Plain Language:
Its Effect on Organizational Performance

ROSE GROTSKY

LEADING ORGANIZATIONS WORLDWIDE have identified clear documentation, internally and in the marketplace, as a performance improvement and quality initiative. More specifically, they are using a plain language approach to communication to help improve operations and service quality. A spokesperson for the Alliance of Manufacturers and Exporters Canada remarks:

“We need to look at all areas where we can improve. Although we’ve been prepared to spend millions on new equipment, we’ve been reluctant to focus on hidden issues. We often blamed workers, instead of ensuring that they received clear and accessible information.” (Grotsky, 1998, p. 13)

Measuring the Value of Plain Language

In recent years organizations have begun to cost-justify their investment in improved documentation by measuring and reporting economic benefits. For example, they are calculating reduced costs resulting from improved productivity.

FEDERAL EXPRESS used plain language principles to reorganize, redesign and rewrite its Policies and Procedures manuals. By improving the search time of employees in Ground Operations, Federal Express reports at least $400,000 (U.S.) a year in productivity gains. (Grotsky, 1998, p. 29)

Companies are also measuring increased benefits resulting from a stronger relationship with customers.

Australia’s ROYAL AND SUNALLIANCE overhauled its home insurance policy and application form. Concerned about the gap between the language in its policy and the language understood by customers, the company saw its plain language initiative as a vital part of customer service. Royal and SunAlliance calculates a greater return on investment because it returns fewer incomplete forms and is able to process more applications immediately. (Grotsky, 1998, p. 39)

It Was Just a Matter of Time in Canada

In 1998 Toronto-based Praxis Adult Training and Skills Development published Get to the Point: A Strategy for Writing Clearly at Work. The guide presented a business case for using plain language. To prepare Get to the Point, we contacted over 100 business and union leaders, employees, industry associations, sectoral councils and workplace literacy practitioners in eleven sectors and industries worldwide to identify organizations that had used plain language to improve performance.

Although our research revealed that some Canadian organizations had implemented plain language activities, most of these activities had been short-term and on an ad hoc basis. In general, they had neither received a strong and continuous commitment from top leadership nor had been strategically linked to corporate goals and business objectives.