International Stress Awareness Week: Organisations increasing support for stress and burnout

DeltaNet International has revealed that there has been a significant jump in users taking courses in managing stress since the start of the pandemic. Following almost two years of a global pandemic, DeltaNet has analysed its learners to understand how organisations have prioritised stress management in the workplace.

Recent reports by Randstad UK highlighted that 69% of employees feel confident about moving to a new role in the next few months, with staff burnout being one of the predominant factors. According to DeltaNet’s analysis, it found a 33.4% increase in its ‘Managing Your Personal Stress‘ training course in 2021 compared to 2020, and a 40.4% increase in its ‘Managing Stress in Your Team‘ training course in 2021 compared to 2020.

“It’s great to see that organisations are increasingly supporting their employees with stress management training; however, support does not just stop there. Understanding and knowing how to spot the signs of stress is just the first step. Providing additional support with one-on-one discussions, encouraging staff to take a walk every day and teaching employees to take up mindfulness activities such as Yoga is important,” highlights Darren Hockley, Managing Director at DeltaNet International.

“Unhealthy stress leads to employee burnout, which is bad news. Organisations need to understand the reasons why employees feel stressed. Is it due to the workload? Is it due to the team being understaffed? Is it due to time management or deadline issues? Or is it simply due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic and personal worries?

“Business leaders must make it their priority to support their staff through these issues. Employees who don’t receive any support will soon feel that their organisation and line managers don’t care enough about them. Remember to treat employees as people – they are not just another number. Everyone has feelings, and the minute staff feel they are being overlooked or unsupported, especially with stress and mental health, is the quicker they will look for that support elsewhere.”

*Data analysed is for the Stress Management courses between Jan – Dec 2020 and Jan – October 2021.

5 Ways Adaptive Learning Improves Compliance Training

Choosing the right compliance training can be a tricky business for organisations.

After all, compliance training is a big investment in the future of the company. Undertrained or disengaged staff can leave themselves and the company at risk of damage, injury, or legal action; and the cost, timeliness, and effectiveness of the training on offer all affect the company’s return on investment — a tall order for any risk owner/compliance manager to fill.

Sadly, compliance training is not too popular inside many companies. Often met with groans and eye-rolls, the recurring requirement to train and re-train in compliance subjects can feel redundant for employees, particularly longstanding ones who may have completed the same (or similar) training year after year before.

There are usually two issues at play when employees have a negative impression of their compliance training:

1) They feel their time is being devalued. This occurs when new or useful information is buried under repetitive knowledge that the user has encountered previously and already comprehends.

2) The learning content itself is dull – often overly legislatively focused – rather than practical and relevant to the job at hand and day-to-day working practices of employees.

In both of these scenarios, it’s hard for compliance training to be effective because members of staff simply aren’t engaged with it; an issue adaptive learning was developed to tackle.

Adaptive eLearning explained

Commonly, users complete what the learning industry calls ‘linear compliance training’. Using this type of training content, learners progress through various compliance topics in sequence, usually completing a quiz of sorts at the end of each section.

The approach works by presenting users with quantities of information and asking them to absorb enough to complete the training with an acceptable pass rate. Each user has access to the same information, and each user must pass to the same minimum standard (or else re-take the test in most cases).

Adaptive learning, on the other hand, works rather differently. Here, diagnostic tests are performed early in the training process, determining whether employees really need to refresh previous learning content or if, indeed, their time would be better spent on other areas of compliance where a knowledge gap has been uncovered.

In other words, an adaptive learning curriculum is individualised. It changes depending on the learner and the specific areas of compliance they need most support with.

Using this method, there’s no need to ‘punish’ users with constant re-takes for forgetting small pieces of information (not when that can be fixed with a 2-minute microlearning intervention!) and your diverse knowledge base of learners aren’t all subjected to the same lengthy courses every year (not if they don’t need to be, anyway).

Learning experience platforms (LXPs)

Smart LXPs (like our own Astute platform) are optimised for adaptive learning, and work by collecting information before, during, and after each learning intervention and storing it inside a personal learning record store (LRS) unique to each user.

