Employee Benefits

Skills improvement for an employee often changes their ability to perform their jobs well.  The benefits summarized below capture many of the performance benefits that employees gain when they enhance their basic skills.    

With enhanced skills comes a greater capacity to adapt to change, to learn at work and to respond to competitive challenges.  As a result, employees gain rewards and recognition from their employers in the form of better pay, promotion, job security and career opportunities.  

Benefits to employees of workplace basic education programs include:

ABILITY TO WORK SMARTER AND BETTER

Improving their basic skills allows employees to complete the same tasks taster and more accurately: 

• Increased Output of Products and Services

• Reduced Time per Task

• Reduced Error Rate

• Reduced Wastage in Production of Products and Services

• Better Health and Saftey Record

• Increased Quality of Work

"If you don't know how to read and understand, you guess.  Sometimes you don't guess right.  With my improved language skills, I was able to eliminate all those mistakes caused by guessing."

- Educational Trainer,
Large Manufacturing Company

NEW ATTITUDES

Better basic skills tend to improve employees' attitude to work and their fellow workers, and increases their willingness to learn new things on the job: 

• Improved Employee Morale/Self-Esteem

• Reduced Absenteeism

• Increased Retention of Employees

• Better Team Performance

• Improved Labor-Management Relations

• Improved Ability to Cope with Change in the Workplace

• Positive Attitude to Lifelong Learning

"Before the course it was always 'them' versus 'us'.  After the course we noticed a change in attitude that came about from increased communication and increased respect."

- Mechanical Drafter,
Eastern Components Manufacturing Company

WORKING WITH OTHERS

Employees who participate in WEPs become better team players who are motivated to work with others:

• Better Team Performance

• Improved Effectiveness of Supervisory Staff

• Improved Understanding of the Organization's Culture

"If all the members of the team understand each other and each other's tasks, the team works better."

- Assembler,
Large Automobile Manufacturing Company

BASIC SKILLS

Improved basic skills give employees greater capacity to perform their jobs well:

• Improved Reading, Writing and Numeric Skills

• Improved Communication Skills

• Improved Problem Solving

• Improved Ability to Cope with Change in the Workplace

• Improved Ability to Use New Technology

"A lot of people in my type of job don't know how to read.  But soon you will need a high school diploma to do my job.  You have to know how to read things like chemical signs."

- Housekeeper,
Large Eastern Medical Center

JOB-SPECIFIC SKILLS

When employees improve their basic skills they do better in job-specific training:

• More Employees Participating in Job-Specific Training

• Improved Results in Job-Specific Training

• Quicker Results in Job-Specific Training

"After doing the algebra classes, when I went on to do an electronics course at the community college I had to learn scientific notation.  But having the basic math skills, I felt comfortable in taking on the challenge of learning this.  With the skills I have learned I am more confident and able to think faster."

- Technician,
Large Midwestern Hi-Tech Company

ENHANCED JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Employees who participate in WEPs are more responsive, flexible, and better able to take on new responsibilities:

• Higher Success Rate in Promoting Employees Within the Organization

• Higher Success Rate in Transferring Employees Within the Organization

"Because of the training, I received my GED and moved up to a Supervisor in the Dietary Department.   All the classes that I received helped to get me where I am today and also to keep my job."

- Food Service Aid Supervisor,
Western Hospital

BROADER BENEFITS

Improving their workplace basic skills improves employees' quality of life:

• Improvements Outside the Workplace

"I am happier at work and with my job.  It helps me with my outside life as well as to communicate in English with my children."