How to Get People to Pay Attention to Your Corporate Compliance Program
We’ve all been there. You’re installing or updating an app. Suddenly, something interrupts your progress. Your screen goes dark and up pops a box containing a wall of black on white text titled, “Software License Agreement.”
What happens next?
The majority of us will simply scroll to the bottom of the document, check the box and click, “Accept” without reading what is actually in the agreement. After all, you only have two choices: a) Accept the agreement and get on with your day; or b) Don’t accept, and not install or update the app.
Here are just a few other reasons people rarely read these agreements:
- The document, often written in a 3-pixel font, requires a thorough examination of the details
- There is an associated time commitment when the person could be doing other things
- Most people believe the “legalese” is intentionally written to be incomprehensible to the advantage of the company, so why bother reading it?
The end result? The agreement becomes a meaningless formality and most of us would never know if we were in violation of the agreement.
The end result?
The agreement becomes a meaningless formality and most of us would never know if we were in violation of the agreement.
So why write agreements if no one reads them?
So if this is what is happening in our personal consumer lives, how is this any different from what is happening in our professional business lives, specifically as it relates to a corporate compliance program? Are policies written to obfuscate and protect the company, or are you truly attempting to change behavior and build a corporate culture that reflects the company’s core values?
Most of the companies I’ve helped are interested in the latter because policies written to reflect and develop corporate culture go beyond protecting assets or ensuring a sound defense from future law suits. As noted in the Harvard Business Review:
“Organizations with clearly codified and enforced cultures enjoy great employee and customer loyalty, in large part because they are effective in either altering ineffective behaviors or disengaging from values-challenged employees in a timely manner.”
So the question now becomes, “How can I effectively engage and communicate to my employees?” One way is to communicate in a manner they will more readily receive: video.
Thinking again of personal consumer lives – specifically our experiences with social media – I know I am guilty of passing over lengthy written status updates stopping only at the bizarre cat videos. In fact, a recent study by Animoto states:
- 4 times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it.
- 1 in 4 consumers actually lose interest in a company if it doesn’t have video.
- Customers are nearly 50% more likely to read email newsletters that include links to video.
- 4 in 5 consumers say a video showing how a product or service works is important.
The End of the Blah Blah Blah’s: 4 Tips to Catch Their Attention Using Video
Based on consumer information, your employees will more likely watch content about your corporate culture delivered to them through video than read long scrolling documents. Fortunately, with the right corporate compliance software, you can build on your current program rather than start over from scratch.
When selecting a solution, make sure you are not limited to a single video format such as SCORM. Content creation should be light and fast if using video from a mobile phone, for example. Here are some tips I share with people to help incorporate video into their corporate compliance programs:
By moving your corporate compliance program away from long scrolling blocks of text, you’ll be able to keep your employees focused on core values while building a strong corporate culture that benefits both the employee and company.
