Organizational Needs Assessment (ONA)

An organizational needs assessment (ONA) is recognized as being a strategic planning tool, “a necessary first step” (McLeod, 1995, p. 13) in the literature describing good practice. Folinsbee and Jurmo define it as, “a systematic way of identifying all workplace needs, not just those that require an educational response.” They state three purposes:

1. To identify an organization’s overall educational needs, with a focus on basic skills.

2. To identify other workplace needs resulting from ongoing organizational change.

3. To specify a range of activities that will help employees and organizations fulfill identified needs.

(Folinsbee & Jurmo, 1994, p. 13)

The ONA situates the educational needs and interests of the workforce in the culture of the organization. Basic skills/ language and literacies are examined in the context of communication practices, work organization and workplace change. As a result, the ONA helps to ensure that education and training are the appropriate response (Masschusetts Workplace Literacy Committee, 2001) and “does not necessarily assume that training will always be the only solution” (Holland et. al., 2001, p. 41). More targeted assessments, such as a literacy task analysis, can be one component of the broader ONA.

Taylor sees the ONA as “paramount to success” (1995, p. 91) and perhaps the only chance employees get to express their educational interests. He found that without it, programs encountered difficulties later on with mismatches of learners and content (1998). Cichon and Sperazi find other important benefits from an ONA:

It helps the [workplace committee] make realistic judgments about what a literacy program can and cannot accomplish, helps to facilitate the integration of workplace and educational goals, and introduces educational staff to the workplace, in particular to workers, supervisors and managers.

(1997, p. 8)