Figure 5-3.
The Interview Objective
The most important element of your preparation for an interview is to identify the objective of the interview. Possible areas for in- vestigation have been identified from the information you have already received. Your objective for a follow-up interview should clearly define why such an interview is necessary.
For example, perhaps the questionnaires indicated that a de- partment is dissatisfied with the training provided to its new em- ployees on how to operate a specific piece of equipment. In that case the interview objective should discover the basis for dissatis- faction with operator training.
If the interview accomplishes that objective, you will be able to decide whether or not an identification of training needs is re- quired. You may discover that the problem is not a training prob- lem. For example, the employees leaving training may be given assignments on machines for which they were not trained, or some machines may have received design modifications not cov- ered in training.
Who to Interview
In most cases this is the individual who completed the question- naire. There are some instances in which a comment on a ques- tionnaire may really require an interview with someone else. For example, a manager completing a questionnaire may state that an- other department is not completing its work correctly, and it is affecting his/her department. In such an instance, you may also want to interview the manager of the mentioned department. Also, if you have received different ratings for the same course, you want to speak with both types of raters.
When you are identifying who to interview, keep in mind that if you need to talk to a number of people, it may be more efficient to hold a meeting with all of them at one time.
Information Required
The next step is to identify the specific information you require.
You want to determine if this is an area to further investigate and if so, to obtain the information needed to plan such an approach.
You have identified the objective, so now list the key elements to question. For example, you should try to discover:
❐ The basis for possible new training or dissatisfaction with current training
❐ The changes that may have occurred to produce a training need
❐ The factors that brought the need to attention
❐ The problems caused by the lack of training
❐ The urgency of training Question Development
You can now develop a series of questions. Keep in mind at this point you are only trying to identify areas where training needs may exist. You are not attempting to identify the specific needs.
However, at times your inquiries may in fact identify the training need, and at other times you may discover there is no need to investigate.
Your questions should not be answerable in one word. If they are, it puts you in the position of pushing for an explanation. So instead of asking, ‘‘Do you feel the current course is too long?’’
You might ask, ‘‘How long do you feel an employee should spend in this course?’’ Write your questions in the order you plan to ask them. (This will ensure not forgetting one.)
Prepare your questions to obtain the information you require.
Here is a series of questions prepared for a follow-up interview with a manager who indicated dissatisfaction with the results of a customer satisfaction course:
❐ On your questionnaire you indicated some dissatisfaction with the current (name of training course). What results do you feel that course should be achieving that it is not?
❐ How does the course’s content relate to the needs of your employees?
❐ What length do you feel such a course should be?
❐ What do you feel will improve the course?
❐ How often do you feel changes occur that may affect course content?
You may discover that the operating manager has completely different objectives for the training than you do. The important point is to be neutral and open to any comments. Don’t argue;
don’t indicate disagreement or agreement with answers. Accept the information given. Training’s role is to provide the training required for the organization to meet its objectives. Its role is not to defend courses that are not perceived as helpful.
Often such interviews can clear up misunderstandings as well as provide information for training. Whatever the case, conclude the meeting by explaining what will occur next and by answering questions such as:
❐ Are you going to talk with other involved managers?
❐ Are you going to review the training course’s objectives, content, and length?
❐ Are you going to begin a training need identification investi- gation?
❐ Do you feel the problem is not one for training?
Who Conducts the Interview?
So far we have dealt with the interview content and who to inter- view. Another important consideration is who should conduct the interview. Ideally, it is someone who is perceived as positive, neu- tral, nonthreatening, and interested. In addition, it should be someone with knowledge about the area. If a training professional is identified or assigned to the area, he/she may be the logical one to conduct the interview.
However, do not have a champion of the current training con- duct the interview. Sending the course developer or leader to do the interview usually does not work. The developer or leader may defend the course rather than obtain information.
Meetings
When you have a number of people from whom to obtain informa- tion on the same subject, a meeting is often the most efficient method to use. The major difference in preparation is determining
who should attend, and if there is to be more than one meeting, who should attend which meeting.
Meetings of this type are most productive when the partici- pants are at the same level within the organization. Mixing levels can dramatically affect the outcome. Clerks from a department might not want to be as open if a senior manager is present, and senior managers might not accept differing opinions from those at lower levels in the organization. You also want to have people with similar degrees of knowledge attend the same meeting. If there are major differences between people and departments, it is better to hold separate meetings for the different departments.
Include all appropriate people. If you received mixed evalua- tions of a course from managers (some good and some poor) in- vite all to the meeting. This may allow you to resolve the differing perceptions and discover what, if any, are the real problems.
