How do your employees' basic skills measure up?
Below are a series of statements designed to measure your employees’ basic skills. Check the boxes next to the statements that apply and rank according to the following chart.

1-2 Marks
If you mark 1-2 items, your business is experiencing challenges typical of most businesses today. Consider investigating the basic skills assessment and training options that are available. If you don't have enough employees to justify an on-site class, we can refer you to relevant fee-based or credit courses at our community college campuses or outreach centers.

3-4 Marks
If you mark 3-4 items, your business would benefit greatly from employee basic skills training. Depending on the degree of need, a series of workshops or short-term classes could produce amazing results. Creating a program that addresses the gaps between current performance and desired performance will ensure that you reach your goals.

5 or More Marks
If you mark 5 or more items, consider equipping your workers with the essential skills they need to do their jobs well. Whether that requires an onsite program or arrangements for tuition reimbursement, money you invest in training today will bring substantial future returns in the form of improved employee performance and productivity.

Business letters are filled with errors in grammar, punctuation, or sentence structure and must be checked and rewritten by others, or worse, are mailed out and make a bad impression for the company.

Email messages and memos that leave your organization lack the consistent, professional look that you require. Casual language, spelling errors, and a lack of organizational structure may be common problems.

Employees are not familiar with important company guidelines because the employee policy manual is written at a higher reading level than their own.

Workers whose jobs require them to read large amounts of information in order to solve problems or to produce reports get bogged down and behind schedule by reading too slowly. They need to strengthen their reading skills so that they can read and locate information more quickly.

Chemicals or other products are sometimes mixed inaccurately. Workers are not sure how to determine ratios or make conversions, so they guess.

Materials are under-estimated or over-ordered because someone didn't know how to calculate the quantity needed for the job.

 Employees have difficulty communicating with coworkers, supervisors, or customers because English is not their native language. Bilingual coworkers or supervisors are often needed to provide translations.

Your non-native English speaking workers nod that they have understood instructions, but then are unable to follow those instructions.

Your business needs bilingual employees, but once hired, they demonstrate an insufficient command of English. This is especially evident when they are multi-tasking: for example, asking customers appropriate questions in order to solve problems while also taking notes.

You experience problems with non-native English speaking workers that appear to be attitude or performance-related but in fact are language or culture-based. For example, they may misunderstand or inappropriately express attitudinal meanings through intonation ("tone"). They may also refrain from interrupting supervisors to ask for immediate clarification or explanation, not wishing to appear disrespectful.

ADD UP YOUR SCORE

1-2 Marks
If you mark 1-2 items, your business is experiencing challenges typical of most businesses today. Consider investigating the basic skills assessment and training options that are available. If you don't have enough employees to justify an on-site class, we can refer you to relevant fee-based or credit courses at our community college campuses or outreach centers.

3-4 Marks
If you mark 3-4 items, your business would benefit greatly from employee basic skills training. Depending on the degree of need, a series of workshops or short-term classes could produce amazing results. Creating a program that addresses the gaps between current performance and desired performance will ensure that you reach your goals.

5 or More Marks
If you mark 5 or more items, consider equipping your workers with the essential skills they need to do their jobs well. Whether that requires an onsite program or arrangements for tuition reimbursement, money you invest in training today will bring substantial future returns in the form of improved employee performance and productivity.