HR Decision Analysis Exercise: Are Training Needs Assessments Necessary?

You are currently working at Meran, Inc., a 2,000-employee provider of hardware and parts to the telecommunications industry. Recently, Meran has become aware of the desire for training and development among many of its employees. This awareness has been as a result of requests from supervisors and employees both in product development and in manufacturing. In addition, top management has become acutely aware of the fact that Meran seems to provide fewer training opportunities than many of its industry competitors. In addition, the newest talent in the organization has voiced concern that they had been promised significant career development during the recruitment process, including mentoring from more experienced managers. The HR director, Yuxin Zheng, has tasked you with finding a training program or programs that would be most suitable for Merans needs. This includes the employees at multiple levels and divisions in the organization, along with multiple skill levels. Although there are multiple indications that the company could use some additional types of training, your inclination is to perform some type of needs assessment to confirm what these needs really are. However, Zheng does not want to do a training needs assessment, suggesting that the organization already knows what is needed. In addition, he is proposing the use of an eLearning vendor, as it would allow the company to deliver a range of content. He argues that eLearning would allow for the delivery of training on mobile devices, something that he believes that the newer, younger employees would prefer over other types of training.

Questions:

Does he take a systematic stakeholder perspective?

Considering your analysis above, overall, what would be an effective decision? Why?

What, if anything, do you think should be done differently or considered to help make this decision more effective?