Who They Are:
JPMorgan Chase (formerly Washington Mutual) is one of the nation's leading financial service companies. To stay competitive, the bank constantly searches for ways to increase the productivity and improve skills of its compliance team. In addition, Chase is focused on maintaining one of its key hiring advantages by offering its staff numerous training and skill improvement opportunities.

 

How Writing Plays a Role:
The importance of staying in compliance with new rules and regulations is one of the company's top priorities. They rely on a staff of hundreds who spend most of their day researching and writing summations and reports to explain the new rules and show how these changes could impact the bank. Clear, effective written communication is critical to ensure the bank meets and exceeds these standards.

 

The Solution:
Business Writing That Counts! was asked to provide a custom Writing for Compliance workshop for the compliance team. The main goal was to improve the overall professionalism of the writing while streamlining the writing process.

 

The two-day workshop was broken down into two highly interactive sections. The first day focused on timesaving techniques to help participants learn to write faster. This hands-on training included instruction, class participation, and exercises to explain concepts such as idea mapping, power numbering, how to write for the reader, and writing like one talks. In addition, participants were given a copy of Dr. Julie Miller's book, Business Writing That Counts!, as a reference tool to reinforce the concepts.

 

The second day of training was devoted to one-on-one coaching to help participants with individual writing challenges. This day-long event gave participants a chance to focus on their specific setbacks when writing targeted documents.

 

Results of Training:
At the end of the workshop, 96 percent of the participants said the quality of their writing had improved. They quickly provided feedback showing reduced writing time and more effective content. The participants also pointed out that they were eliminating unnecessary words, utilizing email more effectively, and using active rather than passive voice to compel the reader to take action. They found the book provided reinforcement of the concepts learned and a valuable reference tool on a day-to-day basis. Numerous participants pointed out that the class was one of the more beneficial and job-applicable training courses that Chase offered. The only complaint? They wished the class had been longer so they could have learned even more writing tactics to increase their productivity.