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July 19, 2006

Communication at its Finest

My place of work, at the behest of their insurer, has implemented a new requirement of their employees: everyone must authorize release of their Motor Vehicle Reports. There's more, but this is the only thing that requires direct employee action.

The body of the email message communicating this new policy to our 1000+ US employees was composed of the following text:

Please find attached three separate files that present and explain in detail, our new Motor Vehicle Policy.

At your earliest convenience, please review all of the information and take the necessary actions as requested in the memorandum and as described in the policy.

That's 44 words for the content. There were another 113 of non-content (contact information of the sender and a legal disclaimer) and three attachments that have to be viewed in external applications.

It isn't until one opens the strikingly-named mvr2006policymemo.doc attachment and reads through 290 words - about 2/3 down the first page of a two page memo - that one is told of the requirement to authorize release of driving records.

Not until 360 words pass does the reader discover that the authorization form must be completed, signed, and submitted in 9 business days.

Without a clear action and deadline in the actual body of the email, several people in our office deleted the message without reading the attachments. It's only now that word is spreading: Hey, you actually have to do something about this message.

How difficult would it have been to insert this between the two sentences of the original message?

All employees are asked, as part of this new policy, to authorize release of their Motor Vehicle Reports for insurance purposes. We request that all employees complete and return the attached release form by MM/DD/YYYY.

What do I have to do? When do I have to do it?

This shouldn't be quite so obstuse. Why did I have to open an attachment in another program and ready several hundred words just to find out I have to fill out a form and return it to HR?

Corporate communication at its finest.

Posted by jim at 01:56 PM