When businesses and other organizations decide to provide writing training to their workforce, it’s usually because they want their people to produce more readable and effective documents. “Clear writing is critical,” says one of our clients, explaining why they wanted to help their team develop stronger writing skills. “It’s a representation of not only the individual but the corporation as well.”
What many organizations don’t realize, however, are the ways in which writing training produces secondary benefits, some of which can be dramatic.
Here are 4 hidden and surprising ways that writing skills development can help companies.
1: Save Time
Better writers are almost always faster writers. In our experience, it’s not uncommon for writers to reduce total writing time by about 25% after completing training (though specific outcomes can vary) because they (1) write faster and (2) require fewer rounds of revisions. In fact, the time savings can even translate into significant ROI. An organization with 10 workers who can reduce writing time by an hour a day can reap over $150,000 in annual cost savings. Check out the complete breakdown and walkthrough of the ROI of faster writing; and for more information about how to write faster, read our article, “How to Reduce Writing Time.”
2: Make More Money
It’s not just cost savings: better writing can also mean more revenue. This can work in several different ways.
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First, better writing can potentially increase the number of leads generated because the associated written materials – like ads, emails, presentations, and inbound marketing content – are more effective.
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Second, better writing can increase the sales conversion rate, so more leads turn into actual business. For example, better-written proposals will close more deals.
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Third, less time spent on writing tasks means more time for sales staff to focus on making more sales.
For more information, read “The ROI Better Writing: Making More Sales.”
3: Improve Customer Relationships
Interestingly, better writing can also help with relationship-building. That’s because clearer writing produces less confusion and fewer questions or complaints. General Electric discovered that when they rewrote software manuals to be clearer and saw client questions and criticism decrease by 125 calls per representative.
4: Enable Employees to be More Effective
Good writing is a soft skill that is closely associated with other skills like critical thinking. As employees become better writers, they simultaneously become better communicators and better thinkers in general. These are soft skills that can be hard to recruit; one study found that only about one-third of young adults believe themselves to be well-trained in critical thinking, for example. Any training that strengthens these areas can fill skills gaps and strengthen the workforce’s capabilities overall.
Is your team’s writing costing you time and money? We can fix that!
Our team courses teach expert-level writing strategies to transform your staff’s writing in no time. Explore Our “Better Business Writing” Course