Compliance training can be a tricky business. Whilst its importance as a risk mitigation tool and driver of behavioural change isn’t called into question too often these days, its effectiveness on the other hand – and how well staff are engaging with compliance training – continues to be something of a question mark for many organisations.

This makes sense; after all, most employees don’t live and breathe compliance (although we do here at DeltaNet!). Indeed, compliance training is something employees must complete in addition to and instead of their job. Therefore, it can – if compliance managers aren’t careful – be viewed as something of an unwelcome interruption, even a burden to some.

Of course, this is particularly true at organisations where compliance training is treated as such! These are the places where the same dull, legislatively focused learning-content or policy document is rolled out annually with no regard as to whether the employee has read and understood it many times before (or, indeed, on which topics they might actually need a bit of refresher training and clarification).

Now, we’re not suggesting this alters the critical importance of compliance training whatsoever, but it’s not really fair to expect this sort of training to be engaging, is it? And where there’s no engagement there can be no retention and, therefore, the training is indeed less effective.

Changing perspectives of compliance training

The truth is, compliance training is about so much more than legislation and policies.

At its core, it’s about empowering your employees and equipping them with the right skills to handle the requirements of regulation as they affect their daily work tasks.

In doing so, compliance training helps members of staff to flourish and be productive at work because it helps clarify their responsibilities and the boundaries surrounding these.

As well as reducing liability and risks for everyone in the company, then, compliance training is a gateway allowing employees to get on with work unsupervised which, in turn, builds trust and drives productivity.

So, how can organisations ensure that their compliance training is effective? That it isn’t too legislatively focused, but relevant, engaging, and empowering instead?

We’ve got 8 top tips to help with that!

Maximise your compliance training

1. Make use of microlearning

Microlearning is a powerful training technique in the world of eLearning, and it can be leveraged in all sorts of ways to make compliance training more relevant, less cumbersome, and much timelier.

Microlearning is a way of condensing information and key points into short, specific ‘bursts’ of knowledge that are usually only a few minutes in length. Its compact and highly-relevant nature means that learners are less likely to suffer from learning fatigue and much more likely to slot a slice of refresher training in-between tasks or ‘just in time’, when the knowledge gap appears in the flow of work.

More than this, microlearning is modular as well as scalable. This means it’s easy to update or replace the content of microlearning courses regularly and that different microlearning courses can be pieced together or swapped out to make longer, more personalised learning interventions that address individual skills gaps.

2. Try adaptive learning paths

Adaptive learning (sometimes called adaptive teaching, adaptive instruction, or intelligent tutoring) is an educational method which uses artificial intelligence to present users with individually customised learning programs.

It works by gathering data before, during, and after the learning process and using this information intelligently to create optimised learning paths for each user.

As the user continues to complete more compliance training and take more assessments, then, an adaptive platform is able to identify and feed them content of particular relevance (based off previous performances, learning preferences, engagement times, and so on).

In other words, adaptive learning platforms can automatically and intelligently determine which learning content, activities, and techniques will benefit the learner most and provide the best learning results.

Whilst it still bridges important knowledge gaps when it comes to compliance, adaptive learning doesn’t devalue employee time by forcing them to complete unnecessary training. Naturally, this has the benefit of increased engagement levels and higher morale.

Find out more about adaptive learning

3. Incorporate gamification

Gamification exploded onto the eLearning scene years ago, but is still a hot trend when it comes to increasing engagement, motivation, and retention levels with learners.

Used inside compliance training programs, gamification offers a strategic, integrated approach that makes learning more fun. Elements of game-design (e.g. point scoring, competition, themes, rewards, and so on) are appealing to users who might not relish the idea of learning about regulation but could enjoy the concept of ‘leveling up’ instead.

The key is to make learners feel like they’re moving vertically through ‘achievements’ rather than horizontally pawing through the same old exercise. With gamification, there’s an ‘end goal’, something constructive to strive towards in a relaxed, non-threatening environment.

