TNAS Review

An AI-Powered Software Built For HR and Employees

Mehak Kazmi
MK@KAYBOX.CO.UK

When it comes to Performance Management, CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personal Development) say it the best. It’s about creating a culture which encourages the continuous improvement of individuals’ skills, behaviours and contributions to the organisation. The task for identifying learning and development needs in employees and leverage the results to enable greater business performance, is one that is a constant struggle for many organisations and HR departments.

In this article, I will specifically go over a Training Needs Analysis System that creates a robust and comprehensive tool for the organisation, the HR or training managers, and the employees. An intelligent AI-Powered software that’s conceptualised, developed and already used in the Middle East, by Dr Mohammed Tikrity. He is an author and R&D consultant, with over 20 years of experience working closely with the public and private sectors in HR.

The software is called TNAS, and in this article, I will go over what it is, how it works, and why it matters. I will also highlight how TNAS positively impacts on all four levels, the organisation, the managers, the HR admins and the employees. And how you can get the best out of training and development with this tool.

The Current Problem in Training

Since covid-19, there has been a shift in workplaces going virtual. With this significant move, there is also an increased need in moving to digital learning experiences for organisations. According to a new report (Learning & Skills at Work 2020) from CIPD and Accenture, it’s reported that only 29% of organisations claim to have clear L&D plans for their employees.

The time to harness online tools and foster a supportive culture of learning is more needed than ever. Traditional methods of training, which promotes Scrap Learning, is one that organisations can’t afford to do anymore. And if organisations can’t measure the return on investment in training, then it’s even more difficult to justify the importance that L&D is bringing to an organisation.

Lack of training leads to low employee performance, low morale or job satisfaction, less opportunities to grow, and so much more.

Employees need to understand what’s expected of them, and how they will improve their skills to contribute to the organisation’s success. To do this, they’ll need the right skills, resources and support from their managers and budgets from their organisation. This contributes to a group activity that is approached holistically by all three levels.

Four Levels of Responsibility that Impacts Training

A constant problem lays on all four levels.

The Employee Level

On an individual level, it can be difficult to voice concerns to managers on differences in skills that require training. Sometimes, the wrong training can hinder the progression of an employee rather than the other way round. This, in return, can leave to low motivation and satisfaction – and not feeling heard.

The HR admin Level

The HR admin steps in to make sure training needs are prioritised in the right places and reports are developed to present in meetings and decision making. Also, to ensure a fair approach is delivered between the employee and manager.

The Managerial Level

For managers, their role is simple. It’s to make sure the training budgets are spent and utilised in the best way and to ensure employee retention is low by identifying what knowledge and training employees require to reach their full potential.

With all these responsibilities, it can get difficult to prioritise and make an actionable plan that is effective, realistic and measurable.

The Organisational Level

For organisations, they aren’t just thinking about the employees, but also the customers and stakeholders. There’s a bigger picture here, and it’s the organisation’s responsibility to make sure budgets are being assigned to HR, and that there’s effective and high-quality management being done. They also have to keep record of training and development, and make sure strategies and values are met.

What is TNAS and Why Does it Matter for Organisations?

To identify the correct skills in employees, you can take many approaches. Such as, carrying out direct observations, questionnaires, interviews, exams, or focus groups. But each approach has it’s downfall, which can also negatively impact on the training success. There are opportunities for bias, employee and manager conflict, misunderstandings, overload of paperwork and lost records, delayed time spent organising and so much more.

TNAS System was built on the presumption of solving three things; to save time, effort and money, using an algorithm that produces accurate results online.

This software helps to identify the most important skill needed, but not only this. It also helps to prioritise the skills based on performance. Saving managers time on calculating this.

1: Identifying the right skills

Listing the required skill set to perform a job can be deceptively tricky. As there are many things to take into account. Common questions are, ‘do this role require customer service or organisation?’, ‘can this role be done without the need of relationship building?’. The TNAS actually breaks this down, so it’s easy for the managers to list the skills, as they can prioritise the importance of each skill in the next step.

2: Assessing the importance of skills

In this part, the manager is required to mark the importance of each skill from 1 to 5. The software calculates the average importance of that particularly skill set. Which is beneficial when it comes to knowing how much time and energy to invest in training for that role.

3: Assessing the employee’s performance by the manager

This is a crucial element of TNAS, as now there is a gap filled between knowing the importance of the skill and knowing where the employee is at.

