The ability to understand the meaning of a word within a given context can be measured through tests of reading comprehension which ask the reader to approximate the definition of a word based on a literary passage. In the workplace, general vocabulary skills can help workers acquire the specific vocabulary of a professional discipline, and the capacity to make educated guesses about the meanings of unfamiliar words, based on context, is an important and distinguishing skill.
Reading comprehension requires that a reader be able to summarize the main idea of a written passage and state the writer's probable intention. For employees, this is often necessary in order to understand and follow written instructions such as emails from employers. The ability to filter out unnecessary information, grasp the priority of actions intended by the passage, and adapt the information to the context -- such as the overall goals of productivity and efficiency -- are skills possessed by effective workers.
Expressing relationships between concepts requires the ability to formulate basic principles of logic in a way that is understandable for an intended audience. In the workplace, employees are most often asked to do this through written explanations of essential components in a system, with the purpose of making the system more efficient, collaborating with partners, communicating with the public or training new workers.
The ability to reason critically is among the most important of literacy skills. Employees with critical reasoning skills have the ability to understand consequences, detect flaws in logic, examine their own biases, think probabilistically, and analogize between situations. In the workplace these skills are important in such areas as strategic planning, product development, utilization of resources and analyzing consumer trends.