4. Involve top management

The ‘tone from the top’ is a phrase used to define the commitment of an organisation’s leadership team, in this case, when it comes to compliance training.

Easily underestimated, the tone at the top can make or break a company’s cultural environment and corporate values, so it’s important that leaders do more than communicate the rules to be obeyed when it comes to compliance matters.

Indeed, senior management should be seen to take their training and the subsequent knowledge acquired seriously and to model consistently good behaviour themselves.

Remember, your leadership team are the ones who set the cultural tone by sharing their vision, reacting quickly (and fairly) to non-compliance, and by celebrating when employees act in a compliant manner.

Read our guide to Creating a Compliance Culture

5. View compliance as ongoing

It’s easy to view compliance – and the associated necessary training – as a destination, just a box to be ticked and forgotten about. However, compliance is an ongoing journey. It will never be ‘complete’.

It’s helpful instead to think of compliance as a spectrum of maturity involving people, processes, and other tools/technology. Indeed, depending on factors such as the size or age of the organisation, your company’s position on the compliance maturity spectrum will adjust will over time, as will the legislation and regulations that lay the groundwork for what compliance means.

For instance, it’s not unusual for start-ups and SMEs to treat compliance as something of a legal obligation (and training as the way this requirement is met). Larger, more established organisations, on the other hand, may have been working on their compliance culture for several years, approaching compliance as it plays a positive role in driving business growth and administering multi-level compliance training that is specifically aimed at the roles of the learners involved as well as the risk profile of the organisation.

6. Mix it up

Employing educational diversity in the form of different learning styles and design techniques can help accommodate diverse learning preferences and, thus, ramp up engagement for your compliance training program.

It helps to incorporate multimedia into your compliance training program; think videos, animations, infographics, interactivity and audio cues – all of which help to avoid monotony and add variety into your learning interventions.

Furthermore, utilising immersive eLearning is a great way to bring compliance modules to life and contextualise them by placing individuals into virtual, interactive learning environments that simulate real work-place scenarios. Immersive eLearning is a safe, inexpensive way for users to learn from their mistakes and for organisations to check their employee’s understanding of certain compliance measures.

Another option is scenario-led learning (also known as problem-based learning), which combines online training with story-telling techniques, independent-thought, and analysis to encourage learners to use information and apply it to their decision-making process.

7. Utilise surveys and polls

Online surveys, questionnaires, and polls can provide an opportunity for your learners to share their impressions and opinions and voice any concerns about their training. These are all valuable insights into the way your compliance program has been received over the years and a great way to uncover areas in need of improvement.

Indeed, these answers can be very useful when it comes to getting an idea of why people continue to take risky actions when it comes to matters of compliance (say, using overly-simple passwords or ignoring health and safety procedures) despite having had training against this.

Measuring employee impressions in this manner is useful information to have, particularly before you embark on a new compliance training program, as it can be used to measure behavioural change and attitudes along the way.

Insights gathered over time, such as how employees react when observing non-compliance, how they view the ‘tone from the top’, as well as whether they feel compliance is communicated effectively and how engaging their training is, can prove invaluable when it comes to the nitty gritty of your training’s efficacy.

8. Measure the effectiveness

With so much compliance training available on the market and legislation being constantly updated, it’s important to regularly review and evaluate the effectiveness of your current corporate learning to ensure that it’s hitting the mark.

One way of doing this is to look into the data your courses provide (and with xAPI and advanced reporting now available, there’s more insight available than ever). Use this data to observe how learners are answering questions and what the success and failure rates for each course look like. This data will tell us plenty about whether the questions asked in each course are effective, whether the learning that leads up to the questions is effective, and how well learners are performing in the final assessments at the end of each course.

There are also tools available on the market, for example, phishing simulators, that can be utilised to test the effectiveness of specific training (in this case, cyber-security) and used to deploy further training where it’s needed most.

