Key Takeaways

• According to research by Website Planet, in the US, grammar errors in Google ads decrease traffic to a website by 5.2%, while spelling typos - by 10%. This translates into losing two customers for every 100 due to a grammar mistake, as well as four out of 100 due to a spelling mistake.
• A study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 73.4% of employers want individuals with strong written communication skills.
• Across all company sizes and sectors, the global average of companies planning to invest in improving the English skills of their employees ranges from 3 — 4%.

Introduction

1. Impact of Written Communication in Business

Ads Containing Grammar or Spelling Mistakes

• In a poll by Survey Monkey, 81% of women and 77% of men consumers claimed they would not purchase a product or service advertised with poor grammar or misspelled words.
• Among young buyers, 85% of millennials noted that they are highly unlikely to purchase a product advertised with grammar or spelling mistakes. Additionally, 83% of people with annual household income of $75k or more said the same.

Further Data on Google Ads and Website Traffic

• According to research by Website Planet, in the US, grammar errors in Google ads decrease traffic to a website by 5.2%, while spelling typos - by 10%.
• This translates into losing two customers for every 100 due to a grammar mistake, as well as four out of 100 due to a spelling mistake.
• To compare, errors have an even higher impact both in the UK (traffic decreasing by 12.8% due to a grammar error and 14.1% due to a spelling error) and globally (declines of 8.7% and 13% for grammar and spelling mistakes, respectively).

Influencing Customer Perceptions

• Poor grammar, spelling mistakes, and typos affect a company’s reputation, thus, weakening its brand.
• A survey by Tidio revealed that 94% of U.S. consumers and 86% of global consumers are attentive to grammar. However, when shown sentences with poor grammar, only 2.8% of the respondents identified the mistakes.
• Overall, around 97% of the respondents claimed that grammar mistakes influence their perception of individuals (96.5%) and companies (97.2%).

Impact on the Company Image

• Poor grammar erodes a company’s credibility.
• In a study, 51.8% of the respondents acknowledged that grammar influences how they perceive a company’s professionalism.
• Another 34.9% noted that grammar impacts how they view a company’s credibility. Thus, an estimated 96% of consumers use grammar to judge a company’s authority, eloquence, intelligence, and level of education.

 

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Business Email Etiquette

•  Nearly 75% of US workers believe that grammar and spelling mistakes are "a big deal" in business emails. However, the mistakes are considered forgivable if they don't distort the message.

 

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• For additional context, the same survey by Rescue Time found that over 40% are against using emojis in business emails and under 20% are against using exclamation marks.

Time and Cost Savings

• Strong business writing skills are valuable, and individuals can enhance their value by more than 50% by honing their verbal and written communication skills, according to Warren Buffett, chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway.
• Good business writing skills save businesses time and cut costs. Employees and managers spend 22% of their time trying to make sense of a poorly written document or material.
• The time lost amounts to an estimated 6% loss in total wages, equivalent to about $400 billion yearly. Thus, poor writing skills cost organizations time and loss of wages.

Some of the Most Expensive Typos

• Some of the most expensive typos include:
• In 1962, NASA missed a hyphen when setting a trajectory and speed of Mariner 1, its first interplanetary probe. As a result, the spacecraft exploded minutes after the start. With the cost of $80 million, it was dubbed "the most expensive hyphen in history."
• In 1988, Banner Travel, a California-based travel agency, lost 80% of its business due to a typo in Yellow Pages ad, which changed "exotic" to "erotic." Given that the company mostly served seniors, the typo had a significant impact on its reputation. Pacific Bell, a company that published the ad with the typo, had to pay $10 million to Banner's owner.
• Lockheed Martin's deal for Hercules military transport aircraft considered "that the price of the planes would increase over time, to account for inflation." However, a formula calculating the increase had a misplaced comma, which costed the company $70 million.

Employers' Stance

• According to research, strong verbal and written communication skills are among the most sought-after by employers.
• Writing skills enable employees to communicate with colleagues, business partners, managers, third-party vendors, clients, internal department heads, etc. Poor writing skills can cause confusion and become costly in the long run.
• A study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 73.4% of employers want individuals with strong written communication skills.
• Similarly, a poll by Survey Monkey found that 86% of hiring managers were less likely to hire applicants with grammar errors or typos in their job applications. The figure rose to 92% among those with at least $72k in annual income.

Share of Workplace Communication that is Written

• According to Grammarly, based on a 40-hour work week, about 20.17 hours are spent on non-writing communication, while 19.93 hours are spent on writing tasks.
• According to the report, 11% or 4.43 hours are spent writing communication to others, while 6% or 2.48 hours are spent writing other tasks.

