Workplace upgrading programs should be voluntary. Learning can take place only in a context where participants feel comfortable and have the motivation to learn. An organization that is not moving in the direction of high performance may not be ready to support a collaborative approach to workplace literacy. A program developer could conduct a workplace needs assessment to determine the company's present stage of development and discuss these findings with stakeholders as a means of clarifying their goals and values in relationship to the program. Its focus was on the literacy learning environment of workers with lower literacy levels or fewer educational credentials than most of the plant's employees.
Teamwork substantially increases the demand for literacy skills.
Workers appear to develop diverse literacy skills in response to the demands for new proficiencies affiliated with teamwork. Team organization in the workplace opens rich possibilities for literacy education. The educational opportunities in a team environment can be both a benefit and a burden to skills-poor workers. The company that enhances its workforce capability by restructuring work and incentives for learning takes on many functions of an educational institution. HPWOs supports the use of a collaborative approach to workplace literacy in a work environment that is moving toward a high performance model.