The Effects of Workforce Transportation Habits

Routine Report Assignment

Scenario:

Your company is the largest private employer in your metropolitan area, and the 43,500 employees in your workforce have a tremendous impact on local traffic. A group of city and county transportation officials recently approached your CEO with a request to explore ways to reduce this impact. The CEO, Ms. Suarez, has assigned you the task of analyzing the workforce's transportation habits and attitudes as a first step towards identifying potential solutions. She is willing to consider anything from subsidized bus passes to company-owned shuttle buses to telecommuting, but the decision requires a thorough understanding of employee transportation needs. Figures 1 - 4 summarize data you have collected in an employee survey.

Figure 1: Employee Carpool Habits
Frequency of Use: Carpooling Portion of Workforce
Every day, every week 10,138 (23%)
Certain days, every week 4,361 (11%)
Randomly 983 (2%)
Never 28,018 (64%)

Figure 2: Use of Public Transportation
Frequency of Use: Public Transportation Portion of Workforce
Every day, every week 23,556 (54%)
Certain days, every week 2,029 (5%)
Randomly 5,862 (13%)
Never 12,053 (28%)

Figure 3: Effect of Potential Improvements to Public Transportation

Which of the following would you encourage you to use public transportation more frequently? (Check all that apply) Portion of Respondents. Employees can check more than one.
Increased perceptions of safety 4,932 (28%)
Improved cleanliness 852 (5%)
Reduced commute times 7,285 (41%)
Greater convenience: fewer transfers 3,278 (18%)
Greater convenience: more stops 1,155 (6%)
Lower (or subsidized) fares 5,634 (31%)
Nothing could encourage me to take public transportation 8,294 (46%)

Note: This question was asked to those respondents who use public transportation randomly or never, a subgroup that represents 17,915 employees or 41% of the workforce.

Figure 4: Is Telecommuting An Option?

Does the nature of your work make telecommuting a realistic option? Portion ofWorkforce
Yes, every day 3,460 (8%)
Yes, several days a week 8,521 (20%)
Yes, random days 12,918 (30%)
No 18,601 (42%)

Task:

Write a recommendation memo report to your supervisor, Ms. Suarez illustrating the data you have collected and recommending two ways to solve this problem. This is ashort report; therefore, your report will not include a title page, a table of contents, or appendices. The visualized data must be within the text (body) of the report; do not place the data at the end of the report.

Organizational Guidelines:

TO: Ms. Suarez, CEO
FROM: Insert Your Name
DATE: Month Day, Year
SUBJECT: Workforce Transportation Habits

Begin your report memo with a brief introductory statement outlining the background, problem/opportunity/purpose, scope, and organization of the report. Refer to your text for assistance.

In the body of your report, you are required to illustrate each set of data with figures.

Keep in mind this portion of the report requires an appropriate heading, and each of the four figures requires a reference statement, a caption, and if applicable, a legend. Do not place the data in a bulleted/numbered list or in a table.

For example:

APPROPRIATE SECTION HEADING

Precede the graph with a reference statement explaining what the graph illustrates. For example, Figure 1 illustrates the employees' carpool habits.

Figure 1: Employees' Carpool Habits

Create the figure. Determine which figure best illustrates the data. Should you use a pie chart, a bar chart or a line chart? Once you have decided which chart to use, review your text for format requirements. How large should the chart be? Should the data be an ascending or descending order? Where should you place the labels? Does the chart require a legend? Is the visual clear, complete, concise, connected, and compelling (see textbook for guidelines)?

Note: If you are not familiar with how to create chart using MSWord or importing them from

Excel and embedding them into MSWord, you should consult the Help function in MSWord.

Immediately following the chart, explain the significance of the data. This is referred to as the illustration's caption.

For example, As you can see from Figure 1...

After all four chart are completed, offer two possible solutions to the problem. Each solution should be logically derived from the data and each must be adequately explained. This section of the report also requires an appropriate heading. There should only be two solutions for the entire report.