 

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• Employees are likely to spend "10% of their writing time or 4.05 hours responding to written communication from others, 8% or 3.27 hours creating materials to be shared with others, 7% or 2.98 hours reviewing or editing other's materials, and 7% or 2.81 hours are spent revising materials created or written."

The Importance of Email Communication

• Written, particularly email, communication in the workplace serves a wide range of purposes.
• According to research, email is commonly used in internal and team communications (74%) and client communication (70%).
• It is a preferred channel of business communication for 72% of millennials.
• Email is widely used when sharing work or projects internally (68%), sharing contracts (65%), important documentation (63%), and sharing project results with clients.

Importance of Written Communication for Leaders and Knowledge Workers

• According to Soocial, 86% of business leaders have communications budgets, with 68% planning to invest more in tools for written communication.
•  73% of knowledge workers feel confident about their written communication skills, but only 62% of them are perceived to communicate effectively.
• Furthermore, 54% of knowledge workers and 79% of business leaders experience written miscommunication, with up to 19% of workweek wasted due to poor communication.

Cost of Poor Communication - Additional Findings

• According to the State of Business Communication report 2022 by Grammarly, U.S. businesses lose about $1.2 trillion annually due to communication breakdowns.
• An estimated 9 out of 10 business executives have experienced the negative effects of poor communication at work.
• As per the report, poor communication increases the costs of business (45%), leads to missed deadlines/increased time to resolution (39%), erodes brand credibility or reputation (34%), and reduces productivity (28%).

2. The Use of English in Global Companies

Share of Employees With Sufficient English Skills

• According to English Assessment Cambridge, 49% of businesses in non-native English-speaking countries require employees with advanced levels of English.
• The global average of staff having English skills needed to succeed in their role includes 78% in top management, 74% in marketing, 64% in accounting and finance, 70% in sales, 60% in human resources or personnel, 65% in production, 68% in customer service, and 62% in logistics and distribution.
• According to the study, there is a gap between employees' skills and the skills each industry wants, translating to a global average of at least a 40% skill gap.

Level of English Required by Global Employers

• Global employers are looking for different levels of English proficiency when hiring for various positions. Notably, job descriptions will feature three typical levels of English, including business-level English, fluent English, and strong English communication skills.
• Depending on the nature of the task, 44% of global companies require advanced to native English level to write emails and participate in meetings, and 46% require it for delivering presentations and reading reports.
• However, some professions, such as banking, finance, and law, require the highest English proficiency levels than hospitality, leisure, and travel professions.
•  Businesses in non-native English-speaking regions have the highest English-level requirements. More than 49% of such companies require advanced levels of English.

Percentage of Internet Businesses Using English

• According to Statista, data from W3Techs shows that about 63.7% of all websites use English for their content.
• Roughly 1.2 billion internet users speak English, about 25.9% of the world’s internet users. Thus, 3 in 4 people globally do not understand over 60% of all websites without a translation tool.

 

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• The chart above shows the representation of language use across internet websites, whereby some languages, such as Russian, have a wider internet footprint than they are spoken globally.

Regions Investing in English

• Globally, many businesses, especially in non-English speaking regions, are investing in and attracting investments in English training.
• Recently, Telemia partnered with National Geographic Learning (NGL) to provide the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Education with learning materials to prepare about 150,000 Saudi students for the future labor market.
• EdTech startups, such as Englease.com, have raised funding to build an online English synchronous (live) education system for UAE clients. The company received seed funding of $3.4 million.
• In China, the world’s second-biggest economy, the English language training market is anticipated to grow by $80.54 billion during the 2021-2025 period at a CAGR of 22%.

Employers Planning to Improve the English Skills of their Staff

• Across all company sizes and sectors, the global average of companies planning to invest in improving the English skills of their employees ranges from 3 — 4%.

 

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• The focus on improving English skills is mainly seen in top and middle management roles. As per the findings, 4% of global companies plan to improve the English skills of their employees.
• Another 4% plan to improve the English skills of their employees in accounting and finance, sales, human resources or personnel, customer services, and production. Another 3% plan to do so in marketing, logistics, and distribution.
• Despite the lower percentages, there is clear evidence that employers plan to improve the English skills of their employees across all job roles.

Countries Where Employers Reward English Skills

• Globally, around 50% of employers offer better packages to candidates with high English skills.
• In 2017, employers across various geographies rewarded applicants with good English skills with better offers. This included Ukraine (83% of employers), China (80%), Iraq (79%), Saudi Arabia (67%), and Chile (65%).

 

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Research Strategy