As each learner continues to complete more diagnostic assessments and training, then, an intelligent platform can identify not only areas in need of refresher training, but also the type of learning content the user seems to benefit most from (e.g., microlearning, gamified courses, or scenario-based learning).

In other words, adaptive learning platforms dynamically adapt to the employee’s role and performance, determining learning journeys for the best learning results rather than simple box-ticking, and offering real-time risk mitigation wherever knowledge gaps are uncovered.

Here’s 5 ways adaptive compliance training benefits your business:

1. Increased ROI

Training is designed to add value to your business, not detract from it.

Adaptive learning offers great ROI because it allows organisations to claw back time spent on unnecessary compliance training in the past, i.e., knowledge that employees already have and don’t need to revise.

Furthermore, since using a smart LXP means most learning content is deployed automatically, the amount of time spent on learning administration is also reduced.

Reducing training time can save companies hundreds of hours per year, allowing employees to get on with the job at hand whilst still encouraging motivation for training and engagement. The result? More productive, better-informed employees.

2. Ease of use

Adaptive learning happens automatically and with minimum human intervention, so it’s a great tool for Learning and Development Managers to utilise as it affords them more time to focus on their goals and the success of their employees.

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.

3. Improved knowledge retention

We know by now that knowledge retention rests with high engagement levels – and this is another area where adopting an adaptive learning approach is beneficial.

Adaptive learning doesn’t devalue employee time by forcing staff to complete unnecessary training. This means it has the added benefit of increased morale and commitment when it comes to training activities. After all, we are much more likely to engage with information we don’t already know, rather than speed-reading through content that feels old hat.

Additionally, by utilising and suggesting a variety of learning styles – and, in particular, those learning styles that appeal to the individual user – adaptive learning can be used to increase knowledge retention by presenting learning content in the styles that best engage learners and which obtain the best results for them.

4. Avoids ‘box checking’ compliance

When employees are forced to complete or revise learning content simply so the company can ‘check off’ a compliance box it’s usually true that very little learning actually goes on. More than this, ‘checking the box’ when it comes to compliance sends a terrible message to your workforce – it says you don’t really care about the material and its content and, sadly, this is a message that can permeate the entire corporate culture.

Adaptive learning uses diagnostic assessments, however, which involves the learner in their own learning journey. Utilising this method, employees are aware that, when they’re asked to complete a learning intervention, it’s because of a particular and real knowledge gap that has been uncovered – it’s not because the company requires them to do so to tick a box.

In turn, this speaks to a true culture of compliance, one built on trust and mutual respect, where employees can take ownership for their own skills gaps and complete learning journeys in their own time.

To find out more about building a compliance culture, download our free eBook, How to Create a Compliance Culture.

5. Allows for frequent updates

Traditional linear approaches to eLearning can’t always accurately track what people have learnt or haven’t – and they don’t adjust to this information even if they could. Of course, this makes it difficult to add new learning material without making employees re-take the whole course (which wouldn’t go down well, as you can imagine)!

Adding new material as an addendum is an option, of course, or creating short, microlearning courses with additional information might work, but this can confuse new learners, for whom these additions would feel out of context. To avoid this, companies often limit the number of updates, but that delays new information getting out to the employees and can leave eLearning courses lacking important updates for too long.

The solution, once again, is adaptive learning. When changes to the course are introduced, the system can differentiate between material a learner has already covered and new areas ready to be studied. Adaptive learning also provides the ability to incrementally author content, releasing the highest-priority subjects first and then adding new content to the system.

Final word

Adaptive compliance training has huge benefits for organisations, from next next level ROI, to improved engagement, and helping to build a compliance culture. 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, or if you wish to explore our own adaptive learning offering, please do get in touch via email or phone. We’re always more than happy to help.

DeltaNet International Bolsters eLearning Capability with Cylix Integration

DeltaNet International, a global eLearning provider of compliance, health and safety and performance training solutions, has today announced the growth of its business through the integration of Cylix Limited, which was recently acquired by parent company Marlowe plc. Following this expansion, DeltaNet International will also be aligned into Marlowe plc’s new WorkNest brand.

