Policy & Compliance Training

What Is It?

Everyone understands that workplaces are governed by rules and regulations. Each workplace’s compliance trainings are unique to the business they are in. Compliance training is a must-have, and generally speaking, it’s required. Organizations must prove that employees have taken this training. Because compliance training is often seen as a “check-the-box” endeavor, companies often do not spend a lot of time designing engaging courses. This is a mistake.

Given today’s L&D tools and processes, we have an opportunity to create policy and compliance training that’s not just “press play and click through,” or worse, "press play and go for coffee," but contextual and meaningful, using a variety of techniques and formats. Why does it matter? Because by educating your employees on regulations, policies, and actions that apply to their responsibilities and industry, you equip them with the right skills and training to do their jobs safely and efficiently. You are also more likely to avoid legal problems that may result from non-compliance.

What Does It Look Like?

Compliance training content is usually dictated by the governing body of that topic. Topics include: federal and state laws, company policies and procedures, workplace safety, information security & fraud protection, risk management, sexual harassment, diversity & inclusion and anti-discrimination, and workplace codes of conduct.

Much compliance training occurs during new hire orientation. In this case, instructor-led training is still the most common method of delivery. The new employees end up being bombarded with tons of vital information at once in a lecture-style format, with an assessment tacked on at the end. Some compliance training must be completed on a regular basis in accordance with government regulations. In these cases, eLearning is still the most popular delivery mode. These tend to be long page-turners followed by a short quiz.

When training is delivered via these methods, learning retention plummets, and companies run the risk of having the very issues compliance training is intended to prevent.

What Are Best Practices?

So what can you do to be sure your organization remains compliant while still delivering an engaging and memorable learning experience? Here are a few best practices:

Customize the content. Use learner personas and empathy maps to design individual learning paths for employees to navigate their own way through their training. This motivates employees by giving them a sense of ownership and control over their learning.
Focus on what you need employees to be able to do, and limit the information you provide to that which is necessary to perform the tasks correctly. This is not the time to provide the learner with the history of the company's code of conduct policy.
Adopt a blended learning program using a variety of learning methods. Determine the right delivery method for the content.
Make information retainable by adopting a microlearning approach, breaking your content up into short, "bite-sized" modules. Make content clear, concise, and to the point, emphasizing what matters most. Don’t bury your employees with information overload.
Use real-life scenarios that reflect your employee’s day-to-day work activities. Training must be relevant in order to be memorable. And with some topics that can appear to be ambiguous, like anti-discrimination or harassment training, real-life scenarios can provide clarification.
Add some humor. The material is most likely serious, but the training doesn’t need to be. Use discretion and find ways to encourage an emotional connection with the material via laughter. See an example here.
Develop a game; create a character. Compliance training is the perfect opportunity for gamification or serious games. Send your employees on a quest, allowing them to make decisions and learn from mistakes in a risk-free environment, and award badges to recognize achievement.
Practice. The topics covered in compliance training are not merely intellectual. Actions must be practiced in order to be remembered in the moment. Psychology tells us that spaced repetition results in increased learning retention and recall. So consider adding additional activities that can be completed in the days and weeks after training has occurred.

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