Writing Skills a Necessity in Business
By Nick at 29 January, 2007, 12:40 am
Are the writing skills of recent college graduates adequate enough for success in business? Many employers actually find them inadequate. Many companies don’t have any type of training program that new hires are required to complete. A matter of fact, many companies don’t have training programs at all. A look at the job postings and you will see the experience requirements.
What happens if these new hires do not improve their writing skills? Do they lose their jobs? I am a college professor teaching Business Communication to juniors and seniors at a university. I would like to know the opinions of the readers of this blog.
What writing skills?
While I admit that statement is not all inclusive, the majority that I see do not possess an appropriate level of skill in this area. Colleges and Universities are falling short in training students in this area. Companies that choose not to offer any training programs sat that it is a personal development matter that they are responsible for. If an employee lacks writing skills, will they lose jobs? Unfortunately no.
A college professor in North Carolina tries so diligently each semester to make his students understand the importance of writing. They seem to think that no one really cares whether they can write or not, and they believe that companies will just hire them a secretary. I have tried working with colleagues at the elementary, middle, and high school level to encourage them to “put grammar skills” back into the curriculum. So far, the movement is very slow at best.
I cannot begin to emphasize the importance of writing. Writing AND speaking is the key to success as a professional today and even in many other occupations. Without those skills you are going no where.
Poor education or poor attention to detail does not play well in today’s business world. Much of business today focuses greatly on detail and precise execution. Witness the widespread adoption of high performance programs such as Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, Lean, Toyota Production System, ISO and others. There is little margin for error in these programs and people who cannot communicate well will not survive in those environments. This assumes, of course, that people with below average or even average communication skills even get into those environments.
So your students say that everyone mispells words or mangles grammar? Perhaps the average person does. Average people do not become managers. Above average people become managers and exceptional people run companies. Average people earn the average income of about $38,0000 per year. Above average people earn more and exceptional people earn a lot more. In larger companies, manager pay is typically double the average, and director pay is 4 or 5 times average.
I have even more experience that OldHR, so perhaps my online persona should be AncientHR. A very large part of my experience has involved recruitment of managers, directors, VP’s and GM’s. I will guarantee you that a person who can’t effectively write a resume and cover letter doesn’t get an interview. What they do get is a “thank you but no thank you” letter. A very well written one, of course.
Maybe they write well but can’t speak well. Great. They get an interview. But if they can’t speak well, they don’t do well in an interview and they don’t get the job.
I trust this helps. Perhaps I’ve been a bit blunt, but this issue is so important that sugar coating an answer would be a disservice.
Most managers and executives indeed do their own correspondence and reports. I would also add that any new graduate, either baccalaureate or MBA, who thinks they’ll have their own secretary is operating under some very severe delusions.
A college professor in North Carolina recently conveyed this information to his Business Communication students during class. To say they were shocked is an understatement! The professor advised them that as college juniors and seniors that their writing skills should not be at the level that he has seen. We are talking about students who spelled the word deaf as “D-e-f” and said someone could not hear as “h-e-r-e.” Mind you, this writing project was in longhand and not on a computer with spell check–but still, if you do not know how to spell the word “deaf” or know that the word “hear” is different from “here,” I am not sure I can offer them any help at this point in their college careers. To say that this professor is frustrated can be an understatement.
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