If you do your data collection well, and use a variety of sources, you can provide a very accurate picture of the current state. You will also likely uncover important, crucial issues for the client that they had not expressed or recognized. This is just some of the value that you can add through the training needs analysis.

In some circumstances, you can also add more value to the process by reporting back critical information as you uncover it, such as misperceptions, miscommunication, and other issues. For example, one health care provider was performing a review to make sure that their staff completed their annual mandatory training. During the process, they found out that one entire team of employees was accidentally excluded from a notification about voluntary training that was also available. They only found out about this course that they missed after the rest of the company attended and reported what a great experience it had been. Being missed was devastating to the team, who spoke about it openly in their first focus group. They thought they were being punished by not receiving the invitation, and therefore felt uncomfortable about reporting it to their own director. The analyst reported the information to the client almost immediately, and of course the problem was fixed.