Approaches to make compliance interventions more interesting

Handling sensitive content in a manner that it reaches every employee could be a daunting task for organizations. Organizations are faced with the challenge of catering to a mixed group. Imagine designing compliance training for fresh graduates excited about their first job, or for more experienced people who’ve worked in a particular domain for several years and now switched over to another organization in the same industry, or even for someone in the healthcare sector who has just heard about a Corporate Integrity Agreement (CIA) being enforced for 5 years.

In each of these cases, compliance training is unavoidable. It could be a part of the onboarding process, regulatory requirements, or government-mandated requirements. The key point of focus in each case is how the training is actually delivered.

So how can compliance-related learning interventions be designed to make them an engaging and informative learning experience for employees?

Here are some thoughts:

1. Story-based learning or storytelling: Stories could be a great way to deliver tedious content through a relatable narrative. More so, if delivered in an interactive format, stories help to a great extent in improving learner interaction with the content, and enhance engagement and knowledge retention.
2. Scenario-based learning: Scenarios and contextual situations could be key aspects in learning interventions aimed at bringing about a behavioral change. If delivered in an immersive way, scenarios can serve as effective experiential learning tools.
3. Gamification and game-based learning: If approached the right way, gamification and game-based learning strategies are also a great approach to help communicate the learning objective in an engaging manner.
4. Campaigns: Learning campaigns could be effective catalysts having the ability to take learners on a journey through cultural and behavioral change. Campaigns present interesting opportunities for learning designers to weave in the underlying motive of the intervention into incremental content and practice components, towards a meaningful learning experience.
5. Microlearning: Microlearning or short bursts of learning could play a key role in presenting an effective approach when designing learning paths for compliance interventions. They are particularly useful because they provide easy, anytime, anywhere, on-the-go access along, and could also be a means to deliver just-in-time learning.
6. AR/VR: Learning interventions that employ Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), or Mixed Reality (MR) could provide learners with the opportunity to interact with the environment and objects within it, enhancing the learning experience. These approaches represent a multifaceted approach to designing immersive learning experiences. These could be specifically effective in initiatives related to Safety training, Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) training, and new employee training, among others.

The context of learning would still remain the key driver for how the content is to be treated. If a particular approach is considered capable of presenting the message in the right context, it could well be considered.

In our new eBook, we present ways and means to help organizations examine the design and delivery of compliance interventions, emphasizing the importance of compliance training.