Colleagues: Miriam mentions work based on the National Workplace Literacy
Program, including language task analysis (what was sometimes called a
literacy audit! - not a good term for businesses!!).

Here are some additional resources that may be of interest in understanding
workplace language (ESL), literacy, and numeracy , including work readiness
assessment and workplace literacy program development and evaluation. One of
the problems with work readiness testing  to see if job applicants or
employees possess skills that match job demands is that such tests rarely
are validated using predictive validity methods.  In this method of
validating work readiness tests groups of people with the full range of
skills and knowledge assessed by the tests are hired somewhere and the
correlation between test scores and scores on some criterion or criteria of
failure or success in performing the job are computed.

The Department of Defense has conducted the most extensive work-readiness
testing and predictive validity assessment of any employer. The Armed
Services Vocational Aptitude (Achievement) Battery (ASVAB) uses ten tests
to predict people’s likelihood of being successful in job training and on
the job. In over 50 years of research the DoD has not been able to predict
in numerous jobs with predictive validity correlations of much above
.35-.40, accounting for some 12-16 percent of the variation in job success
of employees. More about predictive validity for work-readiness validation
and the military can be found in: The Military Experience and Workplace
Literacy. A Review and Synthesis for Policy and Practice
http://literacyonline.org/products/ncal/pdf/TR9401.pdf
This report reviews extensive research and development on workplace literacy
and literacy training programs as interpreted within a conceptual framework
of cognitive development and also considers the implications of this
research for policy on adult workforce and workplace literacy and
provisions for lifelong learning.

A second resource for workplace LLN with over seven methods for trying to
identify literacy demands of jobs, including extensive predictive validity
research is Reading for Working: A functional literacy anthology. This book
presents the research that originally led to the formation of the National
Workplace Literacy Program.
http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/sticht/rfw/cover.htm
Table of Contents
Chapter 1.	Introduction
Part I Determining Functional Literacy Demands of Jobs
Introduction
2.	Readability of Job Materials
3.	Performing Job Reading Tasks
4.	Literacy in Relation to Job Knowledge, Job Performance, and Supervisor
Ratings
5.	Using Personnel Data Files to Estimate Reading Demands of Jobs
6.	Commentary on Methodologies for Determining Literacy Demands of Jobs
Part II
Reducing Discrepancies Between Literacy Skills of
Personnel and Literacy Demands of Jobs
Introduction
7.	Methods for Reducing Literacy Demands of Jobs.
8.	Functional Literacy Training: A Case Study

Part III
Collected Papers on Functional Literacy
Introduction
9.	Reading and Career Education
10.	A Career-Oriented Literacy Training System for the Armed Services
11.	Needed: A Functional Literacy Curriculum for the Secondary School

A third resource for workplace literacy program design and assessment is:
Testing and  Accountability in Adult Literacy  Education: Focus on Workplace
Literacy Resources for Program Design, Assessment, Testing, & Evaluation
http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/report4/rep36-40/rep36-01.htm
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Chapter 1 Knowledge Resources for Designing and Delivering Workplace
Literacy Programs
Chapter 2 Q & A on the Evaluation of Workplace Literacy Programs
Chapter 3 Case Study Using the "DO ED" Approach for Evaluating Workplace
Literacy Programs
Chapter 4 Testing and Accountability in Adult Literacy Programs in the
Workforce Investment Act of 1998
Chapter 5 Determining How Many Adults Are Lacking in Workforce Literacy: The
National and International Adult Literacy Surveys
Appendix Reviews of Eight Tests Used in ABE & ESL