Marketing Workplace Basic Skills
in Your Company

• Develop and issue a company policy or directive supporting workplace literacy. Employees need to know that there is commitment from management as well as a management expectation that supervisors support staff development and training.
• Establish a work group or committee comprised of various levels and departments to assist in the planning and development of a program and to address issues or problems that might result. It is also important to include workers who will participate in the program as their needs, interests and/or concerns may not necessarily be the same as others within the company. Their input and feedback is also important for evaluation purposes.
• Involve unions in planning, if applicable, so program elements do not conflict with any collective bargaining agreements.
• Talk with other employers who have implemented projects to obtain input/feedback on what has worked, issues or problems encountered and how they were solved.

Issues to consider:

• Will participation be voluntary or mandatory? If participation in training is mandatory and training will occur partially or totally during non working hours, workers may need to be paid for time spent in class. Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act describe employer responsibilities for compensating employees while in training.
• Will paid release time during work hours be given?
• Will production goals be reduced or relaxed to compensate for workers who are in training during normal work hours?
• What kinds of accommodations will be made for workers from different shifts or locations?

Next Steps

The next steps are to publicize and market the program to others within your company. These steps may include:

• Developing marketing strategies aimed at supervisors and management that are different than those geared toward targeted workers.
• Identifying outcomes from which management, supervisors, and their work units will benefit such as reduction in error rates or accidents, etc. For information directed at workers, include personal benefits or outcomes such as accessing to promotional opportunities, passing company certification tests, etc.
• Dissemination of information through announcements pposted on company bulletin boards, in company newsletters and/or circulated with paybehcks, etc. Individual supervisors can also inform their workers of the availability of a program although there is less control on how it's sold to staff.

Dos and Don'ts:

• Do not lavel classes as literacy classes.
• Do promote classes as staff development or an employee benefit.
• Do obtain support from all levels of the company.