Comedy & Compliance
Engaging a Global Workforce

In this episode of Creativity & Compliance, Tom & Ronnie discuss using humor, music and other entertaining approaches as a strategy for engaging a global, multicultural, multigenerational, diverse workforce.

• Variety is the Spice of Life: There is no single way to engage a global, multicultural, multigenerational, diverse workforce. Everyone likes different things. People learn in different ways. So don’t put all your eggs in one basket. The most effective way to engage the most people is to try lots and lots of little things. Be MORE creative! It’s more efficient and effective. Not every strategy will work for everybody. But over time, you’ll engage more people. It mitigates the risk of any one initiative. Engage your audience through variety and surprise.

• Entertain To Engage: There are cultural differences, but we all know that people like to be entertained and people like to learn new things. There are a variety of creative techniques that help us engage a global workforce.

• • Music: Utilizing songs, music, jingles tend to work well globally. Why? Because it’s not about wordplay, which may not translate. Setting the actual policy to music is direct but also oddly entertaining. Singing the policy is super weird in and of itself without having to try and make jokes. Songs and music tends to create an emotional connection and can get stuck in your head like an earworm. Try different musical styles. It’s one of the most effective ways to engage a global workforce.
• •  Animation: We find that animation tends to work well globally. It makes it easier to show a variety of settings, a variety of ethnicities. You can still show real scenarios and situations but you can jump space and time to cover more ground quickly. There are a variety of animation styles. And you still need good writing and voice over talent to make it good. But as lesson, animation is a good technique for engaging globally.
• • Parody: While there are cultural differences in entertainment around the world, there are a few things that are common. Talk shows, game shows, commercials, music videos. These are techniques that are somewhat ubiquitous. Wrapping your ABAC, COI, Privacy and other corporate risk programming in one of these styles will feel familiar to a majority of your audience.
• • Specificity: One thing that everyone has in common at your company is YOUR COMPANY. Referencing acronyms, inside jokes, departments and stories that are specific to your company are a great way to engage people.
• • Involving Your People: A great way to engage your global workforce is to involve them. Interview shows, zoom-style, with different leaders around the globe is a great way to engage the workforce while representing different parts of the business. Person-on-the-street style interviews with employees also works well to showcase how employees feel. Selfie-video campaigns and contests are another way to involve people around the world. Set up a contest – “tell us what integrity means to you” or “create a 60-second song about conflicts of interest.”

•  Local vs. Dubbing vs. Subtitling: The best situation is to produce things locally. But since time and cost is a factor, the next best thing is to dubb the video with localized voices. The next best after that is subtitling. Some of the new AI tools are helpful with this.
  

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Halo Effect: Let’s remember that blending entertainment with learning is a more effective solution. We don’t do it just to do it…although it does make our jobs as ethics & compliance professionals more interesting. We do it because:

• It helps us stand out and get noticed
• It helps us get airtime and exposure on more training and comms channels
• It helps us improve engagement and stickiness of learning
• It helps us engage and involve others to carry the message forward
• It helps create a Halo Effect, i.e. makes the E&C team and its resources more welcoming and approachable.

While not all humor translates globally, one thing for certain is that BORING does!