Management Training Needs Analysis | Thomas.co

The old saying, “leaders are born, not made” couldn’t be further from the truth today. Knowing how to make the best leaders in your team and organisation are part of the key ingredients for business success.

Of course, knowing how to evaluate the potential of a team member when trying to create leaders is arguably the most important thing. Imagine spending the time with someone who doesn’t have any of the traits that a good leader should have, or worse, training someone to do a job that they don’t want. This will lead to a waste of time, money and company resources. 

However, knowing how to assess candidates is the key. Thomas assessments are thorough and clearly identify the skill gaps and requirements your staff need to take them to the next level of leadership. Also, because of their ability to assess the clear skills that need to be developed, they help save your business time and money. 

In this article we will look at, what is management training, the training needs analysis for managers and the benefits of management training needs assessments.

What is Management Training? 

Put simply, management training is the activity that focuses on improving the skills as a leader and manager; or in another way, it helps build leadership in an organisation. 

This type of training focuses on soft skills such as communication and empathy, resulting in getting teams to work better together, communicate more effectively and achieve company goals.

Training Needs Analysis for Managers 

Understanding where there are skills gaps in your workforce is key to developing not only employees’ capabilities but the overall quality of your business. For maximum business productivity, it's critical to both understand and develop their individual strengths and weaknesses, and thus forms an important part of an employee’s training and development. 

Managers need to be able to communicate and show clear leadership skills in any business. Leaders demonstrating emotional intelligence and knowing how to manage other people with these skills leads to a better overall experience for everyone involved.

A needs analysis will clearly identify strengths and weaknesses and where there are skills gaps that need to be addressed. You can test for empathy and other leadership skills that are required and then structure your training approach to maximise your training capacity. 

The Thomas Development solution is an assessment and guided training tool that helps you identify the members of your team that would benefit from specific leadership training, and also develop strengths and improve on weaknesses throughout your whole team. 

Psychometric Testing and Assessment 

Using the right tools is essential to psychometric testing and assessments. At Thomas we have a range of tools that can be used to identify the right candidates for the specific leadership training that management training requires. 

The employee development platform for example, identifies potential leadership, profiling your leadership team and identifying any missing attributes to the team. Whether you need to assess a candidate’s ability to show more empathy or how to deal with conflict in their team. 

Psychometric tests and assessments should be part of your ongoing business development. They not only help you choose the right candidates from the very beginning but they also help you with ongoing development and evaluation with a non-biased methodology. 

Benefits of Management Training Needs Assessment 

Before undertaking any management training needs assessment, it’s important to understand what the potential benefits are. These include; 

  • Efficiency and training cost savings

You’re identifying what areas need to be trained and by doing so, you’ are not wasting time and money on training that shouldn’t have been delivered. 

  • Identification of knowledge and skills gaps 

Having a clear understanding of the areas that require attention is more efficient but also, more aligned to your business goals. Your organisation may require specific training and skill sets and, knowing where there are gaps, you can create a plan to adjust to these requirements.

  • Ensuring training is focused on what’s required

Targeted training is efficient, money saving and clearly identifiable. It’s also essential to have what your business requires and not a generic training approach.

  • Prioritisation of training needs 

Your organisation or team may need to have specific training laid out and prioritised above other training requirements. Again, this saves on time and money if you know what’ is needed before starting.

Management training needs analysis is essential for businesses looking for their next leaders. By understanding what’s missing and what needs to be improved, your employee lifecycle from recruitment through to ongoing training is better identified, saving you time, money and making your organisation more efficient. Thomas International has a range of training and assessment tools that can help you identify your future leaders and help you develop them moving forwards.