Compliance protocols exist to keep everyone in your company saying the right thing to the right person about your business and its products.
In industries like retail or travel, compliance can mean ensuring all employees are speaking on brand and on message. But in highly regulated industries, such as pharma and finance, compliance is a bigger, legal issue to contend with.
No matter the industry, though, one thing remains constant: The bigger the company, the harder to maintain compliance.
How do you manage what 300+ people are saying and presenting in their day-to-day business activities?
Your employees are not robots; they need to be able to react and adjust to what their clients and colleagues are saying. Businesses need spontaneity and flexibility to survive and thrive. But management must still ensure that messaging remains consistent, on point, and within legal bounds.
In federally regulated industries, one aspect of compliance is based on what and how you communicate to clients: You can say “this” to your customers, but you can’t say “that”—and there are legal disclosures that need to be included with the message.
Another component of compliance for regulated businesses is what specific employees, depending on their job function, can and cannot say. For example, in pharma, a medical doctor representing a drug manufacturer may be able to present specific information about how to administer a particular drug to a room full of doctors, but a nurse or sales representative cannot.
A less obvious compliance component of both regulated and nonregulated businesses is brand messaging: All logos, colors, fonts, typography, messages, and taglines are required to be consistent throughout all forms of company communication. This type of compliance is often overlooked when dealing with presentations, in particular, which is why a compliance-focused presentation management strategy is crucial.