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 Build an Honest Training Needs Survey for Frontline Staff

To develop a training needs survey for frontline employees that gets honest answers, begin with trust rather than a long questionnaire. Frontline employees often notice skill gaps, workload pressures and workplace barriers that managers miss, but they may withhold criticism if responses could affect rosters, pay or performance reviews.

A useful survey identifies specific capability gaps, explains how the information will be handled and demonstrates that findings will influence workplace decisions. It should distinguish what employees need from which courses they happen to enjoy.

Define the Decisions Before Writing Questions

Start by identifying the decisions the survey must inform. Are you changing shift procedures, improving customer service, preparing new team leaders or addressing safety and compliance? Each decision requires different evidence, while questions unrelated to those decisions create fatigue and dilute the results.

Survey practice to avoid	Stronger alternative	Why it matters
“Which training do you want?”	“Which task takes too long or causes errors?”	Needs are revealed rather than inferred from course preferences
Reporting results for every small team	Suppressing results for cohorts below a safe threshold	Reduces fear of identification
Asking only for a satisfaction score	Asking about task performance, confidence and available support	Measures the conditions behind performance
Collecting opinions without explaining their use	Sharing a brief summary of decisions and next steps	Builds credibility for future participation

Keep the instrument focused on observable work. If the business needs to improve handover quality between shifts, ask about handover frequency, clarity, available tools and the consequences of poor communication—not whether employees would like another workshop.

Ask for Evidence Instead of Training Preferences

Use specific, behaviour-based questions that are easy to answer accurately. “In your last five shifts, how often did you encounter an unclear process?” is more reliable than “Do you feel supported?” Likert scales can gauge confidence, while short numerical questions can measure frequency without inviting employees to write a policy essay.

Avoid leading, double-barrelled or negatively worded items. Instead of “How unnecessary is the current process?”, ask “How clearly is the current process explained?” Offer “Not applicable” and “Prefer not to answer” where appropriate, and include one or two open-text questions that reveal issues designers may not have anticipated.

Protect candour from the outset. Explain who can access the data, whether responses are anonymous or confidential, and that participation will not affect performance decisions. Mapping findings to a learning burst portfolio can also help convert recurring operational needs into timely, focused learning rather than a permanent training backlog.

Fit the Survey to Australian Frontline Work

Design for mobile use, variable connectivity and short breaks. A survey requiring a desktop, office internet connection or uninterrupted concentration will exclude many shift workers. Keep it to around eight or ten minutes, allow responses to be saved, and test the layout on the devices employees actually use.

Frontline work in Australia rarely follows office hours. Hospitality and retail teams in Sydney and Melbourne may work early, late, weekend or split shifts, while transport, warehouse and logistics operations in Brisbane often depend on tightly managed rosters. Regional and remote workers may have intermittent coverage, making an offline or downloadable option useful. “How often did this happen?” also works better than vague questions about improvement over an entire year.

Many Australian frontline teams are culturally and linguistically diverse, particularly in hospitality, aged care and logistics. Use plain English, offer translated versions where needed, and have colleagues with relevant language skills check whether the wording carries the intended meaning. Where teams serve Aboriginal communities or include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees, local cultural advisers should help shape respectful questions and interpretation.

Finally, reflect the Australian preference for practical, usable workplace learning. Employees are more likely to value demonstrations, peer examples and opportunities to practise during paid time than abstract discussion of learning theory. Quantifying the cost of not training can help connect these needs with productivity, errors, turnover and customer outcomes rather than relying on generic claims about workforce capability.

Recommendations for Reliable Frontline Survey Data

Pilot the survey with volunteers from different locations, roles and shifts. Ask them to complete it on their usual device, explain any confusing questions and record how long it takes. Use feedback to remove personal data requests, irrelevant questions and instructions written in corporate jargon.

Run the survey across a period that includes both quieter and busier operating periods, and monitor completion patterns rather than response volume alone. A high rate from one shift may hide important barriers affecting another.

Keep completion time below ten minutes and state the expected duration.
Explain confidentiality, data aggregation and limits on identifying individuals.
Test mobile access, screen size, download options and weak connectivity.
Include “Not applicable” and “Prefer not to answer” without penalising respondents.
Pilot across shifts, locations, roles and levels of experience.
Use short behavioural questions rather than abstract opinions.
Publish a short action summary after the findings are reviewed.

Treat the pilot as a test of the survey system, not a trial run of employee patience. Accessibility issues, unclear wording and technical failures can all suppress honest feedback before the full launch begins.

Turn Responses into Visible Operational Change

Analyse findings by work pattern rather than by demographic assumptions. Compare roles, shifts, locations and experience levels only where cohort sizes protect confidentiality. Translate recurring responses into capability priorities, then connect each priority to an operational measure such as handover errors, customer complaints, downtime or compliance incidents.

Close the feedback loop by telling participants what will change, what will not change and why. This does not mean accepting every request; it demonstrates that the survey was more than a collection exercise. A methodology such as Dave Basarab Consulting’s Predictive Evaluation can then help forecast adoption, measure impact and estimate whether the intervention is likely to produce a return.

The practical takeaway is simple: ask fewer, clearer questions, protect candour, show participants what changed and treat the results as operational evidence rather than a training wish list.

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.