Cylix Limited, an eLearning software platform based in Bath, was acquired earlier this year with a total enterprise value of £1m. It provides accredited equality, diversity, wellbeing and health and safety eLearning courses to organisations within the UK.

From today, Cylix customers will have an opportunity to access an expanded library of 200+ compliance, health and safety and performance courses, in addition to fresh content in different formats to help them re-invigorate training, keeping learners engaged. Cylix brings strong expertise working with various sectors, such as education and public sector organisations, including the University of Oxford, University of Edinburgh and LSE.

WorkNest is a collective of employment law, HR and health and safety support services, comprising specialist companies within Marlowe plc. The integration strengthens DeltaNet’s offering, as the leader of Marlowe plc’s eLearning platform, within the WorkNest brand. DeltaNet will continue to retain its autonomous position within this group, and the investment of the collective will further drive the organisation’s growth in specialist eLearning.

Darren Hockley, Managing Director at DeltaNet International, said, “We are very excited to welcome Cylix into the DeltaNet family. Both organisations share a strong commitment to delivering quality eLearning courses and providing first-class customer service. The array of talent and the 150+ years of industry expertise joining the DeltaNet team will enhance our skills to continue furthering our growth and providing courses which matter to our customers.”

Steven Price, Managing Director and Owner at Cylix Limited, commented, “Our customers can continue their exciting journey with us through DeltaNet’s state-of-the-art eLearning Platform, Astute LXP, and a wider collection of courseware, whilst retaining access to our current high-quality content. Since our acquisition by Marlowe earlier this year, it is clear that we share the same vision to strengthen the quality of courses and support to organisations looking for compliance, health and safety, diversity and wellbeing eLearning.”

The Road Ahead: What are we Working on?

It’s always busy here at DeltaNet International, and our Technical and Content teams have lots of exciting plans for new product releases in the coming months.

We work hard to ensure our courses are always fresh, up-to-date, and legislatively sound. Clients currently enjoying our Compliance, HSSE, and/or Performance Suites will automatically have access to new and refreshed courses within their suite.

Here’s a sneak peek at the road not too far ahead:

  • Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Collection update – our Content team are working hard to bring our clients a new and improved AML Collection following the recent (July 2021) update to EU regulations in this area. The updates will cover the following topics: sanctions, due diligence, and AML predicate offences and will streamline, restructure, and refresh our current AML offering.
  • Adapt voiceover generation – we are currently in testing stage for single voiceover file generation, a tool which utilises Microsoft AI to produce natural-sounding voiceovers for courses in different languages and using different characters. Once ready for release, the voiceover tool will allow our clients to create voiceover for a whole course in just a couple of steps
  • Additional Health, Safety, Security, and the Environment (HSSE Suite) offering – Our Content team are working to expand our HSSE catalogue, including courses such as Lock Out/ Tag Out safety procedure, CDM regulations, and PUWER (The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations).

As ever, if you have any questions about what’s up and coming here at DeltaNet International – or queries about any of our current product and service offerings – feel free to drop us a line. We’re always happy to hear from you and on hand to help.

8 Top Tips to Boost your Compliance Training

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.

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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.

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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.

What is Compliance Training?

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.

DeltaNet International Launches new Mental Health and Wellbeing eLearning Collection

DeltaNet International, a global eLearning provider of compliance and performance management training solutions, has today announced the availability of its Mental Health and Wellbeing collection of eLearning courses. The collection is designed to help organisations support their workforce with mental health awareness training and is the latest addition to the Performance suite, with a comprehensive collection of 19 courses.

Taking a holistic approach to its wellbeing offering, DeltaNet International tackles the most common issues facing workers’ mental and physical wellbeing. Created with the support of industry experts, the Mental Health and Wellbeing collection is a complete suite featuring all the engaging wellbeing courses in one set, with regular updates and automatic access to new courses as they are released. Organisations that look to get up to speed with just a few courses, will also have the option to ‘pick and mix’ between the courses offered. The new list of courses include:

Healthy Lifestyle
Leading a healthy lifestyle is crucial to maximising an individual’s wellbeing. DeltaNet’s selection of Healthy Lifestyle courses are broken down into four simple categories to help the learner understand how to make healthier choices.

