Employers tend not to identify employees’ lack of Essential Skills as an immediate challenge to be addressed. Instead, they address business issues arising from their operating environment. These issues, which include low productivity, poor safety records and high error rates, may mask underlying Essential Skills challenges. However, Essential Skills challenges are often not identified specifically until employers begin to grapple with implementing solutions to address their business issues.
Once Essential Skills gaps have been identified and Essential Skills training has been developed and implemented, businesses often notice soft returns in addition to hard business results. The combination of improved Essential Skills and other softer benefits (including increased participation, improved morale, enhanced employee engagement and improved team performance) not only equips organizations to address future challenges, but also raises employers’ awareness of how to identify Essential Skills challenges and when to address Essential Skills head-on.