How to spot 'work voice' and what to do instead

Work voice is a style of writing common in workplaces – which is where it belongs

What work voice is

Work voice is a formal, impersonal and ponderous writing style that people who work in corporate offices or government departments use when writing to work colleagues, about work topics. If that tone of voice is the voice of your corporate culture, that is fine. Use it freely – at work.

But don’t fall into the trap of using this style with your customers, users or members who do not work in a similar corporate or government environment.

Many financial services firms make this mistake. In fact, in our report for ASIC on IDR Responses, work voice was one of the key topics we discussed. (IDR responses are letters written by superannuation funds to members who had complained).*

Work voice examples

Here are some examples from that report, in each case, written to a member of the general public.

‘Please find enclosed an acknowledgement letter to be signed and returned to us, waiving your rights to make any insurance claim for the period where a reimbursement of insurance premiums has occurred’.

‘A good faith payment on a no liability basis’ and

‘The team adopts a diversified approach to portfolio construction’.

Work voice makes readers disengage or misunderstand

When users, customers and members read copy in work voice, they feel that

You wrote the content for someone else – not for them
You do not understand them, because you are not using the style of language they use.
They skip over it.
They misunderstand yiour message.
They lose sight of your brand, because you sound like everyone eelse

What happens next? They use your call centre or they fail to comply with your requests.

Why take this risk?

How can I detect work voice in my copy?

Read some of your content to your family and ask for their feedback on the style
Test your content with users. If you are unsure about the best way to test content, and/or need the neutrality of a professional, call me. We are content testing and message testing experts.

At Susan Bell Research we use a combination of desk-based evaluation. qualitative research-based user testing and AI. All of our work is informed by plain language and behavioural science. Find out more – contact Sue.