Compliance Training Principles: Start with the Basics

Three Key Principles of Conducting Compliance Training

Your compliance training program likely has many moving parts to consider. The complexity of evolving compliance standards. Requirements set by your country’s regulatory bodies. Your business goals. The needs of your employees. For many L&D professionals, it can feel like too much to manage! As with many complex tasks, it can help to take a step back and look at the basics. In this article, we’ll look at how three key principles can keep your compliance training program on track while exploring a few solutions to the most common compliance training pitfalls.

Compliance is a Workplace Culture Issue

Compliance training is often mentioned in the same breath as words like “audit,” “breach,” “litigation,” or “risk.” It’s no surprise that those tasked with managing compliance programs may feel overwhelmed or unsure of how to proceed.

While compliance training should address rules, regulations, and risk mitigation, effective and inclusive training programs focus on creating a positive, safe, and ethical workplace culture. Preventing the scary consequences listed above makes compliance training a good thing for the modern work life. Keeping this in mind can help you better plan compliance training throughout the planning and training process, which can impact how training is received throughout your organization.

What Should Compliance Training Focus On?

It can be difficult to know where to start when building or revising a compliance training program. Focusing on your organization’s three core values—its people, its safety, and its security—can help shape your compliance training strategy, regardless of unexpected complexity or volatility. That’s because these three aspects of compliance are common concerns for most businesses, and for most employees. Let’s review how putting the principles of “People,” “Safety,” and “Security” within your compliance program can make compliance training more effective:

1. People
   Violence prevention, harassment prevention, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are some of the core competencies that companies should focus on when developing compliance training programs. These are just a few of the basic skills employees need to treat each other fairly and respectfully. In many jurisdictions, there are legal requirements to train employees on these core topics.
2. Safety
   Occupational safety, workplace cleanliness, and fire safety are topics that organizations should include in their compliance training to address the safety of their employees. While this list is not exhaustive, these are just a few of the important topics that companies need to train on to help keep anyone in the workplace—such as a lab, factory, or warehouse—safe from injury.
3. Security
   Information privacy, cybersecurity, and social media usage policies are hot topics for a reason. Security compliance training may expand beyond these topics, depending on your industry and location. But any effective compliance training program would be incomplete without addressing common security concerns.

Whether you are in the initial planning process or revising an existing compliance program, applying the principles above to guide your compliance training programs can have a huge impact!

Overcoming Compliance Challenges

After talking to your organization’s people, security, and safety concerns, consider the challenges that often arise during the implementation and reporting of compliance training programs. A few of the most common compliance training challenges are:

1. Lack of Compliance and Compliance Training

Low employee engagement is a common challenge for compliance training programs. Participation and retention suffer when compliance training is deemed irrelevant or uninteresting, which can lead to costly mistakes and potential legal, financial, or reputational implications. Simplify compliance training by providing clear objectives, making learning relevant to job tasks, making modules easily accessible (online and offline, desktop or mobile), and game training.

2. Limited Compliance Training Facilities

Compliance training can be time-consuming and expensive if your company lacks resources. The latest Health Care Compliance Reportmore than half of survey respondents said compliance demands have outstripped available resources. Training that ensures compliance and reduces the risk of violations and related harm is essential. Finding the right tools and resources is critical to encouraging participation and understanding. Keeping training materials in one online learning environment can make compliance training easier for students and can help administrators manage training activities more efficiently. Look for learning platforms that offer pre-built compliance courses, automation features, and administrative support that can ease the burden on your administrators.

3. Lack of Consistency in Compliance Training

Providing the same quality of compliance training to all employees, regardless of their role in your organization, is the best way to ensure that everyone is informed of their responsibilities and the consequences of non-compliance. Inconsistent training can lead to inconsistent or inaccurate interpretation of rules and regulations, which can lead to costly mistakes. Standardizing and integrating learning materials and implementing a comprehensive employee onboarding program can help keep compliance training relevant. Providing refresher training can also keep employees up-to-date on compliance, regardless of when they were hired.

Don’t Just “Check the Box” for Compliance Training

When you first read this article, you may have thought I was going to try to convince you to create a one-size-fits-all compliance training program. Unfortunately, there are no quick tricks or tips that work magically for every organization.

Specific types of training are not discussed when developing a compliance training program. However, to create an engaging and effective compliance training program, you must go beyond meeting minimum requirements. Aligning the planning, execution, and evaluation of your organization’s compliance training program with your organization’s people, safety, and security, gives you the opportunity to do more than just “check the box” for compliance. By using this framework and using the right compliance training tools, you can create real, positive change for your employees and your business.