Needs Assessments can be a powerful organizational and performance improvement tool for identifying what is working and what is not. Unfortunately, there is much confusion over what a needs assessment is, and what it should include. this pragmatic audit identifies the essential elements for a useful Needs Assessment, and provides the criteria to be used to identify what might be missing from the current process.
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All systems have users, operators, maintainers, support personnel, managers, supervisors, and others. Therefore Systems Design must include human considerations via Human Factors Engineering as part of the Systems Engineering process. Human Factors Engineering acts as the conduit for other domains and is essential to including Manpower, Personnel and Training in the Systems Engineering Process.
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An organization’s request for training typically begins the process of performance improvement. The example project that follows outlines a basic process that was based upon an organizational analysis and an application of targeted evaluation questions. The project involved leadership development in a military environment through the implementation of a mentoring program employed within an organization of approximately 600 people.
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The Military’s outmoded manpower and personnel systems rose to the surface in 1998, when a booming economy, coupled with the end of the military’s post – Cold War downsizing led to overall personnel shortages and staffing imbalances across occupations within the armed services.
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Marines in Iraq are operating constantly, which includes operations at night. In close environments, and with limited visibility, such as urban terrain, Marines need to be able to identify their fellow Marines to avoid friendly fire. The use of night-vision goggles and new identifying technology makes it easier to differentiate between friend and foe at night. Non-hostile fire incidents, commonly known as friendly-fire, are perhaps the most tragic and costly of all potential battlefield mishaps and hazards. In Operation Enduring Freedom, friendly-fire has caused several high-profile combat deaths.
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In 2001, the United States Navy (USN) embarked on a program to modernize its training. The Executive Review of Navy Training study determined that there was a real need to identify better ways to organize, deliver, and set requirements for individual training and education. A little over 2 years later the study delivered its program outcomes: Nowadays we recognize these well known projects as the Revolution in Training, Task Force EXCEL and Project Sea Warrior.
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In this new quarterly column I intend to consider strategies for addressing the human variable in process performance improvement initiatives, and in post-improvement operations.
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