  • Sleep
  • Food
  • Drink
  • Exercise

Mental Health

Mental Health issues are common in the workplace, so recognising the signs of mental health is the first step in getting support. DeltaNet’s selection of Mental Health courses highlights the importance of creating a workplace culture that promotes mental health and how to recognise the common signs that an individual or a colleague may need support with.

  • Supporting Mental Health at Work
  • Recognising Anxiety and Depression
  • What is Mental Health?
  • Spotting Mental Health Red Flags
  • Supporting your Colleagues’ Mental Health

General Wellbeing

The General Wellbeing courses introduce learners to the main concepts of online wellbeing and how they can better manage their online activity to reduce its impact on their wellbeing. The course on Resilience is ideal for learners to understand how to maintain emotional wellbeing and workplace performance. Drug and Alcohol addiction is also a complex issue, the courses on Drug and Alcohol Awareness support individuals in identifying and tackling the behaviour.

  • Drug and Alcohol Awareness
  • Online Wellbeing
  • Resilience

These courses will add onto the following pre-existing courses that have been updated to reflect changes in society:

  • Preventing the Spread of Infection
  • Managing Your Personal Stress
  • Managing Stress in Your Team
  • Managing Personal Stress Challenge
  • Managing Stress in Your Team Challenge
  • Identifying Stress in Your Team
  • Remote Working

“Physical and mental health issues are critical in the workplace. If business leaders don’t take these issues seriously, then it will not just impact productivity, but also the workforce in its entirety,” says Darren Hockley, Managing Director at DeltaNet International. “We are excited to launch our Mental Health and Wellbeing collection as part of our Performance eLearning courses to better support organisations to benefit from a happier, more productive workforce. Addressing mental health issues is necessary, and employees recognise and appreciate the organisations that offer them that support.”

For more information on DeltaNet’s Mental Health and Wellbeing collection, please visit: https://www.delta-net.com/performance-management/wellbeing. For more information on DeltaNet’s performance eLearning suite, please visit: https://www.delta-net.com/performance-management.

How to Support a Colleague with a Drug or Alcohol Issue

How to Support a Colleague with a Drug or Alcohol Issue

Misusing alcohol and/or drugs is a serious problem. Indeed, according to a recent government report, there were 270,705 adults in contact with drug and alcohol services between April 2019 and March 2020.

As well as negatively affecting the business by causing performance, conduct, and safety issues, abusing these substances could also introduce long and short-term health issues for the user. Drugs and alcohol can affect the brain and the body in numerous negative ways, including damaging the liver, kidneys, and heart, exacerbating ill mental health, effecting long-term, irreversible brain damage, and increasing the risk of several types of cancer.

Members of staff who misuse drugs and alcohol are far more likely to take time off, display poor performance (missing targets and deadlines, making more mistakes, arriving late, etc.), exhibit violent and aggressive behaviour with other staff members/clients, and could also cause accidents leading to injury, even death, depending on the nature of their role.

Discover more about how to spot the signs of alcohol and/or drug misuse at work here.

Your responsibilities

All employers have a legal duty of care under The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to protect employees’ health, safety and welfare. And whilst it’s understandable why some organisations may struggle with questions about why they should – or how they can – help employees with drug/alcohol problems, it’s worth bearing this duty of care in mind should you encounter the issue.

Alcohol and/or drug abuse is often a mental health issue for the user, and it can be beneficial for organisations to understand this and to treat the behaviour as such. Whilst this does not mean employers should accept any practices that directly contravene their code of conduct, it might mean something like offering reasonable time away for the employee to seek help or rehabilitation, or having mental health care included in the company’s benefits.

As well as demonstrating that you are a supportive employer dedicated to the health and wellbeing of your staff, it’s often the case that retaining valued, experienced workers is more beneficial to the business than sourcing new staff and incurring costs for recruitment and training.

