National Capital Limited

Judges’ comments

The responsibility of helping investors with their KiwiSaver is no mean task. It needs a strong rationale and process to make sure the client gets the best outcome. National Capital has made a very good start on what is an ongoing process. We saw strong evidence that the organisation has identified plain language as an important differentiator for the organisation.

The writing team at National Capital is committed to continuing to write in plain language as they have witnessed significant benefits, including increased staff and customer engagement. They are clearly a customer-focused organisation — we were impressed that they always prioritise the needs of their customers.

We really liked the weekly prize idea and how winners are selected. We feel this has helped embed plain language into practice at this organisation. The team members have also commented on how their plain language skills have improved, so they clearly see this as professional development.

The enthusiasm shown by this team is highly commendable. It’s encouraging to see that the organisation is monitoring and evaluating this project. Customers are clearly responding well to their plain English communications.

With all these aspects in mind, and looking at the results they’ve achieved, we feel they will continue to do more. They show motivation and commitment to including plain language into their daily routine. Overall, they are now firmly set on their plain language journey.

Media statement

KiwiSaver and Investing have always been seen as complex, something regular people do not understand. We’ve always made an active effort at National Capital to change that. Being part of the Plain English Project was another step towards making our communication with all Kiwis simpler and easier to understand.

We saw the benefits first-hand as the number of people coming to our blog to read articles increased substantially. Beyond that, our user engagement has not slipped at all, and the employees of National Capital feel more adept at plain English writing than ever before.

Clive Fernandes
Director
National Capital

View National Capital’s story in our gallery