Your Chief Virtual Learning Architect

Learning to Performance

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Custom Design & Delivery

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Predictive Evaluation

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Enterprise Learning Strategy

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Dave Basarab Consulting has elevated the training experience, offering an end-to-end comprehensive approach that includes training strategy, instructional design, development, delivery , post program training transfer, and evaluation (via the unique Predictive Evaluation methodology). Virtual Chief Architect Dave Basarab has combined all of these individual training elements with his user-friendly, comprehensive Learning to Performance approach, which significantly increases companies' training ROI.

Why we are different

Innovation: Our primary focus is creating learning programs using a Learning to Performance approach.
Expertise: Dave offers the depth and breadth of his experience, including working internally at prestigious companies (Motorola, Ingersoll Rand and Pitney Bowes) as well as his knowledge and expertise as a highly-respected, sought-after consultant.
Partnership: Basarab collaborates with companies, serving as their own Chief Learning Officer whenever they need to plan, strategize, or implement training initiatives.

Training Services

Enterprise Learning Strategy

Enterprise Learning Strategy

At Dave Basarab Consulting, we're experts in creating Enterprise Learning Plans. We work with you to develop your company's learning strategy and direction.

Custom Design, Development, & Delivery

Custom Design, Development, & Delivery

Custom training is an effective way of developing the capability required to execute your strategy. We are a custom design house that creates programs specific to your business.

Learning Burst Development

Learning Burst Development

We can create and deliver your courses via our unique Learning Burst Method - keeping your employees at their jobs while receiving world-class training.

Predictive Evaluation

Predictive Evaluation

We predict the ROI for your courses and establish success gates. We then evaluate the course against the success gates to show value realized and continually improve results.

Leadership Development

Leadership Development

Turn-key virtual custom leadership development program that combines world-class leadership speakers/educators with post-event personalized coaching to provide you with a cadre of highly skilled leaders.

Predictive Evaluation

How to create a training needs assessment that goes beyond surveys

A training needs assessment should explain why performance is falling short, what capability is missing, and which intervention is most likely to improve business results. A survey can reveal what employees believe they need, but it rarely shows whether the real issue is knowledge, systems, leadership, workload, incentives, or unclear expectations.

For Australian organisations, this distinction matters. A national workforce may span Sydney headquarters, regional offices, remote communities, and fly-in fly-out mining sites. Employees may also work under different awards, enterprise agreements, WHS requirements, or operational constraints. A useful assessment must reflect how work is actually performed across those settings.

The strongest approach combines employee voice with operational data, manager observations, workflow analysis, and evidence of business impact. It treats learning as one possible response, rather than assuming every performance problem can be solved with a course.

Start with the business problem

Begin by defining the business outcome that needs to change. This might be fewer safety incidents, faster onboarding, improved customer retention, stronger frontline leadership, or more consistent use of a new system. A vague request such as “we need communication training” is not specific enough to guide sound decisions.

Interview sponsors, line managers, subject matter experts, and employees who perform the work. Review current performance reports and examine how the existing learning environment supports or obstructs capability. A structured learning ecosystem audit can reveal duplicated content, weak reinforcement, poor manager involvement, and gaps between formal training and daily work.

In Australia, include the realities of dispersed teams and local operating conditions. A process that works in a Melbourne office may be impractical for a regional hospital, a Queensland construction crew, or a Western Australian mine operating on a roster.

Build an evidence base beyond opinion

Surveys remain useful, especially for identifying confidence, perceived barriers, and employee priorities. They become more valuable when paired with evidence that shows what people do, where they struggle, and what the organisation rewards.

Useful evidence sources include:

Quality, safety, sales, service, and productivity data
Interviews with high performers and recently appointed employees
Observation of critical tasks in real work settings
Manager ratings linked to defined performance standards
System usage, error, rework, and escalation records

Triangulate the findings rather than treating any single source as definitive. If employees request advanced software training but usage data shows they rarely receive access or feedback, the priority may be workflow design or manager support. If a WHS refresher produces high completion rates but unsafe behaviours continue, the issue may involve equipment, time pressure, supervision, or site culture.

Use plain language when discussing the findings. Australian stakeholders often respond better to a practical account of “what is getting in the way” than to a long list of capability labels.

Separate capability gaps from work barriers

A needs assessment should distinguish between a person who cannot perform a task and a person who knows what to do but cannot do it reliably in the current environment. This distinction prevents unnecessary training and directs attention to policy, technology, role design, or leadership issues.

A simple diagnostic matrix can help:

Evidence	Likely issue	Appropriate response
Low knowledge and low task accuracy	Capability gap	Targeted instruction and practice
Strong knowledge but inconsistent behaviour	Transfer or reinforcement gap	Coaching, job aids, manager follow-up
Correct behaviour blocked by systems	Process or technology barrier	Workflow or system redesign
Different standards across teams	Governance or leadership gap	Clear expectations and accountability
High completion but little business change	Adoption or evaluation gap	Reinforcement and outcome tracking

Look for patterns across locations, roles, tenure, shifts, and reporting lines. A national retailer may discover that new starters in regional stores need different support from experienced staff in Sydney. A mining organisation may find that supervisors understand the safety procedure but struggle to coach contractors during compressed shutdown periods.

The adoption scorecard approach is useful here because it focuses attention on whether learning is used, supported, and connected to measurable results.

Examine readiness, access, and transfer

Training recommendations should account for whether employees can attend, practise, and apply what they learn. Scheduling a full-day workshop may be unrealistic for shift workers, customer-facing teams, or FIFO employees. Digital learning may also fail where connectivity is limited, devices are shared, or employees have little protected time.

Assess the conditions that influence adoption:

Manager expectations before and after the learning
Access to tools, systems, equipment, and reference material
Time available for practice during normal work
Peer norms, incentives, and consequences
Follow-up opportunities such as coaching or observation

Use focus groups carefully. A confident group can dominate the conversation, while contractors, casual employees, night-shift workers, or staff with limited English may be underrepresented. Offer individual interviews, translated materials, or anonymous channels when those methods will produce more reliable evidence.

Learning bursts, guided practice, simulations, job aids, and manager-led conversations may be more effective than a standard course. The right solution depends on the performance environment, not on the popularity of a delivery format.

Turn findings into a decision

The final assessment should give leaders a clear basis for action. Summarise the business problem, affected roles, evidence collected, root causes, recommended response, risks, and measures of success. Include what should not be solved through training so that operational owners understand their responsibilities.

Prioritise recommendations by business value, urgency, effort, and feasibility. A compliance requirement may need immediate action, while a leadership capability programme may be staged across several quarters. Define leading indicators, such as practice frequency or manager observations, alongside lagging measures, such as reduced incidents, improved retention, or faster time to proficiency.

For complex programmes, external guidance can help convert evidence into a practical learning strategy. Dave Basarab Consulting supports organisations with instructional design, leadership development, training delivery, and evaluation methods that connect learning activity with business outcomes.

A strong assessment ends with a decision-ready roadmap rather than a catalogue of employee requests. Gather the initial data from one priority workflow, compare survey responses with operational evidence, and document the first intervention and its success measures.

Learning to Performance

Learning to Performance, a complete training approach, gives companies world-class training to drive significant return. This approach includes upfront work (Impact Mapping, design), training (for staff and company executives), and post-training efforts to ensure training transfer. This unique recipe - the key for successful training and adoption - is changing the way companies implement training. This methodology could work with any content for organizations in any industry.