Four elements for a successful compliance tech and training platform
As digital technology use has grown, compliance monitoring has become increasingly challenging. Across the world, people send over 330 billion emails per day—and that’s only one form of electronic communications (eComms). Billions more messages are sent through social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, not to mention business-focused cloud platforms like Salesforce, Microsoft, and Oracle and internal, on-premise networks.
On an organizational level, think of how many messages you send each day across the apps on your smartphone or computer, then multiply that by the number of employees working in your business—the number climbs to dizzying heights. The sheer volume of daily communications complicates eComms compliance efforts and makes manual monitoring effectively challenging.
Now that almost every form of business communication is digital and compliance standards and responsibilities are increasing, finding the right eComms technology to support your organization is essential. As you evaluate available compliance technologies, here are four critical elements to consider:
- User experience
- Proactive vs reactive systems
- Measurement and analysis
- Future-proof implementation
User Experience
The first digital compliance systems came to market 10+ years ago at a time when the user experience and user interface (UX/UI) weren’t always prioritized. But when purpose (compliance monitoring) doesn’t align with user functions (UX/UI), it results in eComms monitoring technology that is difficult to use and doesn’t keep up with modern needs.
Consider your favorite applications; how long did it take to sign up or get that first win? Studies have shown that better, faster UX/UI can significantly increase adoption and loyalty. By making it simple for users to practice compliance, you’ll increase the odds that they’ll follow company and industry guidelines to keep your organization above board. Features like push notifications, suggestions, and automations can help guide users while removing obstacles and eliminating manual tasks. Look for compliance tech that has easy, intuitive controls and ongoing training to increase initial user adoption, as well as inspire long-term use.
Proactive vs Reactive Systems
Most compliance tech is reactive and only flags messages AFTER they’ve been sent. When we consider how many messages each individual sends daily, it quickly becomes apparent that reactive systems can’t meet modern compliance monitoring needs. More advanced systems are helping employees in real-time, proactively prompting them to change messages as they type if they’re non-compliant.
By rolling out compliance tech with a central system of controls that can support user compliance in an individual, decentralized, and autonomous way, organizations can prevent mistakes and risky communications before they happen. This alleviates a significant burden for compliance teams by decreasing problematic messages and reducing false positives that require hands-on review and correction. Not only that, but the prompted suggestions are a subtle, consistent training tool that will help employees choose the right path without needing corrections over time.
Measurement and Analysis
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Data is critical to understanding your compliance program’s effectiveness. Boards of directors and regulators alike are looking for concrete information about key compliance metrics that will help them understand your organization’s progress.
When it comes to analytics and measurement, look for compliance systems that help you understand:
- Unapproved communications channels
- Riskiest language used in communications
- Communication volumes
- Changes in language over time to assess the effectiveness of training
Future-Proof Implementation
Any technology’s effectiveness is determined by how well it’s implemented and adopted inside the organization. Look for a partner who will do more than provide the technology and general specifications. A good partner will work with you to understand your organization’s existing processes and needs to implement the technology in ways designed to help you succeed.
Work with a partner who will:
- Develop an implementation plan and schedule aligned with your team
- Align on success criteria and define key performance metrics (and ways to measure them)
- Assist with the deployment of applications and services
- Coordinate any third-party data feeds for archiving
- Assist and provide consulting for application configuration
- Provide training for administrative users
- Offer ongoing support based on user analytics and industry updates
When considering compliance technology, it’s important to look for solutions that support the three lines of defense:
First Line: Employees
Training programs must be intuitive and easy to use to mitigate risk effectively. Proactive eComms systems provide real-time, hands-on training in the form of flags, corrections, and automatic suggestions.
Second Line: Compliance and Risk Teams
Compliance leaders are responsible for implementing the right software and training employees how to use it effectively to protect everyone at the organization from risk. Creating a strong second line of defense means finding technology that combines training, surveillance, and archival support to eliminate manual work and proactively flag risky situations.
Third Line: Internal and External Compliance Auditors
Compliance audits are necessary (but sometimes painful) processes to ensure that compliance programs are working effectively. Compliance leaders need to ensure that they have the right training, technology, and systems in place to prove the efficacy of their programs to auditors and regulators. Proactive compliance technology meets all three needs, including robust reporting that will make audits faster and easier.
What’s Next
The right partner can transform your compliance department into a proactive, highly agile tool for risk mitigation. As you look for the right fit, don’t forget to ensure your chosen compliance technology vendor is providing safe and secure software that meets its own compliance guidelines. At Fairwords, we use our own compliance software to support our teams and we work together to improve our products and build technology that can keep up with the modern digital age.
Interested in learning more about the industry’s leading proactive compliance monitoring software? Get in touch with our team of experts.
