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How does any company sell its products and services to grow and retain its business? It finds out everything it can about its customers and provides solutions to meet their needs. If you want to live in a house that meets your needs, you buy one that is large enough and has the right configuration of rooms to suit your family. If you want to buy a car that is tops on gasoline mileage and good for the environment, then you buy one that is designed to meet those goals.
Instructional designers should design training to meet the needs of their customers (i.e. employees and, in some cases, external clients). And how would designers go about customizing this training? By conducting a learner analysis as part of a larger design process. A learner analysis is simply a way to find out as much as you can about the people who will be attending the training. Then, when you design all the components of the course, you will be able to customize each part for maximum results.
A learner analysis sounds like a science project that could take months to complete, but it doesn’t need to be complicated at all. For example, you can simply talk to employees, managers, and human resources personnel to find out the information. You might want to learn about the number of people who need the training, where the learners are located, what educational backgrounds they have, if they’ve attended previous training, what related skills they already have, and what their attitude about the training looks like.
When we teach about completing a learner analysis as part of the 12-step design model in our Instructional Design for New Designers workshop, we remind our own learners that it doesn’t need to be a time-consuming step in the process. Also, it doesn’t need to be conducted for every design project. You only need to do a learner analysis for people that are new to you. Once you get to know a group, you’ve already completed this step for any future training!
Here are three tips to conduct a quick learner analysis:
1. Get to know your fellow employees on a day-to-day basis as you would any co-worker. Chat with people at lunch, during breaks, and before and after business meetings. Document any pertinent information about them however you wish.
2. Learn more about your co-workers through their social media posts and profiles. Review their content and details to learn about them, their work history, and anything you think would be helpful to know for the training.
3. Take time to simply observe your workplace and your co-workers’ interactions with each other. Become an expert on your corporate culture and what employees like and don’t like about their jobs and workplace.
If you make these three tips a habit and record your thoughts, you will have already done your homework when it comes time to design training for this group!
