Compliance training teaches employees about the rules, regulations and policies they must follow within the organization. The primary objective of compliance training is to ensure that employees are aware of how they should conduct themselves and the consequences of not following the rules. For an organization to run safely and ethically, it must have a mandatory compliance training program.
Different types of compliance training for employees
Compliance training covers a variety of topics and all organizations have to come up with a personalized plan. An Elucidat survey of financial employees found that 77% of the respondents experienced compliance training specific to their company, but only 45% were trained specifically for their department or role. It is important to introduce both general rules and customized ones.
There are some primary types of training included in every plan.
- Anti-harassment training teaches employees how they should recognize and report any such incidents. It also introduces them to the legal aspects.
- Employees should be able to distinguish between right and wrong. Ethics training covers how employees can identify which practices are morally right based on business standards.
- Workplace violence prevention training helps enforce policies discouraging violence and bullying.
- Antidiscrimination and diversity training helps to foster a healthier work atmosphere with more open-minded employees.
- With the evolution of the digital landscape, employees need to have cybersecurity training so they know how to keep data safe and confidential.
- Occupational safety and health training differs from profession to profession, and it offers crucial information to new employees.
Compliance training examples and ideas
Providing employees with documents about compliance training is not necessarily the best way to achieve fruitful results. Employees will find it challenging to complete the learning process unless they find the content exciting and interesting. Another important thing to remember is that successful training can take some time. Rushing employees through the lessons will only lead to half-hearted consumption of the knowledge.
Statista conducted a survey to find the primary obstacles that organizations have to overcome for successful ethics and compliance training. Having limited hours was cited as one of the top three challenges by 44% of respondents.
Compliance training of all types can involve audio-visual learning materials that capture the attention of the employees for a longer period. Since there is a lot of legalese to cover, you can assign materials to the learners based on their role and responsibilities. According to the Workforce and Learning Trends 2020 research report by CompTIA, 58% of learning and development professionals are excited about how emerging technologies can transform personalization and adaptive learning. 56% are curious about data-driven assessments as well.
When it comes to more serious topics that require some degree of exploration for employees to understand every aspect, case studies and role-play are excellent training tactics. Compliance training materials should be understood and not memorized. You can give different situations to the employees and ask them to apply what they have learned to come up with a solution. Real life content will allow the learners to relate to the content directly.
Compliance training activities for employees
If you want employers to complete their compliance training while working, you should ensure that the lessons are easily consumable. 70% of compliance lesson are more than 30 minutes long, according to the Elucidat survey. Longer lessons can be tedious and learners generally prefer micro-learning through shorter modules.
These are some innovative compliance training activities for employees.
1. Trivia Sessions
Bring out the competitive nature of the learners by hosting trivia sessions from time to time. You can increase their engagement by allowing them to enjoy this fun element of the learning process. Ask direct questions, or play a round of choose-the-odd-one-out.
2. Group Discussions
Conversation is one of the best ways to sort out through complex topics. While self-learning is an excellent way to continue the training process outside the workplace, it is also important to engage in deeper discussions with peers about the role of compliance and its effects.
3. Story Time
If you have a few case studies and real life scenarios that you want to share, you can turn them into videos or presentations and have an interactive story session. To make this even more exciting, you can ask the learners to act out the roles.
4. Dilemma Debates
Do not shy away from discussing grey areas and dilemmas. It is important that employees work through them during the training and not in their daily work life. Organize debates so they can see both sides and recognize the importance of compliance training.
Benefits of compliance training
There are many benefits of compliance training that prove to be invaluable to a company. As per The Future of Jobs Report 2018 by the World Economic Forum, 52% of respondents might reskill or upskill employees with the help of internal resources by 2022.
Safer workplaces automatically lead to higher productivity. Employees who know how to work efficiently within the limitations of compliance are more confident and reliable. Having a personalized training plan for your company lets you control the employees’ compliance knowledge.
Employees who receive compliance training after joining a company know that their employer cares about their career. LinkedIn’s 2018 Workplace Learning Trends found that 94% of employees would be willing to continue their career in an organization that invests in their professional development.
Compliance training plan
As per the Statista survey, 37% of the respondents talked about insufficient resources being a major problem in successfully launching a compliance training plan. For successful compliance training, you need to come up with a realistic plan that makes optimizes your available resources.
For example, a virtual training program will not only reduce your costs but it will also cater to remote employees at the same time. 80% of organizations conduct some compliance training virtually, while 29% have a completely virtual compliance training plan.
A tool like Bites will let you come up with a comprehensive training program based on visual learning and assessments. By using video based assets, employees can more easily internalize and understand the content you are asking them to learn. You can create your own content with Bites and keep updating the trainees about new developments through different media-supported text channels.
Checklist for creating effective compliance training content
- Tailor the course based on the requirements of your organization. Focus on both theoretical and practical learning.
- Make sure that management at every level supports the compliance training and encourages it.
- Be interactive during the training process and approach the trainees as a friend. Inject some humor to make them comfortable.
- Pick a training method or mix them up. Training Industry’s 2019 report found that companies usually combine instructor-led classrooms, virtual learning, and self-paced lessons.
- Multimedia content is a must for making training sessions engaging and encouraging discussion.
- Make sure that the learning material is available on different platforms and devices so the employees can access it based on their convenience. Virtual sharing is a great idea.
- The trainees should be able to evaluate their progress through your feedback. Comment on their strengths and weaknesses so they can be confident but diligent.
Summary
Compliance training is an investment to protect your company in the long run. Employees who are morally sound and can protect themselves will keep the company from running into any legal trouble.
With Bites, you have a compliance training solution in the palm of your hands. Simple but effective, Bites combines visual learning with micro-learning to engage employees. You can create short training videos or Bites to compile them into a comprehensive playlist to share with the trainees. Bites helps cut down on the expenses of on-site training without compromising the learning process. You can use forms and checklists to update your employees and receive feedback. Bites also allows you to quiz them and test what they have learned. Track the employees’ progress via the analytics dashboard to ensure the team is up to par.
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