Locked lesson.
About this lesson
How should we respond to regulatory bodies when our organization is governed by specific rules and guidelines?
Exercise files
Download this lesson’s related exercise files.
5.07 organizations-and-regulatory-bodies - Exercise.docx52.3 KB 5.07 organizations-and-regulatory-bodies - Exercise solution.docx
50.4 KB
Quick reference
Government Organizations and Regulatory Bodies
How to respond to requests from governmental and regulatory bodies.
When to use
Use this section as a guide when responding to requests for information from regulatory bodies.
Instructions
Check whether there is a deadline for response, or if the subject line should carry any special text.
The letter should be written in a formal tone.
Supporting documents should be sent as non-editable attachments, with the date of the document being clearly visible.
Express your willingness to cooperate and to provide any additional information which would help in the investigation.
End with a formal business closing, your full name, job title, and contact information.
Avoid:
- emotional language
- statements of opinion
- abbreviations and acronyms which are not defined
- 00:04 If you work in an industry that's regulated by a governing body,
- 00:08 you often have to provide justification for your company's actions or
- 00:13 to respond to requests as part of an investigation.
- 00:16 If you have the job of responding to those requests, you're doing so
- 00:20 as a representative of the organization.
- 00:23 Doing so will require some amount of investigation on your part too, and
- 00:27 when you're done, presenting the facts.
- 00:30 Quite possibly your company has specific guidelines for
- 00:34 this type of communication, but generally the following applies.
- 00:38 Your answer will form part of a third party's permanent record which will likely
- 00:43 be shared with others, such as a customer who made a complaint or
- 00:47 even with the media.
- 00:48 And two, being untruthful will only hurt your organization, it won't help it.
- 00:54 Since your response will vary based on your company's specific policy,
- 00:59 the type of request you receive, and the organization the request came from,
- 01:03 we won't spend time here trying to come up with a response template.
- 01:07 Instead, what we'll do is to come up with a few pointers to remember.
- 01:12 Sometimes the request itself will instruct you how to respond.
- 01:16 Pay attention to whether it needs to have a particular subject line,
- 01:21 like a case number.
- 01:23 Is there a time frame or deadline by which you should respond?
- 01:27 Absolutely stick to that deadline, responding early if possible.
- 01:31 Put a reminder or a follow-up flag in your email application,
- 01:35 that's a few days before it's actually due, so that you have time to do your
- 01:39 own investigation and to come up with a response.
- 01:43 In composing your response, use the name and
- 01:46 title from the sender signature when writing the salutation in your reply.
- 01:52 The tone of your response will be formal and
- 01:55 it'll probably sound like the language you'd use in a report.
- 01:59 Any supporting documents as permitted by your company's policy,
- 02:03 these should be sent in a non-editable format as attachments.
- 02:08 The original date of each document must be clearly visible and
- 02:12 the document should be watermarked if possible.
- 02:16 If you're sending several documents, they should be numbered for easy reference.
- 02:20 You should also strive for clarity.
- 02:23 If you say that the customer contacted us, that just leads to another question.
- 02:28 Did they write, did they call, did they walk into the office?
- 02:32 Also for the sake of clarity, avoid acronyms and abbreviations.
- 02:36 Or if they are used, define them in the first instance of use if you'll
- 02:41 be using them throughout the correspondence.
- 02:44 If you're outlining a sequence of events,
- 02:47 each event should be clearly separated using either bullet points,
- 02:52 numbers, or paragraphing in date order if applicable.
- 02:56 Your response should have no statements of opinion or
- 03:00 emotional words in the body of the text.
- 03:03 Finally, you should express your willingness to cooperate and
- 03:06 to provide any additional information which would help in the investigation.
- 03:11 And with the formal business closing, you should have your full name, and
- 03:16 importantly your job title, and contact information.
Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.