Time and budget constraints mean you cannot meet every training need at once. According to the UK Employer Skills Survey 2024, around 12% of employers reported skills gaps in their workforce, representing roughly 1.26 million employees judged not fully proficient in their role.
A new system, a regulatory change, a business transformation or a performance dip: every situation feels urgent. As an HR or Learning & Development (L&D) manager, you have to arbitrate between individual requests, team needs and the strategic goals of the business.
Training more does not guarantee that you train the right people, at the right time, on the right skills. A training needs analysis (TNA) turns scattered requests into a focused plan. This guide takes you from diagnosis through to measuring results.
What is a training needs analysis (TNA)?
TNA definition: the gap between current and required skills
A training needs analysis is a systematic process that identifies the gap between the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) employees currently have and those they need to perform their role. It appears whenever a change requires people to acquire, update or strengthen hard skills or soft skills.
Several situations create this gap:
- a new role or a change in responsibilities;
- the rollout of a new tool or process;
- a business or organisational transformation;
- a new regulatory requirement;
- recurring errors or a drop in performance;
- a strategic project or an internal mobility goal.
Training needs assessment vs TNA vs learning needs analysis (LNA)
These three terms are often used interchangeably, but they describe different steps:
- A training needs assessment identifies that a performance or capability gap exists.
- A training needs analysis (TNA) goes further. It uncovers the root cause of the gap and the most appropriate response. A TNA is usually a one-off exercise tied to a specific training activity.
- A learning needs analysis (LNA) takes an ongoing, strategic view of organisational capability. According to the CIPD, an LNA flows from business strategy and runs continuously, rather than focusing on a single training need.
In practice, you run an assessment first to confirm a gap, then a TNA to determine the right solution.
The three levels: organisational, job/task and individual
A TNA examines needs at three complementary levels:
- Organisational level: the strategy, transformation projects, performance targets and regulatory changes that shape future skills requirements.
- Job or task level: the competencies expected for a role, compared with practices observed on the ground.
- Individual level: an employee's current level, difficulties, changing responsibilities and career goals.
Reading these three levels together keeps individual requests connected to the wider business. It also helps you separate genuine skills and competencies gaps from issues that training cannot fix. For example, an employee promoted to team manager may need to strengthen their feedback and delegation skills at the individual level, while their whole department needs onboarding on a new CRM at the job/task level.
Why does a training needs analysis matter?
Anticipate the skills your organisation will need
According to the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2025, 39% of workers' core skills are expected to be transformed or become obsolete by 2030. You therefore contribute to the resilience of your organisation by upskilling teams ahead of need.
This sits within a strategic workforce planning logic: having the right skills, in the right place, at the right time. By analysing projects, evolving roles and strategic priorities, you can spot capability gaps before they slow the business down. You can also address a looming skills shortage through reskilling, succession planning and talent development, keeping critical roles covered.
Support employability and engagement
Identifying needs also serves the individual. Relevant training helps an employee master their role, keep pace with their profession and prepare their next move.
The case is measurable. McKinsey estimates that effective reskilling can lift productivity by 6–12%, while relevant training is one of the strongest drivers of employee engagement and retention. When people feel supported in their development, they are more likely to stay and grow.
Align training with performance and budget
You must weigh the urgency of each need, its contribution to business goals and the resources available to meet it. This analysis concentrates your effort where it matters: securing a project, reducing a risk, accelerating autonomy or improving a business metric. Tracking the return on investment (ROI) of training keeps the focus on the actions that pay off.
It also covers mandatory and compliance training, such as health and safety. In the UK, the Apprenticeship Levy gives larger employers a dedicated lever to fund development, which strengthens the business case you present to leadership.
How do you gather and identify training needs?
Analyse needs at three levels
Effective identification combines the organisational, job/task and individual levels. Study the strategy and transformation plans at the top, compare expected and observed competencies in each role, then assess each employee against the requirements of their job. This three-level reading is the first step of any structured TNA.
Combine the main data-collection methods
A single source rarely gives a reliable picture. You get the clearest view by combining several methods:
|
Method |
What it helps identify |
Watch-out |
|---|---|---|
|
Annual appraisal |
Results, difficulties and competencies to strengthen |
Do not reduce it to objective-setting |
|
Career development conversation |
Mobility, employability and medium-term needs |
Separate the project from immediate role priorities |
|
Questionnaire or self-assessment |
Perceived needs, confidence levels and expectations |
Responses are declarative and may over- or under-state the real level |
|
Competency framework and job analysis |
The gap between expected and available levels |
Keep the framework up to date |
|
Observation |
Concrete difficulties, errors and real working practices |
Observe several situations to avoid hasty conclusions |
|
Manager feedback |
Collective needs and recurring operational issues |
Cross-check with employee and data perspectives |
|
Focus groups |
Shared challenges and themes across a team |
Best when introducing a new system or process |
|
360-degree feedback |
Perspectives from managers, peers and direct reports |
Best for leadership and behavioural needs |
|
Skills assessments and testing |
Technical knowledge and compliance readiness |
Useful for regulated or role-specific needs |
|
HR and LMS data |
Mobility, turnover, scores, completion and progression |
A single indicator does not explain the cause |
A mix of these methods, used together, gives the most accurate result.
