Businesses globally have identified a plain language approach to their communications as a performance improvement tool that produces tangible benefits — reduced operating costs, increased worker involvement, fewer accidents and injuries on the job, to name but a few. In short, plain language has become a business essential.

Organizations Benefit from Plain Language

Get to the Point: A Strategy for Writing Clearly at Work makes a sound business case for communicating clearly and economically in the workplace and marketplace. While writing the book, I interviewed companies and organized labour groups around the world, many of which have used plain language to help them succeed. For example . . .

- By creating a clearer, more legible and shorter phone bill for residential and small business customers, Bell Canada reduced by 30 per cent the amount of paper used — not to mention the reduced support costs resulting from fewer customers telephoning to question their phone bills.

- A complex collective agreement motivated Alberta Power and the Alberta Power Employees Union to turn to plain language. For over a year, labour and management collaborated to create a simpler contract. The initiative resulted not only in a more understandable agreement that benefited everyone, but also in improved labour-management relations.

- By revamping its Policy and Procedures manual for Ground Operations, Federal Express increased the ability of managers, service agents and couriers to answer specific questions more quickly and accurately. The company estimates that the improved search time alone saves at least $400,000 (U.S.) in productivity gains.

- The Joint Health and Safety Committee of Lunenberg's High Liner Foods supervised a plain language project in which three union members revised the Employee Safety Handbook. The forms that workers used for health and safety records were also improved and included in the handbook. The company credits plain language as a factor in reducing incident rates by 40 to 50 per cent!

Plain Language Adds Value

Workplace information is often complex, but workplace communications should not and do not have to be. With 48% of adult Canadians having weak reading skills, critical workplace documents are often inaccessible to many workers. Unfamiliar jargon, long-winded sentences, an unclear organization and a cluttered appearance present barriers to comprehension and retention.

However, even workers with high literacy skills benefit from receiving understandable and usable information. Highly-skilled readers rarely prefer to receive difficult text and confusing graphics! A leader in Canada's manufacturing sector gets to the point:

"Although we've been prepared to spend millions on new equipment, we've been reluctant to focus on some hidden issues. We tended to blame workers, instead of ensuring that the information they received was clear and accessible. We're now looking at plain language as a value-added service."

* Rose Grotsky, President of Learning Communications Inc., helps organizations simplify complex print and electronic information into plain English and other languages. She also delivers workshops in clear business writing. Rose wrote Get to the Point for Praxis Adult Training and Skills Development, with support from the National Literacy Secretariat. For more information, contact Rose at 416-588-4646, rmg@ican.net

Learning Activities - Understanding content vocabulary in employment ads Working in small groups, learners use worksheets and the classified ads in a local newspaper to improve their ability to interpret newspaper employment ads and by learning to read and understand commonly used content vocabulary (phrases and abbreviations). [Taken from Southern LINCS Website (Literacy Information aNd Communication System) - Find Learning Activities]