Recently I got an email from a librarian from a library I’d consulted for in the past on technology training. Her question was one I hear a lot, actually: “We need to create an assessment of our staff members’ skills in different areas. What is the best way to get this information about them?”
My answer is really simple. Ask them.
To back up a small step, you do have three primary choices when doing a staff assessment of any skills.
- A test: staff are given some kind of computer or human graded “objective test” of the skills, usually timed
- A peer walk-through: staff member has to perform each skill and a co-worker (sometimes the person’s supervisor, a trainer, or expert in those skills), marks whether they know how to do it or not
- A self-assessment: staff are given a list of skills and asked to report whether they know each one or not
If you want to make your staff really, really angry with you and waste a lot of time and money, by all means go with #1. People don’t appreciate being tested and I promise you that the staff en masse is more likely to react negatively to any further training provided if you go that route.
I’ll admit that #2 can certainly work and be accurate, but puts people in a position of feeling judged by someone they work with. This can be awkward for both parties. You can certainly make the argument that an employee should sometimes feel judged by a supervisor, but just as with the first option this can create opposition to any steps toward training or skill development that come after the assessment.
So we’re left with #3: the self-assessment. Ask staff if they know how to do what you want them to do. Give them three choices: yes, no, or maybe. And for trainers’ purposes, a “maybe” counts the same as a “no” because it likely means the person still needs training. Answering “maybe” is just a whole lot less threatening than answering “no” for some people. And tell them up front that they’re not expected right now to have every single one of these skills, and that there are no penalties for their answers. What matters is that we get an accurate baseline for the system so we can provide the right types and numbers of training for the right people to make sure that everyone has the chance to learn and improve the skills we use every day in our jobs.
I always like to tell people upfront as well that their results will be shared with their direct supervisors. Supervisors should know where their employee’s skills are, but this can help them get a more concrete view. Also, this supervisor layer adds a filter to catch the inevitable “exaggerators” — people who either hate training and the skills at hand and so lie to avoid it or people who are still afraid, no matter how much you reassure them, so they bluff that they know things they do not. Supervisors will know if a person has just outright not been honest on the assessment — and they can act as intermediaries so that the trainer isn’t the one approaching the person saying “uhh, you don’t actually know this.” Giving those few exaggerators a chance to re-take the assessment once called on their bluff is helpful to everyone involved.
All in all, the most important thing for a trainer is getting accurate data about who needs what training and to be left with a group of people willing to receive that training. In my experience, the self-assessment is the only way to go. But I realize my experiences are limited, and so I turn to you! I’m curious to hear about other people’s experiences with assessment, and whether you’ve used a method I didn’t mention or one that I did and had success with it. Start talking!
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