This paper examines the key considerations involved in designing and implementing an employee training solution. It addresses the types of information needed before training begins — including users' prior experience, technology skills, and access to equipment — and explains how data gathering shapes instructional design planning. The paper then explores the ethical concerns that arise when conducting a front-end analysis for a commercial training product, including employee confidentiality, fair use of assessment data, and the obligation not to manufacture training needs for commercial gain. Four types of front-end review — performance analysis, needs analysis, environmental analysis, and instructional needs assessment — are discussed within their ethical contexts.
The first question to consider when evaluating the training needs of employees and designing a training solution is: what experience do the prospective users have with the types of applications and knowledge required to begin and successfully complete the proposed training course? If experience with the relevant applications is minimal, it may be necessary to have instructors facilitate the introduction to the new application, or to expand the training solution to include more remedial skills work.
Next, a training designer must ask what level of computer or internet skills the users possess — and whether those skills are similar to those required by the new application or substantially different. If profoundly different, both the training procedure and the initial assessment process may need to be more rigorous than they would be for a workforce already comfortable with technology, even when employees are familiar with predecessor systems. According to the principles of instructional design, matching training complexity to learner readiness is a foundational step in effective program development.
Lastly, an important consideration is whether prospective learners have the technology available to access the training course content and complete all coursework at their current workstations, or whether it will be necessary to take time away from work to orient workers to the new system.
Data gathering regarding users is best conducted early in the process of designing a training curriculum. Before training begins, potential users can take online self-assessments whose scores can be tabulated and recorded in ways that identify areas of skills weakness among the staff. The IT personnel designing the training instruction can then target these weaknesses and determine how time and resources are best expended when planning instructional procedures — especially when instruction must be lengthy and requires considerable time away from the regular work schedule.
Case studies, tests, work samples, customer studies, surveys, and interviews all provide a potentially rich source of data ("Perform a Front End Analysis," 2003). Together, these instruments allow designers to build a detailed and accurate picture of learner needs before a single lesson is delivered.
"Confidentiality and fairness in employee assessments"
"Four review types and their ethical obligations"
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