Final Exam
As a manager of Human Resources at Widgets USA a midsized manufacturing firm you administer recruiting, hiring, training and performance management program. The HR director, John Reed, sends you an email containing the following attachment:
Illiteracy at Work
Top executives are reluctant to admit that some of their workers have trouble reading this sentence.
Top businesspeople are beginning to acknowledge a problem they have long denied, but that have further to go. Nine in ten fortune 1000 CEOs recognize illiteracy as a problem in the American workplace, but just 38 percent say it's a problem for their workers. Virtually all chief executive agree that worker's literacy levels affect productivity and probability in general, yet just 77 percent say that it has an effect on their own business, finds a 1995 Opinion Research Corporation survey of Fortune 1000 CEOs sponsored by Golden Colorado-based Coors Brewing Company.
The U.S. department of Labor estimates that illiteracy costs U.S. business about $225 billion a year in lost productivity. The costs stem from employee mistakes, injuries, absenteeism, tardiness, missed opportunities, and other problems associated with illiteracy. Despite government documentation, executives have been loath to acknowledge the problem for fear it will cast doubt on the quality of their companies' products and services, says William McVey, director of Laubach Literacy International, a Syracuse, New York-based nonprofit research group.
MnVey says that the results of the Coors survey are heartening in that they indicate some awareness of the scope of illiteracy in the U.S. But enormous obstacles exist. Executives acknowledge the problem of illiteracy but they don't necessarily think it's their problem to fix. Eighty-two percent of those surveyed by Coors say that state and local school systems have primary responsibility to boost workers' literacy rates. Half as many say so about corporations, and sizable minorities think that the federal government and individuals themselves should be responsible for tackling the problem.
Just 22 percent of CEOs surveyed currently have worker literacy programs in place, says Coors spokeswoman Olga Garcia. Bigger companies and manufactures are more likely that average to offer them. On-site program tend to be more cost-effective for large firms than for small ones, says McVey. The recent emphasis quality standards has encouraged literacy efforts in manufacturing firms more than in since establishments.
He writes to you that he is concerned about the high operational risks associated with illiteracy. He observed an increase in the number of production-line mistakes and injuries over the past years. He believes many of these incidents are caused by functionally illiterate employees.
Your Task: Write a brief memo report to Reed in which:
1) State your purpose and opinion.
2) Clearly and concisely state the business problem
3) Analyze the pros and cons, give solution to problem
4) Recommend the solution that will best meet the firm activities.