| p>Employers are facing a new reality they must soon | | | | bother to look for or spell the recipient's name right, |
| invest in or find themselves out of touch with the | | | | b) you don't proof your email and have left out a |
| global economy. And no matter how much money | | | | key word, and c) you use the lower case "i" in |
| they choose to fork out, it will be difficult, if not | | | | describing yourself? How much time and energy is |
| impossible to measure their ROI(return on | | | | wasted by correcting errors and having to do things |
| investment). | | | | yourself because you can't trust anyone in your |
| Many predict that, soon, there will not be enough | | | | employ to be able to properly write a memo? |
| North American workers to fill available jobs - and of | | | | So perhaps there is truth to the statement that a |
| those who are employable, too many will lack the | | | | one percent increase in average literacy rates would |
| skills and knowledge needed to compete with | | | | yield a permanent increase of 1.5 percent or $18 billion |
| universal demands. | | | | in gross domestic product. (Columbe, Tremblay, and |
| Workplace literacy training has likely never been on | | | | Marchand, 2004) |
| any company's radar, until now. There are a number | | | | We also know that people with low literacy skills |
| of resources to be had, but the organizations that | | | | have managed to mask or manage, which is why, off |
| provide actual training seem to be mostly overseas | | | | hand, you can't think of someone you work with |
| or have no Internet presence. | | | | who may be struggling. Think of the person who |
| And when it comes to instruction, there is no | | | | makes continuous careless errors, fails to follow |
| one-size-fits-all, and there are no quick fixes for | | | | instructions, or doesn't comply with |
| short-term thinking managers that only look at the | | | | company-mandated ongoing education requirements. |
| ROI. | | | | Others view them as lazy, lacking commitment, or |
| Maybe your company doesn't think it has a literacy | | | | even being defiant. |
| problem. Has anyone read an email lately? What's | | | | People who struggle with literacy are not different. |
| even scarier, are the internal emails a reflection of | | | | They are among us. They are us. Think about it. In |
| those that are sent to customers? | | | | Alberta, the richest province in Canada - one of the |
| I recently posted a question to fellow LinkedIn | | | | richest countries in the world, 30 percent of its youth |
| members, asking about the sort of email | | | | drop out of school. |
| communications issues they are seeing in their work | | | | Other contributing factors are that parents are not |
| environment. The responses indicated it is a very | | | | making education a priority in the home. Because of |
| common and frustrating problem. Here are some of | | | | current economic situations, with both parents |
| the concerns:o People feel they are too busy and | | | | working more than one job, kids are left |
| don't have the time to proofreado Word choice error | | | | unsupervised. How many do you think are doing their |
| (apart of/a part of)o Multi-tasking backlog of emails, | | | | math homework, as opposed to instant messaging |
| calls, and work used as an excuse for not organizing | | | | their friends on Facebook? Given that low literate |
| and treating others with the respect of time in a | | | | students are allowed to graduate, thanks to the |
| well-crafted responseo Broadly generalizing situations | | | | leniency of the No Child Left Behind rule, this is what |
| without sufficient supporting detail and expecting the | | | | has transferred into the workforce. Add in the |
| reader to understando Vague requests for support: | | | | multicultural mix of new citizens struggling with the |
| "Can you help me with X?" and no further | | | | language and North America is on a downward spiral. |
| explanationo Terrifyingly bad spelling and too much | | | | While other countries have some issues, their |
| text-speak | | | | societies are more committed to strong education |
| If your company extracts natural minerals to sell to | | | | and creating a skilled work environment. Schooling is |
| various product manufacturers around the world, | | | | free in some places and fought for with lives in |
| how is your communication being interpreted by a | | | | others. |
| buyer in Moscow or Singapore? If you are pitching a | | | | There is help. We just have to want it. If increasing |
| proposal to someone - such as working as a partner | | | | the workforce's literacy skills means more |
| with you on a project, getting them to hire you for | | | | productivity and a bigger paycheck, why wouldn't we |
| your services, or sending out funding requests for | | | | invest the time and money into it? The bottom line is |
| your favorite non-profit organization - what kind of | | | | bleak if we don't. |
| impression do you think you make when a) you can't | | | | |