Ultimately, the key piece of information to observe when testing the effectiveness of compliance training is employee behaviour. Take a look at what your objectives were when you first began the training journey and weigh-up whether you’re seeing the sorts of behaviours you expected to see upon its completion. For example, are people using stronger passwords after having received information security training? Are people starting to speak up more after receiving whistleblowing training?

If the answer is yes, your training has been effective.

Find out more about measuring the effectiveness of your Compliance Training

Final word

Compliance training has huge benefits for organisations, from managing regulatory risk, to improving performance, and nurturing trust. We hope this article has helped our readers understand how to boost their compliance training program and get the best value from their training solution. However, if there’s anything we can help you with, please do get in touch via email or on 01509 611019. We’re a friendly bunch and would be more than happy to help.

Workplace compliance is more than just following the office rules. In fact, used in a business context, it usually refers to requirements, conditions or restrictions imposed and enforced by various external regulatory bodies, e.g., public organisations or government agencies.

Examples of regulatory bodies in the UK include the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

It’s important to know that all organisations have a legal obligation to manage regulatory risk. As such, it’s up to them to ensure they’re aware of, and have taken steps to comply with, all relevant laws and regulations – from data protection to health and safety, and any other industry-specific policies and standards.

In practice, then, not only must organisations comply with numerous regulations, but they must also know (and communicate with their staff) how to comply and what to do to maintain this compliance throughout the organisation – and that’s where compliance training comes in.

Compliance training is the way organisations educate employees about relevant laws and regulations which apply to them, and which affect their day-to-day job activities.

Why is compliance training so important?

As above, the main reason for compliance training is to ensure employees have the necessary knowledge to comply with the company’s legal obligations. Ensuring this is the case has many business benefits (it’s not just a matter of avoiding the consequences and penalties of non-compliance!), including protecting individuals and stakeholders and helping the business succeed.

For example, compliance training makes our workplaces safer. It ensures that every team-member is made aware of potential hazards (e.g., the risk of a fire or of an injury) and that everybody knows what to do to mitigate these risks and what happens in the event an incident occurs.

Compliance training helps us to complete thorough risk assessments which seek to identify and eliminate/manage hazards; it sets the standards for what is considered an acceptable or unacceptable risk to workers’ rights, health, and safety and can prevent (or punish) cases of misconduct or negligence on our behalf.

Compliance training also makes for more productive workplaces. It can serve as a powerful tool for long-term behavioural change, driving values such as fairness, consistency and vigilance – characteristics which can be leveraged in the business setting and applied elsewhere to create high-performing, motivated, and ethical teams.

Additionally, compliance training is essential when it comes to building and maintaining trust. It lays out a set of standards that everybody in the organisation agrees to adhere to, from the CEO to the intern and third-party contractors. It lets us know that our employer has a duty of care towards us and towards its customers, and means we know where to go if we feel we might be in danger (or suspect someone else may be).

Furthermore, the significance of compliance training is underlined by the kinds of topics covered – think codes of conduct, modern slavery, or equality and diversity, for example. These types of subjects lay the groundwork for the company’s culture, the way it will grow, and its decision-making processes.

A summary of the benefits of compliance training

• Safer work environment
• Improved business operations
• Drives behavioural change
• Promotes a productive, empowered workforce
• Protection from reputational damage
• Helps to build trust
• Reduced risk of legal action
• Keeps the market competitive
• Offers customers protection and security
• Promotes good business ethics
• Provides means to detect and report violations
• Helps to shape the company’s culture
• Reduces error
• Helps secure business insurance

Common workplace compliance training

Compliance training refers to a huge umbrella of learning and regulation materials, some of which are specialised and very industry-specific (for example, the financial industry and food industry are both highly regulated, for obvious reasons) and others which draw upon a wider audience and are beneficial to all types of organisations (say, certain types of health and safety training).