Additionally, many experts recommend treating drug and alcohol misuse as a medical – rather than disciplinary – matter. Talking to your employee non-confrontationally and offering guidance and support on the matter (even if it’s a referral to a third-party expert) can help break the cycle of addiction much more effectively than acting in a manner which increases feelings of guilt or shame.

This is because many people who abuse substances also battle with a chronic sense of unworthiness, and inferiority – feelings that can be a barrier to getting help or even admitting a problem exists. It’s worth remembering that handling drug or alcohol misuse at work in a way that exacerbates these feelings can result in increased feelings of depression, hopelessness and numbness for your colleague.

In some cases, drug and alcohol abuse could be used to help your employee cope with work-related stress. In this instance, it may also be useful to assess the workplace at large to see if this may be part of a wider stress problem amongst staff members.

Supporting your employee

If you suspect that drugs or alcohol are influencing your employee’s conduct or performance, it’s important to document this behaviour and to talk to them about it non-confrontationally.

It may help you to have information prepared about drug/alcohol support groups or other local services that can provide counselling or treatment.

Apart from this, there are several things you can do that will help rather than hinder your employee during this time, including:

  • Not confronting or accusing your employee in front of other coworkers, supervisors, or management.
  • Avoiding being accusatory or judgemental, which can lead to deeper feelings of shame and guilt.
  • Presenting your concern for their wellbeing, their career success, and their future – all things that will inevitably be negatively influenced by misusing drugs or alcohol anywhere, including at work.
  • Giving examples of behaviour you have noticed that have led you to believe your coworker might be struggling with drug/alcohol misuse or has misused drugs/alcohol in the workplace.
  • Presenting informed, non-judgemental information about the consequences of addiction and the consequences of abusing substances, including whilst at work.

Policies on drugs and alcohol in the workplace

You don’t have to wait for a suspected case of drugs and/or alcohol misuse at work to create a policy on substance use or abuse (in fact many organisations include information about drugs/alcohol use in their code of conduct, or health and safety policy, for example).

Wherever you choose to keep this information, ensure that it’s easily accessible for all employees (members of staff shouldn’t have to ask for a copy if/when they need to refer to it, e.g.) and that the policy is robust and comprehensive (answering questions, rather than asking them).

Having an agreed-upon plan of action in the form of a drug/alcohol policy will help ensure that issues relating to substance-use at work are dealt with as legitimate workplace matters, and in a non-judgemental way, outside of the personal opinions of others.

It is important that managers and members of staff know and understand why and how the organisation will deal with drug and alcohol related issues; this will help staff gain the confidence to come forward and seek help either for themselves or others, without fear of disciplinary or retaliatory action.

The policy should clearly lay out the process for reporting suspected drug/alcohol misuse at work, or the medical/disciplinary actions that follow a confirmed instance of drug/alcohol misuse at work. To be most effective, the policy might also include:

  • The purpose of the policy – for example that it exists ‘to help protect workers from the dangers of drug and other substance misuse and to encourage those with a drugs problem to seek help’
  • A clear statement that the policy is applicable to everyone in the organisation.
  • The rules on the use of drugs and/or alcohol in the workplace (does the organisation take a zero tolerance approach, e.g.).
  • A statement that the business understands that substance abuse problems may be related to mental health and ought to be treated in the same way as any other illness.
  • Information about the potential dangers to the health and safety of the employee and their colleagues if their drug/alcohol problem continues or develops.
  • Information about why early identification and treatment is important.
  • Information about what help is available – for example, from managers, supervisors, occupational health or HR, or from outside counselling and medical help.
  • The organisation’s disciplinary position, for example, the company may agree to suspend disciplinary action, where drug or alcohol misuse is identified, on the condition that the worker follows a suitable course of action, such as seeking treatment.
  • The provision of paid sick leave for said agreed treatment.
  • The individual’s right to return to the same job after effective treatment or, where this is not advisable, to suitable alternative employment wherever possible.
  • An assurance of confidentiality for the employee(s) in question.
  • An acknowledgement that the policy will be regularly reviewed and that it has the support of the senior management team.

