Whole Foods: Performing a Needs Assessment

Stakeholders from which to receive buy-in

Customers: Whole foods is pretty expensive so it would not be where it is today without the support of the customer

Environmentalists: Whole foods is known for its environmental efforts and organic food as well as unconventional food efforts.

Associates and Managers: The employees and managers have to love their jobs in order for the company to be a success.

Trainers: These professionals are responsible for keeping employees current in their profession.

Questions to Ask

Ask the trainers: Do you have enough money to for training materials?
                           Do you have the support of the organization?
                           How do you identify which employees need training or additional
                                   training?
                            In what tasks should the employee be trained?

Supervisors:    For what jobs can training make a difference in product quality and/or  
                        customer service.

Managers/owners: Does this company have the employees with the skills necessary to
                                 compete in the market place?
                              What facets of the business need more training than the others? How
                                   do you know?
                               Are there any threats to you talent base? What are they?

Employees:   Do you know the basics of your job?
                      Do you feel like there are any areas of your job that you do not know?

Customers: How is the customer service and quality of goods with this company?
                   If you could change anything about this company what would it be? Do you
                     think it could benefit for additional training?


Documents or Records: 

The documents or records that I would ask to see are the average daily sales per department. I would ask to see yearly sales figures and tie those sales figures into customer satisfaction surveys. I would also ask for the summary of focus group sessions. Lastly, I wold ask to see employee training records and secret shopper data and sanitation grades.

Techniques:

First of all I would use observation because it generates data relevant to the work environment and minimizes the interruption of the employees' work. Then I would employ questionnaires because data from questionnaires can be easily summarized as long as the proper questions were asked. Moreover, depending on the data obtained, I would conduct random  interviews to clarify data points and unexpected issues that may arise. Lastly, I would use focus groups to explore any issues interviews may bring up.

In conclusion, a needs assessment is necessary because training may be incorrectly implemented as a solution to a performance problem. Also, sometimes the method of training is not in line with the objectives. In parallel, some employees may be sent to training programs for which they have not yet acquired the appropriate skills. Lastly, a needs assessment analysis is important because it can save money by aligning training to the expected outcomes and thus can save the organization a lot of money in unnecessary training.