Business Needs Assessment Template

A “need” is the gap between “what is” and “what should be.” - Office of Migrant Education

A Business needs assessment, in simple terms, is finding out what the organization needs. 

But, in a busy company with so many things going on, it’s hard to pin down exactly what the organization needs and what may be holding it back.

This is where a business needs assessment begins. The process starts by gathering data and comparing the current situation against the future direction of the company.

This defines the gaps that are preventing the company from reaching its desired goals and will give you a complete list of what the business needs. 

In most cases, this complete list of business needs will be a long one. 

So, let’s be realistic. In the real world, there will never be enough money to meet every single one of your business needs (even if you’re Walmart). 

You need to prioritize. 

This is where the business needs assessment template comes into its own.

Once you’ve identified the gaps and have your list of business needs, the process then enables you to evaluate each need and set priorities.

Whether it’s establishing what the training deficit is, or discovering the reasons for poor performance or low productivity, business needs assessments are the best way to identify what the organizations most significant needs are. 

Process Street has created a business needs assessment template which will help you to analyze your current situation, identify your needs, prioritize those needs and make decisions on how to achieve those needs.

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Complete the plan details in the fields below. 

The purpose of this section is to investigate what is already known about the needs of the company to determine the focus and scope of the needs assessment.

Give an overview of the organization's top five goals.

Next, brainstorm all possible concerns associated with these goals and list each one. 

Top five goals: 
{{form.Top_5_organizational_goals}}

Describe the five organizational goals and the major concerns associated with each one, in detail. 

Identify the indicators that verify the concerns found.

List each concern in order of priority.

This section is for documenting the status of the concerns found and comparing those to the companies future vision. This will determine the magnitude of the business's needs. The major output from this is a prioritized set of needs.

Using the information gathered in tasks 4 - 8, determine what the critical needs of the business are: 

For each identified business need, list the major cause/s of this need (a need may have more than one cause).

{{form.Business_need_1}}

{{form.Business_need_2}}

{{form.Business_need_3}}

{{form.Business_need_4}}

{{form.Business_need_5}}

List what the consequences would be if the identified causes were not removed or the need was not meet. 

There may be more than one consequence for each need.

{{form.Business_need_1}}

{{form.Business_need_2}}

{{form.Business_need_3}}

{{form.Business_need_4}}

{{form.Business_need_5}}

Enter a rating (low, medium, high) to establish how difficult it would be to correct the business need once it has occurred.

{{form.Business_need_1}}

{{form.Business_need_2}}

{{form.Business_need_3}}

{{form.Business_need_4}}

{{form.Business_need_5}}

Rate how critical to the business it would be if a need was not met.

Rating scale
1 = not critical
5 = critical

{{form.Business_need_1}}

{{form.Business_need_2}}

{{form.Business_need_3}}

{{form.Business_need_4}}

{{form.Business_need_5}}

Review the causes, consequences, difficulty to correct and criticality of each business need.

Need: {{form.Business_need_1}}

Cause: {{form.Major_cause_of_business_need_1}}

Consequence: {{form.Consequence_of_not_addressing_Business_need_1}}

Difficulty to correct: {{form.Difficulty_to_correct_business_need_1}}

Criticality: {{form.How_critical_is_business_need_1?}}

Need: {{form.Business_need_2}}

Cause: {{form.Major_cause_of_business_need_2}}

Consequence: {{form.Consequence_of_not_addressing_Business_need_2}}

Difficulty to correct: {{form.Difficulty_to_correct_business_need_2}}

Criticality: {{form.How_critical_is_business_need_2?}}

Need: {{form.Business_need_3}}

Cause: {{form.Major_cause_of_business_need_3}}

Consequence: {{form.Consequence_of_not_addressing_Business_need_3}}

Difficulty to correct: {{form.Difficulty_to_correct_business_need_3}}

Criticality: {{form.How_critical_is_business_need_3?}}

Need: {{form.Business_need_4}}

Cause: {{form.Major_cause_of_business_need_4}}

Consequence: {{form.Consequence_of_not_addressing_Business_need_4}}

Difficulty to correct: {{form.Difficulty_to_correct_business_need_4}}

Criticality: {{form.Difficulty_to_correct_business_need_4}}

Need: {{form.Business_need_5}}

Cause: {{form.Major_cause_of_business_need_5}}

Consequence: {{form.Consequence_of_not_addressing_Business_need_5}}

Difficulty to correct: {{form.Difficulty_to_correct_business_need_5}}

Criticality: {{form.How_critical_is_business_need_5?}}

Based on the information gathered, identify the final priority for each business need.

Identify possible solutions for each priority need. 

{{form.Priority_need_1}}

{{form.Priority_need_2}}

{{form.Priority_3}}

{{form.Priority_4}}

{{form.Priority_5}}

Using the information gathered in this checklist, upload an action plan for the needs assessment committee to approve. 

The report should include:

1. a description of the needs assessment process

2. the identified needs

3. the priority needs

4. the solution strategies

Sources 

• Office of Migrant Education - Comprehensive Needs Assessment 
• NC State - How to Conduct Needs Assessment Part 1: What is it and why do it?
• Novi Survey - Four beneficial reasons to conduct a needs assessment survey

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