5 Signs of Drug and Alcohol Misuse Among Colleagues

It should come as no surprise that alcohol and drug misuse by employees spells bad news all round. As well as the physical risk to health (including damaging the liver and heart and increasing the risk of cancer), substance abuse at work can cause other business-related issues, including:

  • Reduced productivity, efficiency, and concentration
  • Increased workplace injuries, accidents, and even deaths
  • Absenteeism
  • Declining mental health
  • Increase in violence and aggression
  • Theft
  • Poor decision making
  • Lower morale of co-workers
  • High turnover
  • Increased re-training

Under The Health and Safety At Work Act 1974, all employers have a legal duty of care to protect employees’ health, safety and welfare. Knowing the signs of drug and alcohol misuse, and how to spot them in the workplace, will help managers and team leaders mitigate health and safety risks and support their employees’ physical and mental wellbeing.

5 signs of drug and/or alcohol misuse and abuse at work:

1. Sudden changes in behaviour and appearance

Train managers to get to know and understand their team-members. Not only is this management style great for keeping open communication and building trust, but it will make it easier to spot unusual behaviours that may be a red flag for alcohol or drug misuse. Has your employee suddenly become angry or unpredictable? Do they overreact to little things? Or have they become more confrontational? If it’s unjustified and uncharacteristic, it’s time to take note of the person’s symptoms and see what’s troubling them. It could be family stress, illness or workplace substance abuse.

Additionally, look out for changes in personal hygiene or professional appearance – a decline in this area is often a sign that something’s wrong, including drug or alcohol abuse.

2. Unexplained or frequent absences

Misusing alcohol and/or drugs (including prescription medications) can leave employees feeling hungover and poorly. Many substances can also make users feel too jittery to sleep, and this can lead to poor workplace performance and an increase in sick days. Whilst you should trust your employees to know and tell you when they’re legitimately too sick to work, watch out for higher-than usual absenteeism spread across many months; this behavior reduces productivity and unfairly puts more strain on other people in the team.

3. Declining productivity/job performance

It should come as no surprise that being drunk or using drugs at work makes it hard to focus. As a result, employees are less likely to be able to perform complex tasks and much more likely to make mistakes, leading to unsatisfactory work and chronic under-achievement. Employees deep into substance abuse may only be able to concentrate on getting more of said substance, pushing important work commitments aside, and missing deadlines and targets.

4. Workplace accidents

Working under the influence rapidly increases the risk of workplace accidents. For office-based workers, this may include an increase in breakages or slips and trips. However, for employees operating heavy machinery, or using factory/manufacturing tools (where accidents are already a high-risk), or for persons who drive on the job, abusing substances at work can have devastating effects, including death. It only takes a momentary lapse in judgement or slower-than-usual reaction time for employees struggling with drug or alcohol misuse to seriously injure themselves or those around them. Be on the look-out for a sudden increase in workplace accidents and be sure to record them.

Additionally, keep an eye on your colleague’s physical appearance. If they’re showing up for work with unexplained cuts, bruises, scrapes, or needle marks, it may be time to seek help.

5. Conduct issues

There are a number of performance and conduct issues that may indicate your employee is struggling with substance abuse. As well as absenteeism (detailed above), managers should look out for signs including chronic lateness, mood swings, and inappropriate behaviours/attitude, theft, violence and aggression, a quarrelsome attitude with coworkers, managers, and customers, taking long breaks and/or slacking off, and increasing signs of paranoia.

Handling suspected signs of drug/alcohol misuse at work

It’s important for managers to handle potential substance misuse or abuse at work tactfully. Openly accusing someone of using drugs or coming to work drunk or high can lead to gossip and heated confrontations (which will not help a substance abuser) – it could even end in a lawsuit if mishandled. If you suspect that drugs or alcohol are influencing your employee’s actions, start to document the specific behaviours causing suspicion and worry, share these with your HR manager (if you have one), and find a way to offer help compassionately, without being accusatory.

Find out more about how to support a colleague dealing with drug/alcohol misuse at work here.