Using the e-KSF to provide valuable training needs analysis information
The NHS spends over £4 billion every year on training and education. A significant proportion of this is spent on Agenda For Change staff. But how much of this money is spent effectively? Or are we guilty of sending people on “the usual training courses” without focusing activity where it’s actually required?
We have always been of the belief that the NHS needs to move away from “Training Wants Data” and believe the KSF provides an effective way of doing this.
The KSF and thus e-KSF gives NHS organisations, and their managers:
- A language for describing gaps in an individual’s knowledge, skills, competences and qualifications. National Occupational Standards and National Workforce Competences add more detail to this picture, where they are used.
- A way of storing data in one place, for easy analysis and action.
- A common description of actual development activities which people plan to undertake to close their knowledge and skill gaps, so that organisations have sight of not just the gaps, but also the planned development activities.
- A bottom-up approach for collecting data, the KSF gives managers and staff a standard way of describing knowledge, skills and development, as part of their regular development discussions and appraisals. This allows organisations to collect development data at a very detailed, individual-staff-member level, focusing on their actual needs – much better than previous attempts at top-down training needs analysis based on estimated requirements across staff groups. This means that LNA becomes just “a part of the way we do things around here” rather than a separate annual activity.
Bringing it all together
Managers and staff, by completing their KSF development review, cycle through the 4 phases in the blue area of the picture below:
Step 1: An individual and his/her reviewer will review their progress against the KSF post outline, and record information about gaps in knowledge and skills.
Step 2: The individual will then identify specific learning activities, and where the activity is a piece of formal learning, then they can select from a list provided to them by their training and development department.
Step 3: The learning then takes place – online or offline, and formally or informally and in or out of the workplace.
Step 4: The individual learner can then evaluate the effectiveness of the development and record completion.
This process of review and development provides valuable data for the training and development department. Experts in this department can aggregate and analyse the data that’s been collected by reviewers and reviewees. This data can then be used to plan the upcoming period’s training and development, and commission training from external and internal providers if necessary. Finally, the training and development department can use technology to publicise and manage the training activities, completing the loop back to managers and staff in the service.
If your organisation has already been rolling out the e-KSF to managers and staff to complete their development reviews and PDPs, data about the knowledge and skills requirements in your team (KSF post outlines on the e-KSF), the current level of knowledge and skills available (KSF development reviews on the e-KSF) and the current planned activities (Personal Development Plans on the e-KSF, supported by the e-KSF learning activities database or local training administration system) will be being collected.
Your e-KSF administrator can then run reports, today, to show things like this – the number of staff with development needs in a specific KSF dimension:
…and this, showing what individuals have actually agreed with their reviewers, in order to close development gaps:
The importance of good development needs analysis using the e-KSF
With accurate and timely information about the actual development needs of employees, we can help you to:
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