Despite the scope and implications of compliance training, most organizations treat it with near contempt when it comes to the learning experience. It has always been looked upon as the brussels sprouts of organizational learning: You may not like it, but you have to take it because it’s good for you.
While every other aspect of the learner experience is being thrusted into the future with personalization, recommendations, microlearning, interactivity and more, compliance training remains mostly traditional, static, and well, boring. At the same time, however, it often means the difference between being in business or being in trouble. If your organization is noncompliant, there can be significant consequences depending on the industry and where the organization does business.
The issue often is that the compulsory nature of the training means that it doesn’t have to be enjoyable or engaging, it just has to get done. But this situation should be viewed through a different lens. Since it is required, why don’t we use it to enhance the employee experience and drive organizational outcomes? For most companies, the incentive given to employees to take compliance training is the avoidance of punishment. Instead of focusing on its association with fines, accidents and lawsuits, other benefits of the training should be emphasized, such as making a better work environment, demonstrating that the employees’ health and well-being are important or even making the company known for “doing the right thing.” From a learner perspective, this is far more engaging than merely avoiding trouble.
Brandon Hall Group research shows that nearly three-quarters of companies are working to make compliance training more strategic. For most of them, the key is improving compliance training’s link to performance at all levels, from organizational to individual. This means taking the kind of approach companies assume with other kinds of learning, such as sales training, leadership development and soft skills. It requires more microlearning, moment-of-need learning, and personalized learning.
Brandon Hall Group Smartchoice Preferred Provider Qstream is one of the few modern, next-generation learning platforms that is robust enough to satisfy compliance requirements in any industry. They provide companies with the opportunity to enhance compliance training while maintaining the certainty compliance requires. It is all done in an engaging learing experience that employees enjoy taking compliance training through a microlearning platform. To learn more about modernizing compliance training and making it more strategic, download this eBook Brandon Hall Group produced in partnership with Qstream.
