Communicating Compliance

Choosing the right content and assessing your available resources plays a large role in creating an effective compliance communication strategy. Using the previous parts of this series as reference, you’ll be able to look back at your analysis and choose the most appropriate content. You’ll also have a better understanding of current internal messaging and training, which will help you pick the best content for alignment. When you start to choose content, it can be helpful to consider the following points:

In Part 3 of this series, the importance of aligning your compliance messaging with that of other departments within your organization was touched upon. To dive a little deeper into this concept, one should focus on alignment with HR and current training initiatives.  Aligning with current training schedules will help determine the optimal release timing for any additional communications, and ultimately help prevent overwhelming your audience. Consider the following questions:

Be sure to align your compliance and ethics messages with those of other internal departments and individuals in your organization. Whether you are a department of one or of many, and regardless of how large or small your business is, you won’t want to overwhelm your audience or send out competing messages. In Part 4 of this series, there will be a closer look at alignment with HR-related communications specifically. For now, here are some things to consider when you initially begin your message alignment:

Part II: Audience Analysis

As I mentioned in part one of this series, this step in the communication planning process should happen early to avoid messaging pitfalls (like too much, too little, mis-alignment, etc). Understanding these key points will help you understand who you should target based on their roles, interests, and knowledge:

How important is a communication strategy to your compliance program? Getting the message out to your employees, third parties, and stakeholders will make your program stick and, over time, create a culture of compliance and ethics within your organization. Communication is an integral part of your program, but don’t take my word for it; here’s an excerpt from the 22^nd Annual Ethics and Compliance Conference (you can read the full transcript here):

My blog title (a misquote, by the way, and often misattributed at that*) is a frequent topic of conversation here at Compliance Wave. In fact, I heard this very phrase uttered less than 48 hours ago by the Chief Compliance Officer of a well-known children's hospital. And while it elicited a chuckle from both of us, as it always does, it's also remarkably on-point for how we communicate compliance policies.

For most of us, effective communication that is clear, impactful, and brief is hard. I mean really hard. Why is this so difficult – specifically in the realm of compliance communication? 

My team and I are often asked, “What can I do to make my compliance communication as effective and engaging as possible?” The answer may surprise you. While having strong, quality communications materials available to your employees is important, such communication will be virtually irrelevant if not delivered with consistency. 

Consistency sounds time consuming and scary, and I can understand the fear. It’s hard enough to find time to manage the existing constants of a typical day. You’re painfully aware of your bottomless inbox and the blinking light of your voicemail. Even personal things, like promising yourself that you’ll start drinking more water or getting a full night’s rest, seem daunting.  But if you don’t hold yourself accountable, you will not reach your goals. Your compliance communication program is no different. 

We know why we need to be consistent in our compliance communication, but how can we achieve it? By taking the steps below, consistency in your messaging can become a more natural part of your routine:

OK, don’t flip out. I don’t mean that the way it sounds; I just said it that way so you’d read my blog which you’re doing. So you have to admit that it worked.

But, in another sense, I mean it quite literally. Here’s why: the other day, I saw yet another basic training presentation about the FCPA designed to educate employees about bribery. The presentation included the following sorts of facts:

If I’ve learned anything since joining the Compliance Wave team, it’s that communicating our message is the most important part of everything we do. We want to provide our Members (past, present, and future) with effective resources, best practices, and industry relevant news. We strive to maintain a balance between our global reach capabilities and our friendly, approachable tone. How do we manage this as we connect with hundreds of different organizations and millions of individuals around the world? We know the best way to engage our complex audience is to make sure we’re ubiquitous in our communications, both in the content we provide and in the communication channels we use to provide it.  

A piece published on CorpCounsel.com entitled Watch your Languages in International Compliance caught my eye the other day. This is in part because it amazes me that anyone is still trying to convince anyone about publishing anti-corruption and other compliance materials for your employees that speak languages other than English; of course you have to do this, and I believe few people would argue the point. Not surprisingly, appropriate translation of compliance materials was listed as a “Hallmark of Effective Compliance Programs” in the FCPA Resource Guide published by the DOJ and SEC in 2012.