Who should identify the training needs? Should it be employee or his/ her manager? If this aspect gets defined, the balance of process is easy to be determined.
For the workers category of employees, it is desirable that their respective supervisors/ managers should play this role since most workers may find it difficult to define their training needs. After all, training has to be aligned to the organizational/ departmental objectives, a task which the manager alone can do.
For executives, it is fair that they are permitted to define their own needs keeping in view their job description & departmental goals.
In both the above cases, one approach is that the training/ HR Manager, based on organizational objectives, lists out the various training programs planned to be conducted during the next training year for workers & the executive categories of employees. These should preferably be got approved from the CEO/ Management. These should be circulated to all managers/ supervisors with a direction to identify 2 - 3 programs (of a total duration of say, 6 days) which each individual worker is required to attend. Details, department wise, should be forwarded to the HR/ Training Manager for consolidation and scheduling of programs in the training calendar for the year. Similarly, the Executives may choose their own programs & forward for approval to their respective reporting managers. The data, duly consolidated department wise, to be submitted to the HR/ Training manager for planning of training.
To do the above in an organized manner, software support through approaches such as utilizing 'EmpXtrack' training management system may facilitate easy & accurate collection and compilation of data. After all, the preparation of training calendar based on TNI and allocation of different programs to each employee, keeping under control the minimum requirement of manpower to manage daily operations in different departments, is a complex task, which can surely be managed more efficiently by using appropriate software solutions. It is to be appreciated that imparting training based on TNI is as important as collecting and analysing training feed back from the employees & their departments. This helps in launching improvements during the next year. This cyclic process, followed year over the year, helps in generating trained resources to meet the company objectives.