In conducting the meeting, follow this basic procedure:
❐ State the objective.
❐ Be sure everybody knows everybody.
❐ Begin with a nonthreatening, information-gathering exer- cise.
❐ Encourage equal participation.
❐ End with a summary of the information and a statement of what you will do next and when the participants will receive information from you.
If you were to follow these steps in an actual meeting, you might begin the meeting by saying something similar to this:
First, thank you for the valuable input you provided for our recent training review. Based on your responses, I wanted to meet and discuss with you the ways in which our training functions can be more effective and of greater assistance to you and your employees.
Today, our objective is to review the effectiveness of (name of course). It is a course that all of your employees attend.
Let’s begin by having each of you write on a piece of paper what you believe the course’s objective should be. Do that in one sentence.
Give the participants time to write their one-sentence answer, then say:
Now, write beneath the objective how satisfied you are that the course met it. Use a scale of one to nine for that purpose.
One is dissatisfied, five is neither dissatisfied nor satisfied, nine is very satisfied, but you may use any point on the scale.
Try not to use fractions or decimals.
Give the participants a moment to again write their responses before continuing as follows:
Finally, write at the bottom of the page how important such a course is to your operations. Write down whether it is not important, important, or very important.
In some instances you can have the participants read their an- swers as you request them, but in most cases the following state- ment seems to work better:
Now, fold your paper in half and give it to me.
Shuffle the papers—mix them up—and randomly redistribute the answers. This is the point where you see where you are. Have the participants read the objective on their piece of paper. As they read the objectives, write the keywords from each on a chart pad or chalkboard. If there are differences, allow discussion by using overhead questions such as:
❐ What are the differences?
❐ What are the similarities?
Next, have each participant read the rating number. Write these in a column. Then have each person read the importance.
Have these numbers read in the same order so the importance can be written in a second column next to the ratings. Depending on the answers you receive, ask questions such as:
❐ What are the major points of dissatisfaction? (This question is relevant if most people are dissatisfied with the results of the training courses under review.)
❐ What results do you feel we should be achieving that we are not?
❐ What can be done to improve the course?
❐ What are the differences?
❐ What are the similarities?
❐ What is the basis for the differences?
❐ What will make this course more effective for you?
❐ What are your needs that you want this course to fulfill?
If no one feels the course is important, you need to discover the reasons a course is being conducted if the managers appar- ently do not want it. You can ask questions such as:
❐ Have your training needs in this area recently changed?
❐ Is there another course that will better meet your current needs?
❐ Can this course be revised so it can meet your current needs?
You need to remain flexible. You are conducting the meeting to obtain information. Sometimes the information may lead to sub- jects other than the course. You want to allow free discussion if it relates at all to the course.
With the above information, you will know whether a training needs analysis is required, the course should be eliminated or re- vised, or the course should be offered to different employees.
Individual Employee Training Needs
The issue with individual employee training needs is different.
Here you are dealing with only one employee and his/her supervi- sor. The starting place is the supervisor. Generally, this should be an interview. You want to ask:
❐ What is the basis for identifying the employee as requiring training?
❐ Is the training for improved performance on the current job or preparation for a future job?
❐ Does the employee know of your request?
Sometimes you may discover that there is no training need and the request was made for other reasons. For example:
A Texas company’s training department received repeated requests for training to improve a specific employee’s per- formance. All the requests were from the same supervisor.
Each time the request was investigated, the training depart- ment determined there was no training need. Eventually, they discovered the supervisor was being criticized for failing to meet department performance objectives. The employee was very vocal and continually told the supervisor what he should be doing. It was the supervisor’s frustration with the situation that motivated the requests.
Prioritizing Possible Areas of Training Needs
You now have an idea of how a training needs identification inves- tigation should be conducted and the basic information needed for planning one. You may have eliminated some areas as possible training issues, and you have additional information for the other areas. You still need the areas to investigate categorized into two groups: organizational training needs and individual training needs, since different approaches are used for each.
Once that is done, you need to reprioritize the areas and pin- point which you should investigate first to identify training needs.
To prioritize the areas, first list all of them in two groups—
organization training needs and individual employee training needs. Then rank the items in each group in order of importance to implement. In ranking, consider:
❐ The probable time necessary to conduct the study
❐ The number of potential employees to be trained
❐ Any deadlines that have to be met
❐ The probability a training need exists
❐ The number of people available to conduct a training needs analysis.
You will have then identified the areas that require an identifi- cation of training needs. Chapter 6 deals with planning the investi- gation, and Chapter 7 introduces methods for conducting the investigations.