Needs Assessment on a Shoestring

Determine Organizational Needs Despite Limited Resources Needs Assessment on a Shoestring offers talent development professionals a process for addressing organizational needs and determining whether training is the solution. Needs assessment pros Kelly L. Jones and Jody N. Lumsden apply the Build-Borrow-Buy approach to provide guidance, quick tips, and shortcuts for investigating and uncovering everything you can about the organizational problem you need to solve.With this book, you will learn to build a needs assessment strategy, gather insight through data analysis, and put forward effective solution recommendations. You'll also pick up strategies for borrowing existing information, talent, and resources, and for making resource management decisions. Regardless of the scope of the project, the constraints of the business problem, or how you get the job done, the steps associated with needs assessments are flexible enough to scale up or down.
To conduct high-quality needs assessments, think like a detective. The detectives Sherlock Holmes, Velma Dinkley, and Hercule Poirot didn't have large teams, unlimited budgets, or a bottomless well of resources to work with, but they succeeded by identifying who, where, and how to solve mysteries that no one else could. With this book, talent development professionals can too. This is a perfect resource for small companies-and departments of one or few?who need to get started right away.
The Association for Talent Development's On a Shoestring series helps professionals successfully execute core topics in training and talent development when facing limitations of time, money, staff, and other resources. Using the Build-Borrow-Buy approach to problem solving, this series is designed for practitioners who work as a department of one; for new or "accidental" trainers, instructional designers, and learning managers who need fast, inexpensive access to practical strategies that work; and for those who work for small organizations or in industries that have limited training and development resources.

List of contents

About the On a Shoestring Series
Dedication and Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1. Build
Chapter 1. Building the Strategy
Chapter 2. Building the Case: Data Collection
Chapter 3. Building the Case: Data Analysis
Chapter 4. Building the Recommendations
Part 2. Borrow
Chapter 5. Borrowing Existing Data
Chapter 6. Borrowing Time and Talent
Part 3. Buy
Chapter 7. Budgeting for Time
Chapter 8. Buying Smart
Chapter 9. Buy-In
Bringing It All Together
Appendix A. Tools and Templates
Appendix B. A Worked Example
Index
References and Resources
About the Authors

About the author

Anna Lena Phillips Bell is the author of Ornament, winner of the Vassar Miller Poetry Prize. Her artist's books and broadsides, including the poetry guide A Pocket Book of Forms, have appeared in exhibitions at Abecedarian Gallery and Asheville Bookworks. The recipient of a North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship in literature, she teaches at UNC Wilmington, where she is editor of Ecotone and Lookout Books. She lives with her family near the Cape Fear River, and calls Appalachian square dances in North Carolina and beyond. Find more about her work at todointhenewyear.net.

Dasan Ahanu is a poet, educator, scholar, and performing artist born and raised in Raleigh. His work has been featured on National Public Radio in appearances on "News and Notes with Ed Gordon" and "State of Things with Frank Stasio." Dasan is a resident artist with the St, Joseph's Historic Foundation/ Hayti Heritage Center in Durham, where he has developed poetry and spoken word programming for youth and adults. He is co-founder and managing director of Black Poetry Theatre, a Durham-based theatre company that creates and produces original poetry and spoken word-based productions. In 2004 he was awarded an Indy Arts Award by Independent Weekly Magazine for his work in arts and activism. In 2015, he was awarded the honor again, the first time in the award's history that has happened. His three poetry collections include The Innovator (2010), Freedom Papers (2012), and Everything Worth Fighting For (2016).

Ricardo Nazario y Colón was born in the South Bronx, NYC and raised in the Highlands of Puerto Rico. Presently he lives and works in the Appalachian region of North Carolina. His first poem was written during boot camp in the U.S. Marine Corps. In 1991 as an undergraduate at the University of Kentucky, he became a co-founder of the Affralachian Poets. His work has been widely published and anthologized in both print and online publications. He is the author of the chapbook The Recital (Winged City, 2011) and the full collection Of Jíbaros and Hillbillies (Plain View Press, 2010).

Summary

Determine Organizational Needs Despite Limited Resources 

Needs Assessment on a Shoestring offers talent development professionals a process for addressing organizational needs and determining whether training is the solution. Needs assessment pros Kelly L. Jones and Jody N. Lumsden apply the Build-Borrow-Buy approach to provide guidance, quick tips, and shortcuts for investigating and uncovering everything you can about the organizational problem you need to solve.

With this book, you will learn to build a needs assessment strategy, gather insight through data analysis, and put forward effective solution recommendations. You’ll also pick up strategies for borrowing existing information, talent, and resources, and for making resource management decisions. Regardless of the scope of the project, the constraints of the business problem, or how you get the job done, the steps associated with needs assessments are flexible enough to scale up or down.

To conduct high-quality needs assessments, think like a detective. The detectives Sherlock Holmes, Velma Dinkley, and Hercule Poirot didn’t have large teams, unlimited budgets, or a bottomless well of resources to work with, but they succeeded by identifying who, where, and how to solve mysteries that no one else could. With this book, talent development professionals can too. This is a perfect resource for small companies—and departments of one or few—who need to get started right away.

The Association for Talent Development’s On a Shoestring series helps professionals successfully execute core topics in training and talent development when facing limitations of time, money, staff, and other resources. Using the Build-Borrow-Buy approach to problem solving, this series is designed for practitioners who work as a department of one; for new or “accidental” trainers, instructional designers, and learning managers who need fast, inexpensive access to practical strategies that work; and for those who work for small organizations or in industries that have limited training and development resources. 

Foreword

The Association for Talent Development’s On a Shoestring series helps professionals successfully execute core topics in training and talent development when facing limitations of time, money, staff, and other resources. Using the Build-Borrow-Buy approach to problem solving, this series is designed for practitioners who work as a department of one; for new or “accidental” trainers, instructional designers, and learning managers who need fast, inexpensive access to practical strategies that work; and for those who work for small organizations or in industries that have limited training and development resources. 

Product details

• Authors: Kelly Jones, Kelly/ Lumsden Jones, Jody Lumsden
• Publisher: American Society for Training and Development
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 14.11.2023, delayed
• EAN: 9781953946935
• ISBN: 978-1-953946-93-5
• No. of pages: 160
• Series: On a Shoestring
• Subjects: Guides > Law, job, finance; Social sciences, law, business > Business > Miscellaneous; BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Organizational Development