By Andrea Falcione and Tricia Cornell
This is a sponsored post by Rethink Compliance.
Communication is about persuasion. And persuasion always starts with understanding the person you’re talking to.
At Rethink Compliance, when we work with clients who are ready to add effective communication to their compliance programs, we start by listening — not only to our clients but also to their audiences. We dig into the experiences and attitudes of their workforces: What motivates them to do their jobs well? How do they make decisions? What are their underlying cultural assumptions and biases?
For many, this is a radical shift in thinking, and it can feel like an extra step. But think about who has been effectively convincing us to change our behaviors and preferences for more than a century. That’s right: the marketing and advertising industry, where audience research is the essential foundation for all communication.
So we wanted to share three tips for effective communications, brought to you from the worlds of marketing, advertising, and persuasion psychology.
- Build a connection by addressing your audience’s experiences and attitudes head-on.
When we set out to build our latest library video on speaking up and reporting misconduct, we wanted to find a fresh, compelling, and empathetic voice. Clients were telling us that the usual message — “Speak up because it’s the right thing to do” — wasn’t doing enough to cut through the experiences and attitudes that keep many good and ethical employees from reporting misconduct. So, we decided to address those barriers directly. The result is “Your Voice Has Power,” the newest in our series of spoken word videos, a format Rethink is proud to have pioneered in the compliance industry. Check it out below:
From the video:
You may be scared to rock the boat,
Not want to make things awkward.
Or you’re worried they won’t listen,
Or think this is not your issue.
But that’s the catch.
We all have to act,
Or who’ll help when it is you?
These are all common concerns people have about speaking up. Addressing them directly in your communications makes employees feel heard and understood — and allows you to forge a real emotional connection with your audience so they’re receptive to your message.
- Make them care.
Employees are busy. You’re competing for their time and energy, which means you have to make them care about your message, or you’ll start to lose your audience. Whenever you can in your compliance communications, answer the question your audience is thinking: “What’s in this for me?” If your goal is to change employees’ behavior, first help them understand why they should make the change. Here’s what that looks like in one of our quality and safety videos, “Personal Pride”:
“Why? Because the quality of our products is our reputation. It’s the standard by which we are judged. It’s the pride we take in what we do. We owe our highest possible standards to everyone who depends on our work to do their work. There’s no room for error. There’s no ‘let it slide this time.’ Lives are on the line.”
Get to know your audience and what motivates them, whether it’s pride in their work or the people who depend on them. Then incorporate that motivation into your compliance communications. Give employees a good reason, and they’ll give you their time and attention.
- Tailor your communications to your audience’s reality.
What makes an employee tune out from any communication in record time? Outdated or irrelevant information. This includes your scenarios. Employees know the company and their work well, so anything that wasn’t designed for them or the brand sticks out like a sore thumb. On the other hand, the right scenarios educate employees about the types of situations they’re likely to face and send the message that the training is important and applies to them. This is another reason it’s so important to start by listening when you’re developing your compliance communications. For example, when we developed our “Unconscious Bias” video, we included a scenario around a modern topic that comes up often for our clients: social media.
When you listen to employees about the issues they face at work, you can incorporate those scenarios directly into your communications to keep them feeling relevant and fresh.
At Rethink Compliance, we offer a full library of communications in modern formats with unbeatable customer service and market-leading customization. Want to learn more or just chat about where your compliance and ethics program is headed? Contact us at hello@rethinkcomplianceco.com. The first consultation is always free!
Andrea and Tricia come from entirely different backgrounds and approach the question of communications from two entirely different — but complementary — perspectives. Andrea is a compliance professional who has been in the legal and compliance space for upwards of 25 years, focusing solely on compliance for the last 16 of them (yee-ikes!). She is Principal and Head of Advisory Services at Rethink Compliance. Tricia has spent the better part of her career not only writing but persuading others with her writing — in the advertising and social media arenas. She brings two decades of communications expertise to Rethink Compliance as Principal and Head of Creative Services.
On LinkedIn: Andrea Falcione | Tricia Cornell