The location, sector, and day-to-day activities of any given organisation all affect what type of compliance training needs to be administered by the company.

Below we’ll take a look at some common types of compliance training and the ways they benefit businesses:

Fire Safety

Fire safety training is often included in new recruits’ company induction and perhaps the reason why is obvious: this type of training is designed to save lives, reduce injury, prevent company loss, and ensure everyone knows how to act safely in the event of a fire. Additionally, understanding basic fire-fighting techniques (e.g., choosing and operating the right fire extinguisher) can help prevent small fires spreading and becoming more problematic and dangerous.

Of course, fire safety training involves more than knowing what to do in the event of a blaze; it’s also about fire prevention techniques and best working practices. Preventing a fire from starting in the first place involves educating employees about safe use of workplace equipment and being aware of their environment. It also requires refresher training, particularly in the event something in your building changes and new fire risks are identified.

Information Security/Data Protection

Information security – and data protection in particular – became more of a hot topic than ever for businesses following the EU’s enforcement of GDPR in May 2018 (The Data Protection Act 2018 is the UK’s implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Compliance training in this area focuses on the process of safeguarding information from corruption, compromise, or loss – all areas of particular concern for companies since both businesses and consumers increasingly turn to the internet for services (and the amount of data produced continues to increase exponentially).

Whilst not complying with data protection laws and neglecting to follow information security best practice can lead to data breaches and harsh penalties for organisations, compliance training in this area is about so much more than this. Rather, the training focuses on raising awareness about each person’s fundamental rights and freedoms relating to their data, and the processes organisations need to put in place to ensure they aren’t violating these rights.

Equality and Diversity

Equality and diversity are important factors that organisations need to prioritise in order to thrive and be successful. Compliance training in this area usually focuses on the employer’s responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010, what employees can expect from their employer in terms of equal opportunities, and training on what constitutes discrimination and harassment in the workplace. It may also include awareness training about unconscious bias and other forms of workplace bias employees need to know about, particularly those responsible for promotions and recruitment.

Promoting equality and diversity is good for business since, along with these components, come strength and innovation. Tapping into the power of a diverse workforce can help organisations build a competitive edge since doing so brings different perspectives, communication-styles, and problem-solving skills to the table.

It’s also very likely that your target market is made up of a diverse, non-homogenous, range of people. Employees from different cultures and backgrounds can help organisations access a wider range of consumers, ensuring their message is appropriate and appealing to all types of people with different backgrounds and beliefs.

More than this, however, who wouldn’t want to work with and for a company that promotes values such as fairness, respect, and tolerance? In this way, equality and diversity help organisations attract new and gifted talent, as well as retaining their top staff with a thriving, employee-focused company culture.

Slips and Trips

Part of health and safety compliance, training about workplace slips and trips is designed to minimise injury by mitigating the risk of falls, slips and trips whilst we’re at work. It’s true that some workplaces are more at risk for this type of injury (say, for employees working inside a busy kitchen or manufacturing plant), however, slips and trips remain among the most common causes of workplace injury for all types of industries.

This type of compliance training is popular because almost all slips and trips at work are avoidable and raising awareness about our surroundings and safety at work can help reduce the likelihood of slips and trips occurring. In turn, this helps to prevent injury, sickness leave, and possible legal action.

Compliance training is this area may focus on common causes of slips and trips, particular workplace hazards that can cause slips and trips, and best practice for cleaning floors safely.

Code of Conduct

It’s true that most of us already know right from wrong, but a code of conduct exists to spell out specific behaviours that are either required, acceptable, or prohibited within the workplace setting. As such, your code of conduct has value both as an internal compliance guideline and as an external statement of corporate values and commitments.

Every organisation can benefit from having a code of conduct because it removes any confusion that may exist around one very complex area: employee misconduct. Your code establishes standards of behaviour and lays out, in no uncertain terms, what the consequences will be for any compliance breaches. In this way, codes of conduct also provide legal protections in the case of unfair dismissal claims.

