Learning Development and Performance
Assignment #2 – Business Memo or Briefing Report
Memorandum
To: SVP of Human Resources
From: Director, Learning & Workplace Performance
Date: 2/11/2013
Re: Approval to Conduct Needs Analysis in Our Organization
This memo highlights the need and importance of need analysis of the inadequate performance experienced in our organization. The memo outlines the systemic effects of poor performance and the need analysis case and perspective.

Organizational Issue Statement

Unsatisfactory performance, which is as a result of a gap between the required organizational performance and the actual performance of our employees is lowering organizational productivity. Poor performance occurs when behaviors and the performance of employees fall below the stipulated standards. Given the stiff competition in the business world, we need to improve our performance in order to attain a competitive edge. The insufficient performance in our organization does not meet our business priorities and needs, and it is prompted by the ineffective performance of duties. Notably, the poor performance in the organization is not solely based on insufficient knowledge, but is linked to systematic change that requires organizational development. The interventions of this problem entail organizational restructuring, effective team development, and strategic planning and performance management (Willmore 2004). As a result, a systematic investigation should be conducted to ascertain and address the gaps and needs required to ensure increased productivity in our organization.

Systemic Impact Discussion

It is important that this issue be fully addressed failure to which our organization will lose its current competitive edge. Addressing the issue of poor performance and adopting performance improvement models in the organization will advocate for systematic needs evaluation besides ensuring relevant interventions. Failure to determine what alleviate poor performance in the organization will lead to reduced productivity. Notably, the impact of poor performance is unmistakable and its effects will be experienced by; the entire organization, employees, stakeholders, customers, and the community. Lack of evaluation concerning systemic organizational needs will continue to prompt poor performance, reduced employee motivation , employee turnover, absenteeism and work dissatisfaction (Willmore 2004). These aspects will marginalize the quality, output and productivity of our organization.

Needs Analysis Case

Organizational needs assessment refers to an efficient evaluation of how things are and should be in the organization. Needs analysis is crucial for human resource management. It allows human resource managers to align their work with strategic organizational and individual needs (Willmore 2004). In the contemporary competitive business environment, improving training, performance and learning is paramount. Apparently, need analysis will help in ascertaining learning needs, training needs, shifts in behavior, expected performance and economic benefits and costs of the proposed solutions. It will help us in confirming the required organizational and career development activities that will ensure that our organizations become productive enough to attain a competitive edge.

Needs assessment will also help in assessing our current situation and allow us to examine our organizational climate, objectives, external and internal limitations. More importantly, need analysis will help us attain the necessary or desired situation that will guarantee personal and organizational success. We shall be able to ascertain the required job standards; tasks, abilities, knowledge and skills needed to make us achieved our desired position. It will help us identify what we need in order to be productive. Precisely the need analysis will help us conduct a gap analysis, determine our priorities, determine the reasons for poor performance, growth prospects and possible solutions (Willmore 2004).

Needs Analysis Approach/HPI Impact

The need analysis, which will include direct observation, focus group, interviews and questionnaires, will take a Human Performance Improvement perspective. It will take a few days given that the HPI procedure is not hard. Business analysis will be first conducted to clarify and identify primary organizational needs, targets and goals. In this approach, business needs and business goals will be distinguished (Willmore 2004). While business goals refer to the objectives and targets of a business, business needs refers to the gap existing between the current status of the business and the business goal. To ensure that the HPI intervention will be a systemic and systematic solution, it will be compelled by a performance and business need evaluation that will be justified through cause analysis results (Willmore 2004).

We shall identify the performance gaps/needs and their solutions to provide the capacity to measure the benefits of our efforts. HPI will ensure a result-based perspective that will enhance performance in the organization (Willmore 2004). This approach will identify business objectives and link them to the employee’s performance, articulate the current performance state, ascertain the cause of poor performance, execute solutions and assess the interventions’ results. It will help us recognize our strategic priorities where these priorities will be used to direct our management decisions to a learning process.

It is important that we comprehend and address the issue of poor performance in our organization. With your approval and support, we shall move our organization a notch higher.