The experience of eight prominent Canadian business organizations was examined in terms of how basic skills deficits are identified in their work force, the impact of those deficiencies on organizational competitiveness, and why corporate programs are developed in response to the issue. Some of the key findings were as follows: (1) employee training is an important part of business competitiveness, but in a world of tight resources, there is little evidence of organizations' commitment to basic skills development; (2) organizations that have high quality management systems appear to respond very positively when problems with basic skills deficiencies in the workplace are identified; (3) changes in technology and operating methods place new demands on the skills of employees, sometimes leading to the development of remedial programs; (4) in a unionized environment, employee training is not a problem because it is recognized that there are benefits to all parties; (5) organizations that are downsizing may see the extent of the basic skills problem increase as younger, better educated workers are laid off and the proportion of skilled to unskilled jobs increases; (6) rapidly growing organizations can ensure that they do not experience basic skills problems by using rigorous recruitment and selection processes; and (7) there has been too little experience in employee basic skills training to identify a set of "best practices," but there is some evidence that employees are more likely to participate in programs if training occurs during normal working hours. The study concluded that basic skills deficiencies in the workplace have to affect corporate interests or they will not be addressed; however, as more organizations undergo technical change, there will be increased attention paid to the problem. (The report includes case studies for the eight organizations that were the subject of the research.) (KC)