In this part, the manager marks each skill out of 5, based on the employee’s performance. So for example, problem solving might be marked as 4 based on what the manager has observed of the specific employee and time management might be marked as 2 as the employee has shown evidence of being late.

The marks are then calculated to an average rating score of the employee’s performance.

4: Self-assessing performance done by the employee

At this point, an assessment is required by the specific employee to mark their own skills from 1 to 5. This is based on what they believe is right.

5: Assessment of the employee’s performance by the manager and self

An overview of both findings are compiled in one report to bridge the gaps between the two parties. This encourages transparency and discourages bias or misunderstandings. Both managers and employees can see the skill required for training, the ratings and a score that determines the priority and importance.

Getting to Know the Algorithms

Based on the input, a report is then produced to show the skills gap percentage in each skill and also the priority index. You can see the below diagram 1 for reference.

Using TNAS to Get the Best Out of Training

The software is built to provide an online and organised way of managing employee training needs.

Three parties related to the system are HR admins, managers and the employees. The impact of skills in workplace has an effect on economic and social factors for employees and organisations. It can be determined that those who utilise their skills in the correct way end up having better job satisfaction and career progression.

This is all showing the relationship between the manager and the employee. But what if the skill assessment for the role is for more than one person?

Dr Tikrity designed this tool with all of these scenarios in mind. Knowing the skills gap and priority of training is just one part of the software. TNAS delves further into calculations based on the input of the manager and employee and displays the assessment on performance levels for groups as well as reports containing relevant information for employees, managers and HR department.

In diagram 2, you can see how the required skills are compared with many employees. Which certainly saves time and effort, having to work this out. On top of this, it also shows which employee requires the most training and attention in a snapshot.

Organisations who have employees who have skills that are matched with their role lead to a better workforce and business success.

As Dr Tikrity says, ‘digital transformation is a continuous process, in which modern technology integrates with all functions and areas of business to improve operations, talent, value and build a new future for organisations’.

TNAS System helps the organisation by increasing and improving resources. And also helping to manage training budgets effectively and keep an organised record of training and development. Which is also accessible online.

For HR admins and training managers, the system helps to identify the knowledge and performance gaps in employees. Allowing the department to address these gaps with appropriate training needs and determine who needs training the most in order to perform well. Not on this, the TNAS System helps to identify the type of training required in terms of the skills, knowledge, abilities and behaviour of the employee.

On the other hand, for employees the system ensures that the right people get the right training. A problem that many face in today’s workplace. Employees are reminded of the importance of training needs and a culture of health guidance and counselling is promoted as perception is taken into account when analysing the data. In return, employees are much happier and satisfied with a system like TNAS.

Below you can see how the system can go beyond the performance reviews and training needs analysis and provide many tools for Learning and Development.

Individual
  • Employee performance appraisal by the manager
  • Evaluation of an employee’s performance by the employee himself
  • Evaluation of employee performance by both manager and self
Group
  • Evaluation of performance levels for each employee by the manager
  • Self-assessment of employees’ performance
  • Evaluation of employee performance by the manager and employee
Performance Gaps & Training Needs
  • Employee performance gap reports
  • Training Priority Index

TNAS System is a built-in intelligence that can solve many goals for organisations. If you’re a HR professional looking to find a way to simplify the TNA process in your workplace, get in touch with us today to receive a demo of the system.

Overview of TNAS

Below is an overview of the AI-Powered system:

  • Because not all skills gaps have the same importance, TNAS built-in Intelligence calculates training priorities using a new innovative “Priority Index” parameter.
  • Over 700 skills classified into 50 categories, allow you to customise and build your exact skill sets for your organisation and departments.
  • What training is needed and Why, and Who needs it?
  • Scalable as Use TNAS for individuals or groups with or without manager or employees assessment
  • Can be customised as you can define your own required skills or training areas as the basis for the assessment.
  • Supports both Occupational assessment (position requirements) and Individual assessment.
  • Identifies skills gap based on skill importance and current employees performance levels. The skills gap = position requirements – worker skills set
  • Generates a detailed reports with current skill levels analysis and proposed training plan.
  • Reports for employees, managers/supervisors and HR or training managers.
  • Each report includes a learning and education sections to educate the employees and improve their awareness on how to develop their performance.
  • Helps employees to create their action plan based on needs, reflection and goal-setting within the context of a career, training & development and self-improvement.

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