This practical guide to conducting needs assessments provides: coverage of several approaches for analysig data; a balanced description of qualitative and quantitative methodologies; multiple case studies and examples.

This volume is for students and practitioners interested in improving their understanding and skills in the area of needs assessment. The text follows the typical sequence of an actual needs assessment process. Case studies are used to illustrate conceptualization of the task through the application of needs-based data to effective public health solutions. Examples are drawn from myriad public health efforts, recognizing that not all public health sector agencies bear direct responsibility for all activities that could be considered part of public health.

Making informed decisions is the essential beginning to any successful development project. Before the project even begins, you can use needs assessment approaches to guide your decisions. This book is filled with practical strategies that can help you define the desired results and select the most appropriate activities for achieving them.

A Practical Guide to Needs Assessment, Third Edition For fifteen years, A Practical Guide to Needs Assessment has been the go-to text for those who are seeking useful, systematic approaches to needs assessment. Needs assessment is the first step in training, performance improvement, and community development projects. This thoroughly revised and updated edition contains a treasury of resources including a toolkit of ready-to-use templates and job aids that you can customize for your own use. Illustrative case studies and tips show how to assess needs for individuals, teams, organizations, government agencies, and communities. This book combines a how-to text and reference tool for trainers, performance improvement professionals, and students. Managers and community leaders use it to get to the root of their learning and performance problems, make effective decisions, and obtain support for their most pressing issues. Updates to the third edition include: Links to online resources, including a needs assessment book that you can download for free, ethical guidelines, and vendors who assess individual, group and organizational needs. A new chapter on the complex needs assessment approach with new toolkit forms. A summary of the recent advances in our knowledge about learning, training, and performance that you can use to quickly prepare for client meetings. Guidelines on workforce surveys, such as employee engagement surveys. An Instructor’s Guide that contains discussion questions, assessments materials, and new exercises for each chapter. You can use this book to quickly access up-to-date information on the fundamentals of needs assessment including current models, theories, and resources. You can also learn how to manage and report a needs assessment project and access professional ethical guidelines. Learn five approaches to needs assessment: knowledge and skills analysis, job and task analysis, competency-based needs assessment, strategic needs assessment, and complex needs assessment.

First published in 1997. A well-planned, methodically sound needs assessment can and should be a powerful guiding force for change. As a type of applied social research, needs assessment is meant to foster program development and policy-making. Needs assessments can be used as information-gathering tools by a wide range of organizations, agencies, and social scientists at local, state, regional, and national levels, and can be conducted under a variety of arrangements. This book provides a comprehensive guide to the needs assessment process, from conceptualization through implementation and dissemination of findings.

This text features discussions on emerging technologies in the field of needs assessment as well as abundant social work case examples. It covers one of the most essential kinds of research for social work management.

Through the use of real world examples drawn from various fields, the book provides in-depth procedures for: analyzing and combining different types of data collected in the needs assessment process, prioritizing needs, selecting solution strategies, designing and implementing solution strategies, and examining major multiple-method needs assessment studies."--BOOK JACKET.