• According to an Ipsos survey for The Voltaire Project, published on Monday, 76% of employers "find themselves confronted daily with deficiencies in spelling and expression of their teams".

  • Since the onset of the health crisis, and the massive introduction of teleworking, employees have abandoned face-to-face exchanges to communicate almost exclusively by e-mail or instant messaging.

  • Yet 90% of employers believe that fluency in written expression is even more necessary than before the coronavirus crisis.

“As of today”, “despite that”, “even”… On reading certain e-mails, a shiver runs through the body of employers.

And for good reason, according to an Ipsos survey for the spelling training organization Projet Voltaire, published on Monday, more than three quarters of them claim to be confronted daily with problems of spelling and expression of their teams.

Since the start of the coronavirus epidemic, and the massive implementation of remote work, communications by e-mail or instant messaging have been increasing in number, leading to their share of spelling errors, grammar and syntax.

How did telework bring to light the spelling and expression difficulties of some employees?

Ever faster exchanges

The numbers do not lend themselves to smile. According to the Ipsos survey, 76% of the 2,500 employers surveyed throughout France "find themselves confronted daily with gaps in the spelling and expression of their teams". For Mélanie Viénot, president of the Voltaire Project, this phenomenon was even accentuated with the health crisis because "teleworking, which requires even greater powers of expression, makes the subject even more important for companies". Yet 90% of employers believe that fluency in written expression is even more necessary than before the coronavirus crisis, and 88% believe that this is also the case for oral expression.

Slack, WhatsApp, Teams, GTalk… Since the start of the crisis, many employees have exchanged via instant messaging applications. “Obviously, we used these channels more. We want to go quickly, we spend less time applying and we sometimes forget the professional context. This problem already existed before, but it has been increased tenfold with massive teleworking ”, explains Marie Planchon, manager of Orthogagne, a training organization specializing in professional writing, which also considers that the“ increasingly short ”deadlines are detrimental to spelling. "These instant messaging tools are not new, but with confinement, we have almost used that, necessarily, the errors are more visible than orally", adds Emeric Dupuy, director of Expression-Training,another training organization specializing in the French language.

Risk of misunderstanding

Between the abbreviations - "FYI: 

for your information 

" (for your information), "TBC:

to be confirmed

 " (to be confirmed) or even "ASAP: 

as soon as possible 

" (as soon as possible) -, the errors of concordance times and namesakes, some employees sometimes do not even manage to make themselves understood.

“To shorten, it can work if we have an irreproachable conjugation, if not, our interlocutor will have to ask for more information because the message lacks clarity.

It generates additional messages and it is completely counterproductive ”, estimates Marie Planchon, who warns of the risks of misunderstanding, misunderstanding or errors.

And it's not just instant messaging that can put employees in difficulty. While some of the exchanges are done on these tools, the rest is done by e-mail, a theoretically more formal communication channel. “If you have the gymnastics to go from email to instant messaging, that won't change a thing. But for people who have difficulties in spelling, the fact of juggling between the two can be problematic ", warns Emeric Dupuy, who adds:" Sometimes, instant messengers can hide the spelling problems of some employees, but it is see it right away in emails. "

For Aurore Ponsonnet, spelling trainer and author of

The orthography toolbox

(2019), these shortcomings can also be explained by the absence of handwriting.

“We have to deal with spelling a lot more when we write by hand.

On a computer or a telephone, we are helped by the correctors, the copy and paste.

In writing, we anticipate more, we do not want to start again, ”analyzes the specialist.

“Handwriting is a real help for working on spelling memory.

"

Credibility called into question

And if spelling is so important to employers, it is because misuse can have "very significant repercussions on the credibility and professional efficiency of employees, and consequently on reputation, productivity and even corporate financial performance. An employee can be very competent in his field, but if he does not master the spelling, it can impact his image and his credibility, ”warns Emeric Dupuy.

And the consequences are the same for the company.

“I often give the example of the dented tin can in the supermarket.

Between this and a box in good condition, which contain the same product, the consumer will always take the one in good condition, ”continues Marie Planchon.

"Some managers are obliged to take back the writings of employees, so it impacts the productivity of the company", adds Emeric Dupuy.

However, having gaps in spelling is not synonymous with stupidity, wishes to remind Aurore Ponsonnet: “An employee who makes mistakes, it is considered that he is not serious, not cultivated, not rigorous or not intelligent.

To be bad at spelling is not proof of stupidity.

Spelling is a subject that you can never master 100%.

"

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  • Business

  • Spelling

  • French language

  • Expression

  • Telework

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • Society