Corporate communications: Training towards improvements in reporting

Training in communication and writing skills is taking on more significance as methods of corporate reporting move with the modern age, it has been suggested.

Multi-stakeholder group Report Leadership has used its Generico project, a fictitious firm, to highlight methods of making corporate communications more accessible and informative online.

According to the group, which is comprised of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Radley Yeldar, financial reporting in particular can currently be too dense and over-complicated.

James Brock from corporate communications consultancy Addison told the Financial Times that a growing number of companies already produce web-based HTML versions of documents, in addition to conventional PDF files.

"There are a lot of benefits to this: ease of access, the use of multimedia content, downloadable financial information and the ability to offer a range of content far in excess of what could be contained in a printed report," he noted.

"Improving the quality of company reports" could be the ultimate outcome of adapting communication and writing skills within an organisation, added the consultancy's client director.

The newspaper claims that, out of the FTSE 100 firms, 60 have produced web versions of their reports this year - an increase on the 45 that did so in 2007.