Communication Skills in the Workplace: Employers Talk Back 2002
Nancy Martin-Young

I. Have you ever asked your Durham Tech students why they’re in school?

I’ll bet none of them tell you it’s for the pure intellectual stimulation or the simple joy of learning.  Granted, some have unusual reasons for sitting in our classes: remaining on their parents’ insurance policies, conditions of parole, free day care—we’ve heard it all. But most of our students are in class because they see it as a step toward a lucrative job. Helping them get that job is one of our goals too. And it’s even part of our school mission statements.

A. When I first studied what skills employers wanted in their workers back in 1995, the annual area unemployment rate was 2.6% (U.S. Bureau of Statistics). 

B. In 2001, our area’s rate was 2.1% in January and 2.3% in February. 

C. Do you know what the unemployment rate is in the Raleigh/ Durham/ Chapel Hill area now, according to the most recent figures?  March 2002 stats show 4.8% unemployment (qtd. in Rives, Karin Schill, “Unemployment Rises in Triangle, N & O 1D+).

D.  And the national rate is the highest it’s been in almost 8 years—6%.  These days, our students have a harder time landing a job. The National Association of Colleges and Employers says that the hiring of college grads will be down 36% from last year (qtd. in “Cool Reception for Grads,” N & O 5 May 2002: 3E).

E. To give them an edge, we need to know what skills employers want and design assignments that will teach those skills.  My talk today will help with that goal.  We’ll trace the shift toward skilled labor over the past 30 years and discuss the skills employers want in today’s workplace.  We’ll also cover changes in interviewing techniques and discuss adapting assignments to teach necessary skills.

II.  History: We’re going to talk a walk through time for a minute to see how workplace trends have changed. First, let’s get into the mood for our first date: 1950.

A.  While I don’t remember much about 1950, I do remember that our home was surrounded with  Patti Page singing “The Tennessee Waltz” & Nat King Cole singing “Mona Lisa.”  My mom swooned over Perry Como’s beautiful blue eyes. All About Eve won Best Picture. America entered the Korean War, and my siblings learned how to survive an atomic blast by hiding under their school desks as part of Truman’s Civil Defense program.

B. In 1950, 60% of the jobs were for unskilled workers with a high school diploma or less. Another 20% were skilled workers, and the final 20% were professionals. Now we're going to jump forward 30 years.

C. Think back to the 1980’s.  For some of us, that’s not so hard—Michael Jackson’s Thriller album ruled the charts—a bleak day for those of us who followed Metallica and U-2 instead. In the 1980’s, America was digging out from an economic slump and learning to deal with competition on a global scale. The phrase “buy American” was plastered on bumpers and the movie Gung Ho showed our paranoia concerning Japanese business ingenuity.

D. In 1983, a report called A Nation at Risk got a lot of attention. The next year, a report called The Unfinished Agenda, published by the National Commission on Secondary Vocational Education, proposed educational reform. Parnell’s book The Neglected Majority in 1985 garnered a lot of attention when it proposed the now-familiar 2 + 2 Tech Prep Associate’s degree program. These reports prompted the U.S. government to take action. President Bush and the U.S. Department of Labor stepped in, studying the situation and eventually proposing legislation. 

E. Let’s go forward to the next decade now. In 1991 Hannibal Lecter got our attention with his acquired tastes, including a “liver, fava beans, and a nice Chianti” (slurp). And by 1991, job openings showed that the skilled worker category increased to 45%, while the professional category remained the same, and the unskilled category shrank to 35%. Clearly, America needed skilled workers. The America 2000 program was born.

F. This demand for skilled workers continued.   The Dept. of Labor had predicted that skilled workers would comprise 65% of the labor marker by the 21^st century. In fact, those predictions came true.

G. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that between September 2000 and September 2001, job losses were “concentrated among workers with a high school education or less.” 

H. And in our area, the professional category has swelled even beyond Labor Dept. predictions.  An ESC (Employment Security Commission) survey of the 2700 largest employers in NC revealed 6782 job openings in 2002. Over 40% of those were for professional, technical, and managerial occupations. ESC chairman Harry Payne says, “What we are talking about is that there is a current, strong need for highly-qualified personnel to fill these openings.”  

I. Employers are having trouble filling these positions, even with the unemployment rate so high.  Kristine Ellis reports in Training magazine that “By the end of this decade, the labor market could be short nearly 4.8 million workers. And that gap could be in the form of skilled workers that often make the difference between an organization’s success and failure” (31).

J. Employers spend over $57 billion a year on training workers (Ellis 30). And traditionally, the corporations have turned to the community college system for that training to provide skilled workers for the competitive workplace.

III.   So what skills do employers want to see?

A.     In  1990, the American Association for Training and Development (ASTD) did one of the earliest studies on workplace skills, and it’s still considered a benchmark in the field.  The ASTD noted  skill groups that are needed for all jobs: 

1. Basics—reading writing, computation
2. Communication skills—reading and speaking
3. Adaptability skills—problem-solving and thinking creatively
4. Developmental skills—self-esteem, motivation, and career planning

5. Group effectiveness skills—interpersonal skills, teamwork, and negotiation

6. Influencing skills: understanding organizational structure, leadership     

B.     Another good place to look for lists is the basic SCANS skills.  Here’s a test:  Who remembers what SCANS stands for? Stupendous Creative Acronym Nicely Stated?  While I never heard this question in Jeopardy, it is important in our context.

1. The Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills—a commission of the U.S. Dept. of Labor, in 1991 interviewed employers across the nation to discover what skills were necessary for success in all careers.  I like to think of SCANS as “ going back to basics.” 
2. The report shows that all workers need a 3-part foundation of basic skills in math and communication.  They all need these skills:
   • Basic Skills: reading, writing, listening, speaking, math
   • Thinking Skills: creative thinking, decision-making, problem-solving, envisioning, learning, reasoning
   • Personal Qualities: responsibility, honesty, sociability, self-management, self-esteem
3.   Workers also need 5 competencies:
   • Resources: identifies, organizes, plans, and allocates resources, including time, money, materials, facilities, and people
   • Interpersonal: works with others by participating in teams, teaching, serving clients, exercising leadership, negotiating, and working with diversity
   • Information: acquires, evaluates, organizes, maintains, interprets, communicates, and uses computers to process it
   • Systems: understands complex inter-relationships, monitors and corrects performance, improves and designs systems
   • Technology: selects and applies appropriate technology and selects and maintains equipment
4. Please note that SCANS skills apply to ALL workers, not just entry-level.  That’s a popular misconception about SCANS.  Think about it.  Wouldn’t you say, as community college instructors, that you need skills in problem solving, managing ever-dwindling resources, and dealing with diversity?

What always strikes me about this list is how many of these skills apply directly to communication, my field.  English is an absolutely essential workplace skill.  And our students need be demonstrating their skills in writing and speaking in every classroom, not just in English class.