Does your new employee write sentences like this?

“Witch proposal does you’re company want to except?”

If that sentence just made you cringe, then you understand the problem we’re talking about. No one is born with impeccable grammar, but some people seem to struggle with grammar and spelling more than others. You may think this doesn’t matter once you graduate from school, but bad grammar can impact your business and make clients wary about working with you. So how should you address grammar issues with an employee effectively so they can paint your company in the best light possible?

What Should You Do When a Worker’s Grammar and Spelling Are Embarrassing the Company?

Addressing grammar issues with an employee requires balancing tact and professionalism in the workplace. Here are some steps to consider when you want to know how to do this effectively.

1. Assess the Impact Bad Grammar Has

Before addressing grammar issues with an employee, consider the impact poor grammar has on both the employee’s work and the organization. If the grammar mistakes are minor and do not affect the overall professionalism or understanding of something, it might not be necessary to intervene. In fact, you may look nitpicky by bringing up something pedantic, which could harm your reputation as a boss.

However, if the grammar mistakes are frequent and could potentially harm the organization’s image or cause misunderstandings, it’s important to talk about them with your employees.

2. Choose the Right Setting

Find a private and comfortable setting for the conversation. Do not address the issue in a public area of your office or in front of other people. The last thing you want to do is to embarrass the employee in front of their peers. If you have an HR department, we recommend reaching out to them about deciding on a place to have a conversation about their grammar issues in the workplace.

3. Be Specific and Constructive

When discussing the issue, be specific about the grammar mistakes and provide clear examples. This approach helps the employee understand the nature and the breadth of the problem. It can also help them to realize that their bad grammar is a pattern and something that didn’t just happen one time. In other words, you won’t look as nitpicky if you can show the employee how serious the issue really is.

4. Offer Support and Resources

It’s important to show your employees support and provide resources for improvement. For example, you could recommend grammar workshops, online courses, or software tools like grammar checkers.

If the issue is severe enough, you may want to ask your employee to temporarily send you all of their communication for you to look over before they send the communication to other employees or clients.

For the sake of work efficiency, only take this step temporarily. Doing so can be a great way to reset the grammar standards you want to uphold with your employee while offering real-time feedback and examples that can help them improve.

5. Emphasize the Positive

Have you heard of the compliment sandwich? Lead with a compliment, follow with constructive feedback, then end with another compliment.

If you want to see improvement, don’t only focus on the negative. Constructive criticism is still criticism, which means it hurts. If you don’t emphasize the employee’s positive improvements or writing skills, you may accidentally lead them to lack confidence in all things grammar and spelling.

Positive reinforcement encourages continued effort and shows that you value their progress and hard work. Giving positive feedback also reinforces to the employee that you are actively checking their spelling and grammar and that it is still important that they do well in this area of their job.

6. Lead by Example

If you expect your employee to use good grammar in their communication and writing, make sure you do the same. No one likes a hypocrite, and employees certainly won’t follow one. If your writing is full of grammatical mistakes, it’s hard to expect anyone else to write any better than you are.

Lead by example and take the extra time to double-check your grammar before sending company emails or correspondence.

7. Foster a Culture of Continuous Learning

Promote a work environment that values continuous learning and development. Encourage employees to regularly engage in training and professional development opportunities. This culture helps employees see grammar improvement as part of their overall professional growth.

Additionally, by making learning about grammar a group effort, you can share feedback with the whole team instead of targeting a specific individual. This technique ensures that everyone is on the same page without hurting a specific employee’s feelings.

Can You Confidently Address Grammar Issues With Your Employee?

So how do you address grammar issues with an employee? By leading by example, fostering a positive work environment, and emphasizing a culture of improvement, your employees will be much more enthusiastic about tackling their poor grammar. As a result, you’ll be able to improve your grammar, too!