9 Compliance Training Problems and How to Fix Them
There aren’t too many people in the UAE or Saudi Arabia who look forward to compliance training. It is often boring, and the topics can be challenging. However, the importance of compliance training cannot be disputed. If you don’t provide good training on compliance topics, your company will face increased risks – legal, financial, and reputational. So, how do you fix the problems that exist with compliance training?
The first step is to understand the problems, as it is not enough to just provide compliance training. Instead, you need to make sure the training is engaging for learners so you can achieve your objectives. Once you understand the problems, you can implement solutions that will improve the learning experience as well as the knowledge and understanding of compliance topics in your organisation.
The following nine problems with compliance training are a good place to start:
You Don’t Know Who Has Done What
You will have various compliance training topics and courses in your organisation. Many employees will need to complete all the training, while there might be some topics that are only relevant to certain groups or teams. You then have the issue of people leaving the company and new people joining.
You need a way to stay on top of all the above, so you can make sure everyone on the team completes the compliance training they need to complete.
Content is Out of Date
Laws, regulations, guidance, and best practices can change rapidly, causing your compliance training to become out of date.
Take data protection as an example. Your company is likely to have a duty to protect the data of your customers, so your employees will need training on this topic. Cybersecurity will be an important part of this training, but cybersecurity is an area that never stands still. Cybersecurity threats are constantly evolving, as are the methods that companies can use to optimise protection. This means any training that you offer on data protection and cybersecurity will need to be continuously updated.
Courses Are Too Long
Employees can struggle with compliance training at the best of times – courses that are too long make the issue even worse. The best approach is to strike the right balance between content length and the attention spans of learners.
There are some effective steps you can take to cut the length of compliance training without cutting the content. The first is to remove anything that is unnecessary. Long introductions are a good example. You should question if the introduction is adding value. Would it be better to simply get straight into the content with as little preamble as possible?
Then look for instances of repetition that have little value to the learner. Repetition can sometimes be a useful training tool, but if it is just there for the sake of being there, take it out.
If after the above the training is still too long, you can consider breaking it up into multiple courses. This offers the learner a training programme that is less daunting, while the content will be more engaging.
Content is Boring
Are you inflicting something similar to “death by PowerPoint” in your compliance training? Is it page after page of text and boring graphics? Is there anything in there that will get the attention of learners or make the course interesting?
When you use e-learning as the delivery method for compliance training, you can incorporate multiple content elements and types of media to make the training more engaging and less boring.
Content Is Too Formal and/or Technical
Compliance topics are usually serious, there are often legal elements that need to be covered, and they can sometimes be on technical topics. None of that means the content needs to be formal or overly technical, though.
Instead, you should approach the creation of compliance training from the point of view of the learner. This includes dropping the formal language in favour of a conversational tone and making the technical elements easier to understand and relevant to the learner.
The Training Is Not Convenient
Many employees are time-poor, so finding time to complete training can be difficult. This problem is exacerbated with compliance training as employees can sometimes struggle to see the relevance of compliance topics to their day-to-day responsibilities.
Making the training more convenient is a solution. For example, providing employees with an e-learning course they can complete on their phones at a time that suits them.
No Opportunity for Practice
Most people learn best while doing, so you need to give learners opportunities to practice during compliance training. One of the best ways to do this in an e-learning course is through scenarios.
Too Much During the Initial Onboarding Process
Compliance training is an important part of the onboarding process, but you can overload new recruits with too much too soon. In the initial stages of onboarding, the best approach is to focus on the compliance topics that are most critical to your organisation. For example, this could be health and safety in a manufacturing environment or fraud in the financial sector. Other compliance topics can then be covered later as the employee settles into their new role.
One Size Doesn’t Fit All
Compliance training is often created once, with the same course and content given to everyone, regardless of the level of detail or difficulty. This results in some employees going through compliance training that has elements that are too difficult for them to understand. In other situations, some employees go through training that has an unnecessary level of detail.
A better approach is to tailor the compliance training you provide to make it as relevant as possible.
Regularly Reviewing Compliance Training Is Important Too
The nine points mentioned above will help you understand the problems that exist in your compliance training, but it’s also important to conduct regular reviews. Continuous improvement and ensuring your compliance training is up to date and relevant will help you get the best results.