Is Bad Writing Costing Your Company Valuable Time and Money?

Productivity. Everybody wants more of it. Employees strive to optimize their time, and business owners are eager to give them the tools to do so.

In fact, employers are so eager to boost employee productivity that investing in employee productivity is a top strategy for improving revenue. Twenty-one percent of small business owners want to “invest in training or tools to improve employee productivity” as a way to boost growth, according to the 2017 WASP “State of Small Business Report."

This actually isn’t too surprising. Employees are expensive, and every business owner hopes to get the most out of their employees' time and skills. In turn, the best employees are equally interested in getting more done. (Hey, we want a raise.)

The question is, how to make employees more productive, and I’ve got an unusual suggestion: Improve their writing skills. Instead of setting up a new workflow or downloading a productivity app, consider teaching them how to write better.

This applies to both employees and owners, and it becomes especially compelling once you learn that U.S. businesses spend about $3.1 billion every year on remedial writing training.

But that’s not even the scariest stat: 81% of business writing professionals say “Poorly written material wastes a lot of my time." That wasted time is expensive, too; it tallies up to an estimated $400 billion in lost productivity, approximately 6% of our total time at work.

Yikes, right? But this could mean opportunity. Improving business writing skills could significantly improve employee productivity. The question becomes where to start? So, which specific writing habits are contributing to all this waste? Let’s consider the top three offenders:

1. Too long

Writing too long problem is so prevalent, there’s an acronym for it: “TL;DR” or “too long; didn’t read.”

Like it or not, attention spans are short. Readers are distracted and stressed. They want an answer NOW. The longer you make them wait for that answer, the more of them you’ll lose.

So apply Strunk and White’s famous advice: “Omit needless words.” If you apply this rigorously enough, you’ll be amazed as long, winding paragraphs dissolve into sentences. Suddenly, your 28-page report may collapse into just a few pages.

Don’t panic. This is a good thing. The shorter your piece of writing is, the more likely it will get read.

2. Poorly organized

Poorly organized ideas make your readers work harder than they should have to—readers don’t like that. So apply all the classic tools of writing structure, like:

• An index (a short one)
• Subheads
• Bullet points
• Short paragraphs
• Bolded words

Want an example of writing organization done right? Look to the military. Military people structure their emails in a way that could save your company hundreds of hours of time. Their email subject lines, always include keywords for clarity, and clearly state the action the recipient needs to take. These include:

• ACTION—Compulsory for the recipient to take some action
• SIGN—Requires the signature of the recipient
• INFO—For informational purposes only, and there is no response or action required
• DECISION—Requires a decision by the recipient
• REQUEST—Seeks permission or approval by the recipient
• COORD—Coordination by or with the recipient is needed

This method removes all guessing about what an email is about. Other practices applied to the body copy force writers to distill their message into a sentence summary, and then only provide background information if the reader needs to know.

The result? A way to gain freedom from the number one time waster in modern offices: The dreaded overflowing inbox.

3. Unclear

Let’s consult Dilbert for this one; or rather, Dilbert’s creator, Scott Adams. It turns out Mr. Adams has some smart things to say about business writing—possibly gleaned from his years building up the experience to create his cartoons. Here’s his advice:

Business writing is about clarity and persuasion. The main technique is keeping things simple. Simple writing is persuasive. A good argument in five sentences will sway more people than a brilliant argument in a hundred sentences. Don't fight it."

In other words, keep your writing simple. The simpler it is, the better—and the more persuasive it will be. That’s why old-school copywriters wrote at a fifth-grade level. They didn’t dumb their ideas down; they just made them clear.

I’d like to add one more offender to the list of business writing mistakes. It might not trip up senior staff, but this issue is definitely affecting other workers ...

Spelling, grammar, and basic usage errors

Many otherwise smart people get tripped up with spelling, basic grammar, and even apostrophe use. If you’re among those who are using apostrophes to create plurals, I’m talking to you.

Just don’t feel too bad about your mistakes. Even the copywriters at Victoria’s Secret have botched this.

Conclusion

“I just don’t write well” is an all too common excuse, and it’s time we dropped it. Writing well isn’t a virtue or a gift—it’s a skill.

Skills can be learned. And in the case of business writing, it might not even be that hard, especially if you’re willing to write plainly and clearly (instead of trying to sound oh-so-smart). And even more so if you apply some structure to your words.

The benefits are there for people who can adopt the changes. Good writers are better understood, better respected, and more likely to be successful in their business or careers.