This assignment will involve constructing a survey for gathering needs assessment data.
Surveys are commonly used to gather organization, task, and person analysis data from
subject matter experts (SMEs). Outlined below, you will find a scenario about the US Postal
Service developing a second, onsite orientation program for newly-hired letter carriers.
Before building the second orientation program, trainers at the USPS need to conduct a
needs assessment to ensure the new orientation program is supported by managers and
current employees, and to gather feedback on how the program should be designed and
delivered. Your job is to create an actual survey that could be used in this context including
writing specific questions for organization analysis, person analysis, and task analysis.
When Creating Your Survey
You may use whatever software you prefer to create your survey. However, since you will
turn the survey in via Canvas, your document will ultimately need to be saved in Word or
PDF formats. Don’t forget the information about survey design, questions should be specific
and clear, and not double-barreled. Answer options for structured questions should align
with question wording. You can also use text write-in with answer options, if helpful.
Lastly, if you are unfamiliar with onboarding and orientation programs, your text discusses
these types of training programs on p. 426-428.
The Scenario: Needs Assessment at the U.S. Postal Service
Adapted from S. M. Nkomo, M. D., Fottler, & R. B. McAfee (2000)
Applications in Human Resource Management
Carol Burgess is a former letter carrier and now full-time orientation trainer for new letter
carriers for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). She trains all new hire carriers in a particular
metropolitan service area. Before reporting to a local postal branch to begin work, new
hires first attend a 3-day program conducted by Ms. Burgess at a centrally-located letter
distribution facility. The program includes orientation to the USPS and the development of
specific job-skills including casing (i.e., sorting) mail to appropriate locations in
preparation for delivery, reading maps, determining appropriate sequencing of delivery,
and customer relations. In addition, trainees receive an explanation of USPS operation
guidelines and job standards. The program outlines various USPS policies and procedures
as well as information about employee benefits, holidays, key terms, department locations,
organizational structure, and the chain of command. Trainees are given an information
2
packet with withholding forms, health and life insurance options, and the employee
handbook. Afterward, new hires report to their assigned branch.
Management at USPS feels high-quality orientation programs are critical for effective
onboarding of new hires. This shared services model for new hire orientation was
appropriate since policies, as well as essential job functions for the letter carrier position,
are highly standardized. This makes it possible to train new hires in larger groups using the
same materials with fewer trainers. But new hires also need to feel comfortable about
performing the job at their own branch location and they need to begin building
interpersonal connections at their assigned branch to foster engagement and commitment.
Thus, it was decided that a second, smaller orientation program would be developed. It will
be delivered to new hires at their local branch following completion of the centralized
program. This second orientation would provide additional training on tasks that are
particularly difficult for new letter carriers and any knowledge areas that are particularly
important for new letter carriers to have. It would also address branch-specific policies and
begin the process of socializing the new hire with respect to the workplace and his/her
coworkers.
Survey Structure
Your survey should have five sections:
1.
Introduction
o
Introduce and explain the purpose of the survey
o
Provide specific instructions for completing the survey including an estimate
for the number of minutes it should take.
o
State that responses will be kept confidential.
2.
SME branching question
o
Write a branching question that indicates which type of SME is responding
(i.e., letter carrier or supervisor). Use this branching question to direct
specific SMEs to answer questions they are knowledgeable about and skip
questions they aren’t knowledgeable about. For example, supervisors are
likely to be knowledgeable about resources available for program delivery
whereas letter carriers would not.
3.
Organization analysis:
You can assume the proposed second orientation is aligned
with strategic objectives and that concerns have been raised about the
preparedness of new hires (which means you don’t need to include questions to
assess strategic objectives or needs/problems).
o
Write at least one question to assess whether supervisors and current letter
carriers support the idea of a second orientation.
o
Write multiple questions to learn about their opinions concerning what
should be taught (i.e., program content) and how that content should be
taught (i.e., program delivery).
3
o
Write multiple questions that assess the availability of local resources when
delivering this training. Identify those resources by name in the questions,
don’t assume SMEs know.
4.
Task analysis
o
Go to O*Net (http://www.onetonline.org/
) and search for information on the
knowledge areas and skills required for doing the job of letter carrier. Using
the lists that O*Net provides, create a ranking or matrix rating question to
assess the importance of the listed knowledge areas and skills for doing the
job of letter carrier. (Hint, there are 16 of these.)
o
Return to O*Net and repeat to search for information on the tasks one does
when doing the job of letter carrier. Using that list, create a ranking or matrix
rating question to assess the difficulty of executing the tasks when doing the
job of letter carrier. (Hint, there are 22 of these.)
5.
Person analysis:
Trainers usually gather person analysis data directly from the
trainees. In this scenario, the trainees are new hires who don’t yet work at the USPS,
which means they aren’t available for person analysis. Thus, you will need to adapt
by phrasing instructions and questions in this section to elicit this information from
current letter carrier employees and supervisors. How might you phrase questions
so that current employees offer their opinion about what new hires’ level of
knowledge, skills, and capabilities tend to be? Or, how motivated trainees are likely
to be during a second orientation? Hint, current employees were new hires once
themselves. Because trainees aren’t available, you don’t need to include questions
assessing trainee preferences. Further, you can assume that training is appropriate
from the perspective of the work environment (which means you don’t need to
include questions to assess those aspects).
o
Copy the rating or ranking question you created above for evaluating the
knowledge and skills into this section. Change the instructions so the
question can be used to assess new hires’ typical level of these knowledge