Compliance training has long been notorious for being the unavoidable ‘dull, drab, boring mandate’. To both organizations and employees, the ‘why’ of compliance training largely reveals ‘must have’ and ‘have to do’ undertones. Perceptions take a while to change, but it’s sustained, incremental efforts that can help favorably shape those perceptions – even change them in the long run.
Thinking about the ‘tick the box’ mindset, or the ‘have-to-get-done-with-the-compliance-training’ mindset, we dug deeper into the current landscape of and perceptions within compliance training as an L&D domain. The result is an eBook in which we highlight our observations and thoughts on compliance training.
Here are some immediate questions that got us started, and became the theme of the eBook.
- Regarding Key Drivers
How is compliance training currently perceived by organizations and employees?
For this, we considered:
a. The need for and relevance of compliance training programs
b. The inputs on which the programs are based
c. The technological capabilities to deliver the programs to employees
Thinking about how we as a learning solutions provider can contribute to changing this became the motivation for the exercise.
Why are compliance training programs infamously known to be ‘boring’?
We considered this aspect in terms of the challenges both from the business perspective (an organization’s disposition) and employee perspective (the target audience standpoint). This helped us identify some of the challenges both groups currently face.
- Regarding the Challenges
What are the pain points for both groups (organizations themselves, and employees), based on the challenges identified?
This brought us closer to defining the gaps in achieving the desired impact of interventions such as compliance programs.
- Regarding the Possibilities
How can the learning experience of compliance training programs themselves be improved?
This took us towards considering the multiple variables that help shape any learning experience.
Compliance training involves several moving parts within the learning experience, including:
- The context of learning
- The content that is to be experienced
- Intrinsic influencers (a quality of the organization)
- Extrinsic influencers (the regulatory climate)
- The design and delivery
The eBook considers each of these variables and how best they can be optimized for a well-rounded, impactful learning experience, addressing the need for a culture of compliance as one of the main intrinsic influencers.
- Regarding the Outcomes
What are the key factors that impact the outcome of compliance programs?
This led us to consider the following pillars the 3Ps of compliance:
- Principles
- Policies and procedures
- People
For interventions to be effective, there needs to be a sustained effort towards making incremental bursts of learning accessible to employees over a period of time—that is, perpetuation.
As we attempt to answer these questions through the eBook, we also present some industry examples, a few examples from our work, and a possible framework that may help the design decisions towards crafting custom learning experiences in the compliance space.
The eBook brings to you the key factors you can optimize, with a fresh outlook towards compliance training, looking into compliance as a culture. With the required attention to the learning environment, the available infrastructure, and the tone of messaging, the effectiveness of such programs can be taken up several notches.
If you’d like to find out how your organization and your employees can Go Beyond the ‘tick the box’ approaches towards this domain of L&D, this eBook is for you.
