As an employer, you likely know that terms like ERISA, cafeteria plan, and FMLA strike fear in the hearts of employees. You may also know that the average American reads on a fourth-grade level.

Although terms like copay, premium and fiduciary may seem commonplace in your job field, to the average employee, you may as well be speaking a foreign language.

In fact, a study from the American Journal of Medicine estimates that nearly half of all Americans are "functionally illiterate" in terms of health care terminology. A disproportionate amount of minorities also suffer from low health literacy levels, the study found.

Health Literacy Innovations, a two-year-old company based in Maryland, has designed software to highlight and replace difficult-to-understand terms with more consumer-friendly language.

The principal is basic: software scans and highlights documents for problematic language and offers suggestions to make terms more easily readable. Employers can also scan documents for estimated grade level.

The message seems simple: if your employees don't understand what you're telling them, they can't follow instructions. So whether you're hoping to increase enrollment in a wellness program or simply explain retirement plan design changes, the language needs to be both accurate and easy to read. An online demo of the software is available here.