Lessons for Applicants and Prospective Workers;
Basic Workplace Literacy

Resumes are frequently emailed these days, and need to be scannable. Many large companies use technology-assisted recruiting software -- e.g., Resumix, which compiles a computer database of prospective employee information that is circulated to managers and from which they select candidates to interview. In an electronic environment, keywords are critical. In new resumes, the emphasis is on nouns (e.g., certifications, specific skills, job titles, names of software) rather than, as in the past, on verbs (e.g., planned..., designed..., developed...) The Website Electronic Resumes discusses details associated with email resumes and scannable resumes.

Where teamwork is important, whole teams (9-14 people) may interview applicants. If an applicant isn't hired by one team, the team might suggest that another team interview the same candidate. When a new employee accepts the job that is offered, word goes back to the the whole team that the prospective employee accepted the job.

As a prospective employee, showing that you have initiative and drive is important; it's also important to indicate that you have the willingness to learn.

Nationally, the literacy demands of the workplace increase every year:

The move toward a service economy, coupled with an increased reliance on computers and technology, means that new employees will be expected to perform more complex tasks, requiring greater degrees of literacy, than their predecessors. Seasoned employees also find their work moving in this direction. ...Even the unskilled jobs of today may soon require new literacy skills. (1)

We are in an era of high employment. In relation to technology skills we are also in a peak transition phrase. People out in the workworld realize that the bar has been raised (see Workplace Quotes I collected, especially numbers 1, 7, 10, and 14). In today's work environment, with its emphasis on technology and problem-solving, companies need employees who have certain basic levels of skills and the ability to learn much more.

Basic Workplace Literacy In this high-tech economy, people change jobs much more frequently than in the past. Estimates are that men and women entering the workforce today will likely work for more than 10 companies during their careers.(2) Fundamental skills, and the willingness to learn on the job, are critical attributes for entry-level employees at any place along the job-changing continuum.

However, it is not guaranteed that those with high school diplomas will pass pre-employment tests. Very basic pre-employment testing for math and English skills is done (I've been told) primarily for reasons of workplace safety. You have to wonder about our educational system when people with high school diplomas or GEDs cannot pass math and English tests geared to ninth grade levels.

Basic workforce literacy issues are problematic and inherently puzzling, at best. Workplace literacy has been defined as the basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills, but also "skills such as communicating, learning how to learn, and team-play." (Theodore Lewis, "Inside Three Workplace Literacy Initiatives," 10 May 2000 <http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JITE/v33n1/lewis.html>) To match prospective employees to basic literacies required on the job, many companies do math and English pre-employment testing. From my own experience, I know that for entry level employees, it is sometimes difficult to identify candidates who can pass basic ninth-grade math and English tests. In the pre-employment testing which I helped administer on my temporary job, not quite half of the individuals taking the math and English tests passed them.

A small Web-based industry niche has developed for providing practice math tests and other assessment instruments.

There are Web-based companies offer software for pre-employment testing, e.g.,

ACT (formerly, American College Testing Program, and now just ACT, Inc.) now works with business and industry and offers workplace assessments and certifications.

And there are Web-based companies that offer basic skills courses that businesses in turn could make available to their employees, e.g.,

(1) Susan Gerber and Jeremy D. Finn, "Learning Document Skills at School and at Work," Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, vol. 42, no. 1, September 1998, p. 33. Gerber and Finn report on a study to examine relationships among school, work, and document literacy for U.S. adults. Much literacy teaching in school is based on reading-to-learn, where as occupational reading is more reading-to-do and reading-to-assess (and problem-solve). The authors encourage schools to incorporate broader preparation for workforce literacy.

(2) Frank Burge, "Loyalty and the New Economy," Electronic Engineering Times 12 April 1999, issue no. 1056, p. 110. Haidee E. Allerton ("Eek, Eek!" Training & Development vol. 53, no. 9, September 1999, p. 14) notes that people change jobs an average of 9 times before they are 32 years old.

On-the-Job Lessons

Investigating Information Age Realities in the World of Work

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