A Study on Training Needs Analysis (TNA) Process among Manufacturing Companies Registered with Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad (PSMB) at Bayan Lepas Area, Penang, Malaysia

Abstract

Employees are said to be the most valuable asset in an organisation (Ferdinand, 1988). Therefore, employees talent need to continuously develop and nurture in achieving the highest performance of the organisation. Bentley (1994) emphasized the key to finding and developing the talent is by training whereby training is a planned effort of the organisation to facilitate employee knowledge and skills that are critical for successful job performance (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gehart and Wright, 2008). Thus, any training intervention must be preceded with the process of training needs analysis (TNA). This prerequisite steps is considered important in providing organisation with valuable information to help them in designing and implementing strategic training programs, that will lead to organisational sustainability. The manner to which TNA process is approached are also important in determining the accuracy of it’s result. This study is to understand how far an organisation is adopting the recommended practices in TNA process. The data was collected using a set of questionnaire. The questinnaires were distributed to 236 companies resulting 40.10% of return rate. The findings showed that organisation do recognise the importance of proper training needs in helping to design an effective annual training plan. There is no difference among the organisations on the way TNA is conducted. The study result also offers practical understanding to human resource and training practitioners on how organisations implement their TNA. Besides that, this study provides a knowledge on how TNA should be conducted and the variables that affect its effectiveness. Futher, the study result can be used by other organisation to improve their current TNA process to design impactful training program for the organisation sustainability.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s3p670