When should you run a TNA? Planned vs change-triggered
A TNA relies on two complementary rhythms:
- Planned analysis uses appraisals, career conversations and regular internal campaigns. It surfaces common trends and feeds the skills development plan and its budget.
- Change-triggered analysis kicks in as soon as a change reshapes roles, tools or practices: restructuring, a new process, a software rollout, onboarding, regulatory change or a market shift. It lets you react without waiting for the next annual cycle.
Which tools help you capture and centralise training needs?
Questionnaires, interviews and competency frameworks
Three tools structure the collection of needs: the questionnaire, the individual interview and the competency framework.
The identification questionnaire gives a fast first read across a team or a wider population. To anchor responses in real work situations, you can use this template:
- Which task would you like to perform better?
- What difficulty do you face today?
- Which competency do you need to acquire or strengthen?
- What is your current level on that competency?
- What concrete result do you expect?
- By when do you need to be operational?
The individual interview then deepens any vague answers, while the competency framework objectifies the gap between expected and observed levels, using the job description and person specification as the reference. A skills audit then maps the competencies already available across the team. Handle every response in line with UK GDPR, and make clear to employees how their answers will be used and who can access them.
Centralising at scale with an LMS, LXP and AI
As headcount grows, spreadsheets and shared files become hard to consolidate. A Learning Management System (LMS) centralises questionnaires, self-assessments, positioning tests and progression data in one place. Many HR teams pair it with a skills matrix (or training matrix) and people analytics to track capability and shorten time-to-skill.
A Learning Experience Platform (LXP) then personalises recommendations by profile, while AI speeds up the analysis by cross-referencing expected competencies, results, business goals and usage data. Gaps are detected and tracked continuously, rather than once a year. In an international organisation, a shared platform also runs campaigns in several languages and consolidates results across countries.
You can centralise the collection of needs with Rise Up's LMS software, turn the gaps you identify into personalised pathways, and connect them to an adaptive LXP. A Training Management System (TMS) complements the LMS by building the plan and steering the budget.
How do you analyse and prioritise the needs you collect?
Check that training is the right solution
Before you prioritise a need, identify the real cause of the difficulty. Training works when a lack of knowledge, skill or behaviour prevents the expected result. It will not fix an unsuitable tool, an unclear procedure, a lack of resources or conflicting objectives. For example, if a sales team misses its target, a TNA may reveal the cause is an outdated CRM rather than a lack of selling skills. In that case, training alone would waste budget and leave the gap open.
To qualify the need, ask yourself:
- Which work situation is causing the problem?
- Which competency is genuinely missing?
- What concrete change do you expect after the training?
Prioritise by urgency and impact
Once needs are qualified, rank them by urgency and by impact on the business:
|
Limited impact |
High impact |
|
|---|---|---|
|
High urgency |
Offer a short response or a targeted resource |
Treat as a priority |
|
Low urgency |
Defer, pool or redirect the request |
Build into the skills development plan |
Group similar needs
Requests phrased differently often point to the same need. "Speak more confidently", "present ideas better" and "win over a client" can all map to a single communication competency.
By grouping employees according to the target competency, their starting level and the expected outcome, you can pool training into consistent cohorts and optimise the budget.
How do you turn training needs into a training plan?
Set learning objectives and success metrics (KPIs)
Each priority need must become an observable result. Replace a general aim like "get better at Excel" with a precise capability: "build an automated tracking sheet without help".
You can then define learning outcomes and the KPIs that go with them: assessment score, autonomous completion of a task, fewer errors, time to autonomy or a business indicator. Models such as the Kirkpatrick model, which evaluates training across four levels (reaction, learning, behaviour and results), help you structure this evaluation. The need then becomes a clear skills development plan that sets out content, activities and assessment criteria.
Choose the right delivery
The format depends on the competency, the population and operational constraints. You can opt for:
- in-person or classroom sessions to practise and exchange;
- remote or virtual delivery for dispersed teams;
- e-learning to scale knowledge widely;
- blended learning, on-the-job learning, coaching or mentoring to combine autonomy and support.
The plan then sets the populations involved, the rollout schedule, the learning time and the budget. Factor in team availability and peak periods to limit drop-out.
Measure skills gained and refine
Tracking does not stop at course completion. Check that the skills are applied in real work, using assessments, role-plays, manager observations and the KPIs you defined upfront.
Compare results with the starting level to spot progress and any persistent gaps. You can then adjust content, formats or support. This evaluation stage closes the ADDIE model loop (Analyse, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate) and feeds the next cycle of needs collection, in a logic of continuous improvement.
Done well, a training needs analysis keeps your effort where it has the most impact: it stops you investing in training that does not move performance, and gives you a clear case to justify your choices and budgets to leadership.
