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New-hired Engineers are Inefficient and Ineffective Communicators, and thats a Problem
Despite technological innovations that allow for fast and easy communication, companies are still facing
challenges with employees who are unable to efficiently and effectively communicate with clients.
Unfortunately, this is especially the case for engineers. According to a 2011 American Society of
Mechanical Engineers (ASME) survey a majority of industry supervisors consider the communication
skills of rookie engineers to be weak [1], and in a 2013 study conducted by the Project Management
Institute (PMI), Companies risk $135 million for every $1 billion spent on a project and new research
indicates that $75 million of that $135 million (56 percent) is put at risk by ineffective communications,
indicating a critical need for organizations to address communications deficiencies [2]. From this data
its shown that effective communication is an important skill not only for efficiency but also cost
reduction, and engineers need to be better equipped to use such a skill. Therefore, its important that
engineering students have the opportunity to get experience with a professional level of communication.
Thus, our group is seeking to introduce a workshop that we developed for Rose-Hulman students to hone
their skills in efficiently interacting and talking with clients. This workshop would be a great activity for
the career services team to run as it would provide students with valuable workplace skills they can use in
their future careers. Additionally, unlike a similar workshop at MIT that focuses more on the theoretical
approaches [3], our program will give students an opportunity to practice their communication skills in a
real-world setting as they undergo client meetings and different methods of team communication..
Though the teams will be applying their engineering knowledge to the projects, the focus of the workshop
is on communication. Therefore, teams will be guided to use effective and efficient ways of
communicating and be taught some of the common pitfalls of miscommunication. In Communication
Problems in Requirements Engineering: A Field Study, the authors, Amer Al-Rawas and Steve
Easterbrook, state that, documents are a poor substitute for interpersonal communication [5]. This claim
is because documents can be interpreted incorrectly since they are often written at a higher technical level
than may be suitable for its audience. Following the beliefs of Al-Rawas and Easterbrook, bettering the
students written communication is one of the main focuses of the workshop as can be seen below in a
brief summary of each day of the program.
By implementing this workshop, we believe students will improve their current communication skills,
while gaining professional experience interacting with clients. Specifically, this workshop is something
students will be able to put on their resumes and gain the interest of hiring managers. After the next
Career Fair, we will ask the participants which company took interest in learning more about their
experience in the workshop, and from those results, ask those companies why the workshop interests
them. If 70% of companies express that the workshop will help students along the hiring process and/or
their willingness to participate in future workshops, then it is a resounding success. In addition, after the
workshop, we will be conducting a survey asking the students whether our goal of improving
communications skills with clients has been achieved, as well as criticism from the clients that we will
apply for future workshops. Once we get to a point where the criticisms are minor and few, we can call
the workshop a success.
Bibliography
[1] ASME., Creating the Future of Mechanical Engineering Education, Vision 2030, pp. 196, Dec.
2011.
[2] The High Cost of Low Performance: The Essential Role of Communications, PMI's Pulse of the
Profession In-Depth Report, pp. 110, May 2013.
[3] E. Schiappa, Professional Communications for Engineers, Scientists, and Managers, Programs for
Professionals | MIT Professional Education, 06-Jul-2017. [Online]. Available:
http://professional.mit.edu/programs/short-programs/professional-communication. [Accessed:
22-Jul-2017].
[4] LEAD: Leadership Education & Development Program. [Online]. Available:
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/campus-life/student-services/LEAD.html. [Accessed: 22-Jul-2017].
[5] A. Al-Rawas and S. Easterbrook, Communication Problems in Requirements Engineering: A Field
Study, Proceedings of the First Westminster Conference, pp. 112.