From May issue, NZ Manufacturer magazine www.nzmanufacturer.co.nz

-David O’Connor, Commercial Manager, The Learning Wave

There is no shortage of evidence – both research-based and practical examples – that productivity continues to be one of the main challenges to the long-term growth and success of the Manufacturing sector here in New Zealand.

Coupling this challenge with an aging workforce, and barriers to attracting new skilled labour means that many businesses have significant skills, capability, and capacity issues that are holding them back, or restricting their ability to adapt and respond to market opportunities.

One of the constants that we hear from our clients is about how to address the underlying literacy challenges in both their frontline staff and supervisors. While many businesses might have ‘done’ literacy training (often in small numbers) in the past, they often have not seen the benefits of this training in terms of changes to the shop floor or seen any flow-on effect to productivity.

Workplace literacy is more than just someone’s ability with basic reading and writing skills. Today’s workplace demands mean that workplace literacy needs to include comprehension of complex work instructions, critical thinking and problem-solving, strong verbal and written communication skills, numerical and analytical skills, and the growing need for everyone to have to digital mindset and skills to work in our ever-growing digitally rich workplaces.

Misinterpretation of instructions, inability to comprehend safety guidelines, or errors in recording data can lead to costly delays and rework. Imagine a scenario where a worker misreads a critical measurement or mishandles a machine due to a misunderstanding of operating procedures. The repercussions extend beyond mere inconvenience; they affect the bottom line.

According to the 2016 Survey of Adult Skills, around one in five people in the New Zealand Workforce have very low literacy skills and a further quarter have inadequate literacy and numeracy skills to function effectively in today’s workplace. These figures have a significant impact on manufacturing  businesses when we drill down further to see that:

• 50% of adult workers have low problem-solving skills in a technology-rich workplace
• 40% of working adults have difficulty making sense of graphs or charts
• 46% of our workforce have difficulty working with weights and quantities
• 40% of working adults have difficulties reading and understanding work instructions.

So the impact of this in terms of a business’s safety performance, operational efficiency, productivity, term performance, and engagement or ability to implement change and new technology is significant. But a barrier that can be easily addressed.

Doing something about workplace literacy is not about showing someone up, it’s about giving them the confidence and practical skills to perform better.

Addressing workplace literacy isn’t just about mitigating risks on the shop floor; it’s about unlocking the potential of your people. And it goes far beyond just the traditional reading and writing skills — It boosts confidence, lifts staff engagement, and our clients see the tangible benefits of this in terms of:

• Reduction in absenteeism and staff turnover
• Increased safety reporting and accuracy in reporting
• Increased participation in continuous improvement activities
• Decrease in downtime and better machinery utilisation
• Better communication and leadership on the shop floor
• Less restraint to technical training – especially digital systems

All too often in New Zealand, we leave training to last, or as a nice to have, and don’t provide enough time or space to ensure that staff have the confidence and skills and can apply them in their roles.

With 19 years of experience in delivering embedded workplace literacy programmes across the sector the results from our clients speak for themselves. “By continuing to develop our staff and build their core (literacy) skills, we are better able to train and engage staff in a variety of transferable skills and job roles. The changes on the shopfloor are very tangible and for the first time we can start putting on ROI against skills training”

If the results are this significant we can show a direct link between lifting workplace capability and addressing the challenges for our manufacturing staff and improvement in performance and productivity. Then it would seem that training and developing workplace literacy skills are essential ingredients for the success of our manufacturing business here in New Zealand.