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To communicate your compliance message more effectively, you might want to start thinking more like a comprehensive product marketer. Ten years ago, ideas about multi-modal and multi-channel communications were still gaining momentum in the compliance community. Today, these concepts are familiar to most compliance professionals.
But, how do you start creating a multi-channel approach for more effective compliance communications? Here’s a simple way to get started: Make a quick list of the channels already in use at your company.
You already know the first few communication channels you could use:
- Email: While email is a fast, relatively easy way to communicate, compliance professionals should be aware of this channel’s limitations. For example, when you send emails out to employees, you have a reasonable level of assurance that messages will reach them, but you won’t know whether or not they’ve been read.
- Compliance intranet page: Your intranet page is a useful platform that may be combined with other communication channels, such as using links in emails to drive employees to your page. It’s important to keep intranet content fresh, interesting and useful so that employees will use the page and bookmark it.
- Periodic briefings at company Town Hall meetings: Your company’s quarterly review might be a good opportunity to give employees an update on compliance, as there’s potential to reach a large audience. Bear in mind that your message could be overshadowed by other company news being shared.
So far, so good. But, you’re probably overlooking some channels that could be used for effective compliance communications.
- Kiosks or monitors in cafeterias or other gathering places: These very visible channels could accommodate short videos and other multimedia materials.
- Monthly staff meetings: A periodic meeting between managers and their staffs is a great place to plant materials to start driving that ever-elusive “tone at the middle” you’ve heard so much about. If managers are armed to facilitate simple conversations about compliance topics with their staffs, a wide-open channel of dialogue between managers and employees emerges.
- Trackable marketing email platforms: Your marketing group may well already be using a commercially available marketing email platform that allows them to monitor who is opening and interacting with their messages. Constant Contact, Exact Target and other such platforms can provide you with a great option for creating a record of communications by individual recipient. At no additional cost to the company, you can leverage these tools to communicate – and measure the uptake.
- Your phone system: Did you know that something called “voice casting” is now available commercially at a relatively low cost from a number of companies? What this could allow you to do is record a message from your CEO emphasizing the critical nature of compliance and plant that message directly into everyone’s voicemail. How’s that for a Monday morning wake-up call?
- Bulletin boards: Employees perusing bulletin boards for specific information of interest may actually be quite receptive to finding periodic, unexpected compliance office communiqués displayed there.
- Newsletters, blogs and other publications: Regular Q&A columns or other pieces in the company’s internal publications can help solidify the presence and value of the compliance office.
- Product launches and sales meetings: These may offer additional avenues for reaching employees, especially if you can select topics that dovetail with other agenda items.
For each of these channels, you’ll need to consider your existing content and sources for obtaining additional dynamic content. You may also want to meet with the internal communications group to gain access to these channels (and others that may exist in your organization).
Think about which channels will work best for your employee group, and how they might interact synergistically and consistently for more effective compliance communications. Then, select and focus on a few of the most promising avenues of communication you haven’t tried.
Ready to engage and empower your employees with a dynamic compliance communication plan? Download our free report, “5 Ways To Increase The Effectiveness Of Your Compliance Communications.”
