Conclusions and recommendations are the most widely read sections of any report. Conclusions summarize and explain your findings and are the heart of your report. The ability to draw sound conclusions and make clear recommendations from your research is crucial to business success. Companies value employees who can analyze data and use it to help answer questions and solve problems.

1. When drawing conclusions, make sure you (use consistent evaluation criteria / are open to sensationalization or exaggeration / avoid relating them to the initial report problem).

Consider the scenario, and then answer the question.

You are making recommendations after researching and writing a report on sports club discounts and employee health.

2. What should you remember about your reader before preparing your recommendations? Check all that apply.

Readers prefer specific, practical recommendations.

Readers may want to know how to implement the suggestions.

Readers should have no influence on how your recommendations are developed.

Readers prefer that your recommendations be shared indirectly.

Readers want to know how your data relate to the problem being studied.

Determine whether each of the following statements is the finding, the conclusion, or the recommendation.

Employee attrition rate after four years with our company is 35 percent, which is 17 percent higher than that of our aspirational peers. Typical employee promotions occur after five years in our company and after four years in competitive firms.

3. This is the (conclusion / finding / recommendation).

We are losing trained and promising employees more often than our competition due to slow promotion practices within our company.

4. This is the (conclusion / finding / recommendation).

Implement a leadership development program for promising new employees, and decrease the time before employees are eligible for promotion in order to retain the most promising employees.

5. This is the (conclusion / finding / recommendation).