Running head: NEEDS ASSESSMENT CYCLE

Needs Assessment Cycle

AJ Caiola
CUR/528
November 9, 2015
Michael Burnett

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Needs Assessment Cycle

The purpose of this paper is to design and explain a needs assessment cycle for a
training program. The training program that will be the subject of this needs assessment will be
the security training program at KTVB News Group. KTVB has had a training program in place
for many years but due to staff changes and technology upgrades it has been proposed that the
current program is outdated and in need of updating. In this paper an outline of how to create and
conduct a needs assessment to determine if this is the case will be outlined.
Training Program Assessment
In order to determine the needs for a program there are steps that should be followed to
ensure that the results of the needs assessment reflect the state of, or the requirements for, the
program. These steps are: Identify a course, training, or program for the needs assessment.
Identify the purpose, level of assessment, stakeholders, budget and available resources, and time
allotted for the assessment. Identify the specific information you need to measure using the needs
assessment. Determine whether information already exists or if information must be obtained
from resources.
The first step, identifying a course, training, or program, is perhaps the easiest part of this
process. It is relatively simple to look around almost any workplace or social area and see things
that need to be addressed. Whether these things need a program to address the perceived the
issues is not always the same however. This is why the follow on steps to the needs assessment
cycle are important.
The second step of the needs assessment cycle is largely simple as well. Identifying the
purpose of the assessment is closely related to the first step. Basically the intention is to
determine what type of assessment would confirm or refute the need for the program identified

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in step one. The level of assessment depends upon the answers to the follow on parts of this step,
who the stakeholders are, budget and resources, and time constraints. For example, if the
stakeholders are interdepartmental as opposed to widespread members of the public, then the
level of assessment needed would be lower. A larger budget and more time would allow for a
higher level assessment in most cases, though a program using public funds may not always
follow that model.
Step three and four are intertwined. Step three, identifying the information that needs to
be collected to support the conclusion that the program is needed can be easy or complicated,
depending upon needed information. As with step two, the scope of the proposed program can
determine how much information is needed. Within a smaller organization the need for a
particular program may be easily recognized, once someone brings the need to light. The more
stakeholders involved, or the wider the scope of a program, may require much more information.
The difficulty of step four, determining if the information already exists or if it needs to be
obtained from other sources, also depends upon the scope of the proposed program. In many
cases the information needed to justify the assessment already exists. In reality there is rarely a
training, course, or program that has not been done somewhere and many times that information
is available. In the event that the proposed program is unique enough that no one has collected
data, or if the information is just not available, there are a multitude of methodologies that can be
used to collect the necessary information. Surveys, forums, focus groups, all of these can be
used, depending upon time, budget, and the scope of the proposed program.
Methodology
The need for security training at the KTVB studio is easily recognized. Being a media
outlet there is always a chance that a story will upset a member of the public, and sometimes a

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member of that public may decide to take action of some kind. Even with the concurrence of
management that the training is needed, the type of training, or the structure of that training still
needs to be determined.
For the KTVB security training program the need has already been acknowledged so the
needs assessment is largely to determine what the best structure is for the program. Since the
program is not starting from scratch it is more a case of determining whether the existing
program is adequate to the purpose of ensuring that security practices are adequate keep the
studio is safe. How this is determined delves into the methodology of the needs assessment
which will be discussed below, the procedure is in Appendix A.
To determine the effectiveness, or lack of effectiveness, of the current training program
much of the information already exists, it just needs to be compiled. One method for gathering
the necessary information is through the use of nominal groups, another is surveys.
Nominal groups are small groups of people that have knowledge of the subject being
assessed (Royse, Thyer, & Padgett, 2010). In this case the Engineering department is primarily
responsible for the administration, maintenance, and training associated with both physical and
IT security at KTVB. The department consists of seven people, which is a large enough group to
get some variation in the information that is collected, but not too large to be an unmanageable
group.
The other method of collecting information for this assessment is with surveys. Surveys
are questionnaires that are given to the group that may be affected by the program to determine
how they view the need for a program (Royse, Thyer, & Padgett, 2010). For this program the
surveys take two forms, asking staff security related questions to determine their impressions of
the current security program and the previously used assessments. The Engineering staff

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constantly circulates through the studio building while doing regular maintenance and while
responding to trouble tickets. It is not unusual to hear about deficiencies in the security
procedures just through regular conversation. For previous assessments it is possible to look at
what areas the staff has consistently had issues with in the past to determine where deficiencies
in the current training program exist.
Conclusion
The paper contained a discussion about how to conduct a needs assessment to determine
if a new security training program is needed at KTVB. The four parts of the needs assessment
cycle were discussed as they relate to this assessment. How each part can be used to determine if
there is need for a new training program was outlined, including a methodology for collecting
data to justify the new program.

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Appendix A

Step 1: Identify course,

Needs Assessment Cycle

KTVB Security Training

training, or program
Step 2: Identify the purpose,

Ensure security of KTVB studio.

level of assessment,

Internal

stakeholders,

KTVB Engineering, KTVB management,

budget and available

Budget is man hours only

resources,
time allotted for the

Must be completed in 30 days

assessment
Step 3: Identify the specific

How effective is the current training program? Are there

information you need to

deficiencies in staff knowledge? Have there been changes to

measure using the needs

infrastructure?

assessment.
Step 4: Determine whether

Information from Engineering work group and assessments

information already exists or

from previous training program

if information must be
obtained from resources

Reference
Royse, D., Thyer, B.A., Padgett, D.K. (2010). Program evaluation: an introduction (5th ed).

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Cengage Learning.