Compliance Communications Blog

 

The Catch-22 of E-Mail

The global workplace changed forever when e-mail as a communication medium was introduced in the early 1990s. Ease of use, speed of distribution and almost zero cost led to its universal appeal.

Fast forward to modern times, the number of e-mails sent and received per day totals over 205 billion in 2015. The average worker receives approximately 122 e-mails per day --  approximately 15 e-mails every working hour. These figures are expected to rise at an average annual rate of 5% over the next four years.

Ironically, its popularity has made e-mail a victim of its own success: with so much traffic arriving in inboxes, there’s a risk that critical communications – such as compliance – are getting lost in the noise.

Increasingly, staff are suffering from "infobesity," finding it difficult to understand an issue due to information overload. It’s easy to spot the tell-tale signs: e-mails get ignored; partial responses to messages; procrastination (often with best intentions to read later); and selective reading -- i.e. focus on the what the main message is, ignore the stuff that’s not. And the problem is getting worse: the average human attention span in 2000 was 12 seconds. Nowadays, it’s closer to 8 seconds.

VIEW THE FULL POST


 

Planning Effective Compliance Communication, Part 5: Content Assessment

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:

VIEW THE FULL POST


 

Brevity Tips For Compliance Professionals: If I’d Had More Time, I Would Have Written Less

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? 

VIEW THE FULL POST


 

"What Effective Communication Needs"

 

7/15/15: Few of us retain much from a one-shot message but hearing the same message consistently has a huge impact: we remember. Even more importantly, we integrate the message into our lives, thoughts and behaviors. Certainly, that’s true in compliance communication. In a blog post on Communicating...

VIEW THE FULL POST


 

In Compliance Communication, Consistency Trumps Quantity


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:


VIEW THE FULL POST