The Network GRC Blog

The How Behind Policy Engagement

November 09 2012

John Peltier, Product Manager, The Network

The Network recently participated in a collaborative effort with the Open Compliance and Ethics Group to create the “Policy Management Illustrated” series, a set of illustrations that communicates industry best practice around the topic of policy management. As part of that series, we recently participated in a Webinar related to Illustration #4, Policy and Communication. This topic was discussed as part of the webinar. In this blog and ones to follow, I’ll highlight some of the key ideas they were presented. Our second blog looks at how to engage your workforce about your policies.

In my earlier blog, I talked about those factors that have motivated organizations to take a new approach to how they communicate policies and train their workforce on those policies. But just how do organizations do this, when information in today’s world is passed back and forth at breakneck speed, where visual communication is expected and more effective that just the written or spoken word?

The key to effectively communicating your policies is engagement and providing an insightful, educational experience. Let’s face it: the days of boring 1980s-looking video training are over – and to get people’s attention, cheesy, cartoonish animation is ok. And paper policies are anachronistic throwbacks – like vertical file folder cabinets, they are going the way of the dodo bird. When you make your employees think about the policies you have communicated, you help them retain what they have learned. This is key in how you increase employee engagement.

The theory behind cognitive learning is that people learn faster and retain more when they’re presented with the written word and multimedia in close proximity. Visual references provide context for the intent behind the policy. That’s how the majority of the workforce gets and consumes information nowadays, in concise, memorable bits that constantly reinforce a common message and, in terms of managing policies, drive desired behavior.

Unfortunately, it would seem that organizations aren’t actively linking training to policies. When we asked attendees to our recent OCEG webinar if their policy management initiatives include training, almost three out of four said that, at a minimum, policies were managed separately from compliance solutions training.

Next time, we’ll talk about the value of a centralized, integrated approach to policy management and communication.