By being transparent this way – and by all members of staff adhering to the standards and processes laid out within it – your code of conduct can help build an environment of trust, and this is one of the most important characteristics of true organisational compliance. So, for businesses looking to improve or even build their compliance culture, think of your code of conduct as the very first step.

Who needs compliance training?

Everyone who is employed or who employs!

Compliance training is important for each and every member of staff. It ensures that everybody in the organisation is working from the same company roadmap and has been given the guidance and awareness training they need to work in accordance with the law and any other industry-specific regulations.

Compliance training helps organisations ensure that employees know what to do and how to do it to keep everybody safe, but it also focuses on educating employees about why doing so is important and what employees can expect from their employer under the law and company code of conduct.

Compliance training is also a useful way for employers to check that employees understand what is required of them and the ways these requirements affect their job. It helps members of staff to flourish and be productive at work by clarifying their responsibilities and boundaries, empowering them with the knowledge to work unsupervised, and reducing liability and risks for everyone in the company.

The trick, of course, is to make compliance training interesting enough so that everyone pays attention and retains what they’ve learnt, which means …

Making compliance training engaging

We can all agree that force-feeding your employees dull, legislatively focused learning-content for the sake of ticking a compliance training box is not conducive to learning, compliance, or even consciousness in some cases!

The good news is that, whilst still content-led, many digital forms of compliance training (which just so happens to be our specialty!) are now more focused on UX and design-techniques meant to enhance learner engagement and motivation, and, therefore, to instigate real behavioural change.

Design techniques

For example, what’s known in the industry as ‘immersive eLearning’, is actually a way of contextualising and adding relevance to compliance modules to bring them to life. In simple terms, immersive eLearning experiences place individuals into virtual, interactive learning environments that simulate real work-place scenarios. It’s a safe, inexpensive way for users to learn from their mistakes and for organisations to check their employee’s understanding of certain compliance measures.

Furthermore, scenario-led learning (also known as problem-based learning) combines online training with story-telling techniques, independent-thought, and analysis to encourage learners to use information and apply it to their decision-making process. As well as its obvious benefits for compliance training, scenario-led learning helps employees to cultivate critical thinking and problem-solving skills by weaving complex narratives into a media-rich, highly-visual environment.

eLearning also offers organisations the option to introduce gamified elements to compliance training, such as those found in video-games. Far from a way to dumb-down or somehow make compliance issues less-serious, gamification is a purposeful step away from the chore-like reputation that mandated training has always been stuck with.

Microlearning can also hugely reduce the amount of unnecessary content learners have to deal with when completing compliance training by offering short ‘bursts’ of knowledge about key compliance topics or to refresh prior knowledge.

Taking this concept further still, using a technique called ‘adaptive learning’ AI can be introduced to compliance training to help streamline it, presenting users with individually customised learning programs which focus on their particular compliance knowledge gaps.

Adaptive compliance training

Adaptive learning works by gathering data before, during, and after the learning process and using this mined information intelligently to create optimised learning paths for each user.

Therefore, as the user continues to complete more training and take more assessments, the platform is able to identify and feed back only the content that is relevant to them, based on their performance and confidence levels.

In doing so, it will also address their unique requirements and learning preferences, presenting the type of compliance content (e.g., gamified courses, immersive learning, and so on.) that best appeals to the user, that they have engaged with well in the past, and that addresses any identified compliance knowledge gaps.

What’s more, adaptive learning can be rolled out quickly, with minimum hassle, and in direct response to any key-risk areas identified – so it’s useful for organisations that want to remain agile and responsive.

Final word

Compliance training has huge benefits for organisations, from managing regulatory risk, to improving performance, and nurturing trust. We hope this article has helped our readers understand the necessity of compliance training and its place within the modern workplace. If there’s anything we can help you with, please do get in touch via email or phone. We’re a friendly bunch and would be more than happy help.