Writemark Plain English Awards

With all the fantastic, easy to understand documents we produce, we thought we might try our luck at this years Writemark Plain English awards. We were successful as the only finalist for the "Best Plain English Document in the Private Sector". The document we submitted was On The Level: A Guide to How We Treat People around here. 

On the Level was developed for clients that are keen to deal with issues in their businesses around bullying and harassment.  One key finding in our research was how important it is to keep the language simple, plain, and be very clear about the behaviours and actions that were not okay.   Cartoons and everyday language instead of the usual legal or human resources jargon is what made this document such a success with the judges.

The result for clients has been a huge decrease in the personal grievances to do with bullying and harassment.  Clients tell us this is because their staff now have a good understanding of what is okay, what's not okay, and are equipped with  a clear process to follow if someone feels they are not being treated on the level.