Marinucci: Promote literacy among staff, in trade schools

Make no mistake about it: Literacy is the future, and the future is literacy.

Savvy service shop operators and tire dealers acknowledge this, promoting and encouraging literacy within their businesses.

Furthermore, progressive owners and managers expect local schools to produce prospective new hires with solid reading skills.

Automotive service providers who have not embraced these steps yet should consider them practical investments in the future.

Literacy encompasses reading as well as understanding the printed word. Reading words and comprehending their meanings — including subtleties and nuances — are related but different essential skills.

Progressive bosses do not stigmatize employees who read poorly — perhaps they have serious reading disabilities. Instead, they recognize the shortcomings as issues that warrant additional training.

For example, consider those technicians who bungle electrical diagnoses. A prudent owner or manager counsels these techs, emphasizing that modern auto repair requires a minimal level of electrical know-how.

As a result, the boss mandates training that hopefully brings these techs up to speed on electrical troubleshooting.

Similarly, a tire dealer or service shop operator may notice employees struggling to read and comprehend written material. Some bosses and co-workers pillory these people, calling them dummies.

However, savvy owners and managers hold private consultations with literacy-challenged employees, encouraging them. Then they invest in these workers by enrolling them in remedial reading classes. (Many school districts offer evening classes of this kind as part of adult education programs.)

Or an owner or manager may provide a private tutor for a needy employee.

Complaining about literacy-related mistakes is easy, but it takes a true leader to motivate and educate employees who need the help.

Confronting poor reading skills also tests employees' mettle because some readily accept help and eventually improve themselves.

But others may refuse opportunities to advance their reading skills. One potential consequence is fewer chances for advancement. Another is diminishing — perhaps scarce — job prospects.

The bottom line is that we work in an era where literacy is a necessity rather than a nicety. My own field experience has convinced me that videos, graphic symbols and grossly simplified flow charts may steer employees to solutions.

At some point, however, the shortest path to an effective solution lies in patiently reading through detailed reference material. Some bosses and employees actually are startled by the need to read text in order to solve problems, repair vehicles, etc.

But reading your way to solutions should never be a surprise.

Never take literacy for granted. Always clarify and reinforce literacy requirements to existing employees, potential new hires and local schools.

For example, a boss may be in the process of updating the company's employee manual. If the manual provides no literacy guidelines, revise it as necessary.

I have read employee manuals that stipulate how much weight a tech must be able to lift in order to perform routine tire work and undercar-related repairs.

Similarly, an employee manual should clarify that workers must be literate enough to read and fully comprehend all printed data, procedures, safety warnings, etc., related to their jobs in a tire dealership or service shop.

Poor reading skills cannot and should not be excuses for work-related mistakes or accidents.

Owners and managers should use team meetings, personal memos and employee manuals to communicate the company's support for remedial reading classes and/or tutoring. Make every effort to destigmatize workers' need to improve their reading skills.

Politely but firmly explain your company's literacy needs to school officials within your market area – at the very least. Over the years, I have been dismayed at the number of bosses who gave me an earful about the reading skills of the apprentices the schools sent to them.

But these same disgruntled owners and managers rarely discussed the matter with the schools that disappointed them.

In previous columns, I have repeatedly stressed the need for tire dealers and service shop operators to get involved – and remain involved — with the local high schools and vocational schools. For one thing, teachers and administrators welcome your participation on advisory committees.

For another, conscientious school leaders and instructors value your feedback on how their products – their graduates – are doing in the workplace. Typically, they want to revise their programs in order to improve the value and desirability of their graduates.

After all, producing high-quality graduates enhances their future — their job security.

I got my first automotive job in a traditional service station in 1967. I have crisscrossed the country reporting on the auto repair industry since 1976.

More often than I care to admit, I have watched techs struggle to read and digest various technical information. All too often, I have stopped them cold and guided them through essential instructions.

What is more, I have witnessed too many instances where service personnel — at all levels of a business — overlook or misunderstand critical "qualifier" words such as never, always, sometimes, occasionally, etc.

As far back as I can recall, I have heard vocational students whine about English classes they had to pass in order to graduate from a trade school. But sooner or later, they realize that words matter — even though they did not major in English.

I have included a photograph of a general-repair manual I acquired in high school. During those much-simpler times, this basic book usually bailed me out of trouble.

Today, auto diagnosis and repair involves thousands upon thousands of pages of information. Often, studying a diagnostic and/or repair procedure takes longer than actually performing the task.

I am not aware that Mark Twain ever worked with tires or wrenched on those early automobiles, but he noted that a person who does not read has no advantage over the one who cannot read.

I believe the gentleman was onto something; perhaps you agree with me.