One of the biggest takeaways for regulated entities from the spate of recent high-profile crackdowns by agencies, including the US SEC, FINRA, and CFTC is the need for employee training when it comes to communication compliance.
The enforcement actions, which cost firms billions of dollars in penalties, restitution, and disgorgement in addition to reputational damage, unearthed major lapses in the way business-related conversations were handled. Employees at every level in the organization were found using unapproved communication channels, failing to record WhatsApp and other IM conversations, and being woefully unaware of industry regulations.
Further, the rising popularity of emojis, GIFs, video conferencing, AI models for customer support, sales outreach, and the generation of marketing material, etc., in business communication are adding layers of complexity to an already challenging task of ensuring compliance.
Navigating Communication Compliance Training
While approaching compliance training as a regulated entity, it is vital to:
Incorporate information on the latest regulations
Treating compliance training as a mere formality and rushing through it with outdated information from previous training sessions will end up costing the companies a fortune through penalties, like how major banks had to shell out billions as part of the WhatsApp fines for their employees using unauthorized personal apps to conduct business.
Regulators are constantly adapting their rules in line with the latest communication trends. For instance, FINRA had warned that emoji use and subsequent misunderstandings with customers could lead to a complaint. Both the SEC and FINRA have also released extensive reports, detailing their plans for the year and what they expected companies to do to stay compliant. In addition, all major regulators have resources, constant press releases, and even courses that provide the latest information for enhancing communication compliance efforts. So, for compliance training to be successful, it needs to constantly incorporate information on the latest regulations and the technology and techniques recommended by regulators.
Customize the training for each role
It isn’t sufficient to inform the employees being monitored, such as broker-dealers, registered investment advisors, bankers, etc., about company and industry policy. It is arguably even more important to have trained compliance officers, IT departments, HR professionals, and legal teams who oversee the communication because they are the last line of defense against lawsuits and regulator penalties.
Notably, their training needs to make them adept at decoding reports and conducting audits for communication compliance for everyone from the newest employee to upper management. Being able to analyze trends in compliance at an individual level and across teams can be an invaluable resource to consistently improve adherence to regulations, so the compliance teams should be trained accordingly. To make the training more comprehensive, companies need to focus on equipping compliance teams with the ability to gauge the sentiment and context of the messages they are evaluating for better calculating the compliance risks.
They also have to be prepared to quickly filter out the relevant communication based on date, sender info, receiver info, keywords, etc., for e-discovery, internal investigations, and other legal proceedings, along with being able to demonstrate compliance with recordkeeping requirements. Most importantly, they require awareness about the retention period for the recorded text messages and calls for their industry so they can safeguard the company from regulatory action.
Train employees to act
Compliance training needs to shape employees into action-takers who don’t hesitate to red-flag conversations that they deem to be non-compliant. When it comes to training decision-makers, it is vital to make them cognizant of what penalties to impose on employees in violation of policies.
The training should cover what is to be done in any scenario, given that compliance teams have to supervise communication across multiple instant messengers, emails, devices, networks, and even among remote and hybrid employees.
Challenges associated with new technology also have to be accounted for when it comes to training compliance teams. For instance, it is crucial to cover how to guarantee compliance while video conferencing, sharing presentations, etc., and prevent things like AI washing, a practice that involves overstating the returns possible from investment advisors’ AI models, for which regulators have recently sounded the alarm.
Don’t overlook the cybersecurity and privacy aspects of communication compliance training
Employees must be made aware of how to identify harmful links, files, images, etc., circulating in communication. Lapses in weeding out potentially harmful files could mean cyberattacks that could lead to major loss of sensitive customer information and trade secrets.
Care is also to be taken to make employees aware of the dangers of entering private information into the increasingly popular large language models. Violations of laws, like the GDPR may occur when employees use generative AI to quickly create emails to clients or reports for the company that contain proprietary information, which is something they need to be discouraged from.
Set expectations and train employees for professional workplace communication
Communication compliance isn’t just about conducting business on approved channels; there happens to be a host of national and state-level laws surrounding what can be said to coworkers. As a result, a significant portion of communication training should be focused on respectful behavior on text messaging apps, during phone calls, and company meetings, so no one feels discriminated against or is subject to profanity, threats, or targeted harassment.
Conclusion
Communication compliance training for employees across the organization is one of the most powerful ways to maintain a productive and positive workforce that heeds industry regulations on every platform. To get optimal results from the best practices, organizations should:
- receive feedback on their training sessions
- track employee compliance with company and industry policies consistently
- improve and update the training in alignment with technological and regulatory changes
It is worth mentioning that implementing a mobile archiver can empower organizations to save a lot of time and effort in employee communication compliance training. They can have mundane tasks, such as WhatsApp recordkeeping, Telegram message archiving, instant message monitoring, and call monitoring automatically taken care of by the TeleMessage network archiver, allowing them to focus their training on how to effectively communicate in alignment with industry regulations, without having to worry about how to constantly maintain conversational records. The compliance officers will further have access to accurate and organized reporting on every aspect of employee communication for compliance and training purposes, sparing them countless hours of manual analysis.
To get started with the TeleMessage archiver that can complement your employee training program for effective communication compliance, contact us for a demo.
About TeleMessage
TeleMessage captures and retains mobile content, including mobile SMS messages, voice calls WhatsApp, and WeChat conversations from corporate or BYOD mobile phones to ensure compliance with various data protection regulations. The messages are securely and reliably retained within TeleMessage servers or forwarded to your choice of archiving data storage vendor.
Our mobile archiving products securely record content from mobile carriers and mobile devices for various ownership models (BYOD, CYOD, and employer-issued). With our multiple archiving solutions, you can always find the right tools or blend for your requirements:
