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Inclusive and compliant communication. Follow these guidelines.
Start building a more inclusive organization through effective communication
Ivana
April 25, 2023
In the current day and age, being an inclusive and compliant organization is considered more of a requirement than a nice to have, but rather than the general public just accepting it when you say ; “we are doing good”, the public and institutions want or even require proof and you need to be able to give it to them! In this article, you will find 4 topics and immediate action points to start working on in your communications and overall business strategy.
Start building a more inclusive and compliant organization through effective communication.
#1 Gender Inclusive Language
Adopting gender inclusive language is a powerful way to promote gender equality and fight gender bias. Especially in countries where many words are considered either masculine or feminine (e.g. Spain, France, Germany) and therefor have different grammatical rules, it can be very helpful to understand that the correct use of terms is considered more inclusive.
For example: In German the word Manager is masculine. So if you write an article about how managers can improve productivity, if the entire article contains the masculine word manager instead of the neutral form or gender inclusive form, you will be excluding all managers that do not identify as male.
The same goes for job descriptions. By using gendered terms, you risk excluding a large part of the potential workforce.
Building the argument for the use of Gender inclusive language
It can be very difficult to convince executives to adopt gender inclusive language. Especially when its taking place in organizations in nations that have never had to deal with a language with genderized elements. For example English. However, many wordings are still used. E.g. ‘Businessmen’ rather than ‘business community.
Use these links to show them this is absolutely not something that only you care about.
#2 GDPR
The EU regulation for data protection and privacy has quite the impact on communications professionals. Not only are your information and policies required under GDPR for the entire organization, also the communications department needs to be GDPR compliant. Especially in how you process and store stakeholder information.
Some key points to keep in mind
Make sure your owned media channels include your privacy and data collection policies. They need to be easy to find and easy to read. More information here.
Update your communications plan to account for what happens if there is a data breach. You no longer have the choice to inform your stakeholder or not when a data breach happens. You are required to by law.
Make sure to pre-plan how you communicate with stakeholders about how you process their information. They have the right to ask you and you need to be ready to provide them with answers to questions like “why are you collecting my phone numer?”.
#3 CSRD
As of 2024, the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) will force EU based companies to report on their sustainability efforts. This includes CO2 emissions. This will have a significant impact on your non-financial reporting and you need to get ready for it.
Communications professionals need to work closely with other organizational departments to communicate the data relating to the sustainability practices. With the CSRD, sustainability reporting moves from a ‘nice to have’ to an essential element.
#4 Accessibility in Communications
People make decisions based on the information that is available to them. Many people however face issues with inaccessible information.
Print Disability
A print disability is a difficulty or inability to read printed material due to a perceptual, physical or visual disability. This can be through for example vision impairment, physical dexterity problems such as MS or Parkinson, dyslexia, literacy difficulties & cognitive impairment.
There are many things you can implement today to ensure that your communications become more accessible to the public.
Provide audio options for written text
Provide subtitles for video or audio material
Include braille on print products
Use graphics in stead of lengthy sentences
Make larger print sized words
Add Alt Text to images
Add a sign language interpretor for webinars and events
Watch for the text colour you use on websites as well as background colours.
Read best practices through the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
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