First Things Fast: A Handbook for Performance Analysis, Second Edition

1.2. Performance Analysis and Needs Assessment?

In the past I've written about needs assessment in a way that defines it as a large, overarching concept that is arguably synonymous with good human resources planning. Although I still hold by that definition, I was, I fear, overly optimistic about the welcome that such a demanding process would receive in the field. As practical experience and numerous studies of practice have shown, my own included, needs assessment is honored more in theory than in practice. What to do? Do we abandon this critical planning simply because so many report that they fail to do much of it? I don't think so.

I'm no longer convinced it is helpful to define needs assessment so broadly, because when you do, a commitment ...