The investment needed to improve skills

Let’s be realistic. You can’t achieve the results you want without investing time and money in your employees.

The investment you make in workplace literacy training will, of course, be geared to your specific business objectives and rationale. And, as with any business improvement and training programme, there is a range of costs to be considered.

In general, you’ll find the costs for workplace literacy training are similar to costs for other training programmes your business may run. However, one advantage with this training is that it can be integrated with other training programmes. This can give you greater cost efficiencies through shared expenditure, resources and employee time in training.

When you integrate workplace literacy training with other programmes, you can achieve better results all round. For example, integrating health and safety into your workplace literacy training can deliver improved health and safety outcomes as employees gain better understanding of what they are being taught.

The investments you need to make

Two key issues need to be considered when setting up training to lift the reading, maths and communication skills of your staff:

1. Time commitments
2. Financial costs.

Be realistic about the investment your business will need to make. However, at the same time, keep in mind the benefits of your investment.

Businesses that have invested in literacy programmes have typically seen significant results with their employees that benefit their business. Reported improvements range from an increase in profitability to wider benefits such as improved employee confidence and relationships.

Time commitments

Like any other training, successful programmes get the best results when employers are engaged and committed. This requires an upfront analysis of how much time and effort you will need to:

• gain the support of senior managers and business owners
• get your supervisors and managers on board
• involve your employeee representatives
• arrange and manage logistics
• set benchmarks
• recruit employees to participate – recognising that literacy can be a sensitive issue
• motivate and support your employees
• analyse results
• recruit employees to participate
• organise help with admin and coordination.

The key is to be aware that like any other training programme this will take time and resources. Prepare for this to help your business make better decisions, create greater efficiency and produce a successful programme.

Financial costs

Most businesses that have run workplace literacy programmes comment on the benefits they gained for the investment in time and cost that they have made. In general, the costs are comparable to other training programmes. As a guide, financial expenditure could include:

• fees for training providers
• recruiting a specialised programme manager or trainers
• employee downtime to attend training and covering for them
• equipment and training materials
• setting up training space
• promoting and organising the programme internally.

Specific costs depend very much on the nature of your programme, how you’re running it and how many employees are involved.  And - if you're working with a training provider - what arrangements you negotiate with them.

Investment tools

For more details, check out:

• Things to think about - The investment you'll need to make (PDF, 171 KB) 
• Checklist - Calculating the investment you might need to make in your programme  (PDF, 147 KB).

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