Using Microlearning to Improve Compliance Training

Compliance training is a business necessity but making it interesting and engaging is an uphill task. This often leads to a situation where everyone goes through the motions, i.e. trainers deliver the training and employees attend the training. Nobody is really satisfied with the process, however, with success often measured by the simple act of getting through it. Microlearning, however, can turn this on its head.

In fact, microlearning could achieve the impossible – making compliance training, even for the driest and least appealing topics, interesting and engaging.

In addition, your business will be able to measure success on a range of positive factors, rather than on the fact your employees completed the training. One of those positive factors is return on investment.

The Challenges of Compliance Training

Let’s start at the beginning, though – the challenges you face delivering compliance training to your employees. These challenges include:

Employees feel they are forced to go through the training and often don’t make the connection between a) completing the training so they can tick a box; and, b) how the content of the training can improve the business
This leads to a tendency to go through the motions
In addition, employees expect to be bored and uninterested
Often, they see compliance training as a chore
Finally, the quality of classroom-based compliance training can vary if you have multiple locations – for example, employees in Dubai are likely to have a different experience to employees in another region who go through compliance training with a different trainer

Key Characteristics of Microlearning

Microlearning is a form of e-learning. In summary, here’s what it looks like:

Deliver content in bite-size modules that take the learner between two and five minutes to complete
Each bite-size module achieves a specific outcome or learning goal
Learners can complete the course on any device, including phones
Learning on the go is encouraged, as is learning in bursts
Content includes a variety of media (text, images, video, audio, etc) as well as learning tools such as including scenarios and quizzes
The focus is on maximising learner engagement

Microlearning is suitable for a range of topics and types of training. Specifically in relation to compliance training, though, it addresses many of the challenges outlined above.

How Microlearning Improves Compliance Training

Less daunting – blocking off time for traditional compliance training can be daunting. This applies whether you deliver that training in a classroom setting or via an e-learning course. With microlearning, however, the time commitment that learners must make is only minutes at a time. They must do this on multiple occasions to complete the course, but this is a much less daunting or laborious prospect.
Gives learner an element of control – following on from the last point, making the compliance training available on mobile gives employees considerable flexibility in choosing when to complete the modules. They could do a few modules on their commute to work, for example, or in the 10 minutes they have between meetings.
Perception of reduced time commitment – when measured in full, compliance training that uses microlearning is likely to take the same length of time to complete as a standard training session. After all, microlearning courses must cover the same content. As learners can choose when to complete the modules, however, and they don’t have to commit large blocks of time in one go, they perceive the time commitment to be lower.
Encourages proactive learning – with traditionally delivered compliance training, employees receive the training, i.e. it is reactive. With microlearning, the employee has to get involved with the training itself as well as with the content. They do this through, for example, deciding when to complete the next module. When learners are proactive like this, outcomes improve.

The Benefits of Using Microlearning for Compliance Training

The above section outlines the features of using microlearning for compliance training, but what are the benefits to your business?

Improved completion rates – in general, microlearning courses have higher completion rates than other methods of learning delivery. You can expect the same with compliance training that uses microlearning. Specifically, you can expect more people to complete the training before your targeted deadline.
Greater engagement – learners engage more when they receive information in bite-size chunks.
Improved retention – following on from the last point, greater engagement with the content of any course leads to improved retention of the information.
More satisfaction – employees will also find compliance training in your business to be less boring and more interesting when you deliver it using microlearning techniques. This particularly applies if you use multiple interactive elements and a variety of media.
Positive behavioural change – as learners are more engaged with the content of the course and they are more likely to retain the information they learn, you will see positive behavioural change in your business. For example, if the compliance training is on a safety topic, you will see improvements in employee behaviour in relation to that safety issue.
Improved ROI – when you take all the above together, particularly the last point, you will get a better return on your compliance training investment.

Implementing Microlearning

You may need to bring in professional e-learning developers to create microlearning-based compliance training in your business. This is because creating microlearning courses requires technical as well as educational/training skills.

That said, microlearning will transform compliance training in your business, turning it from a box-ticking exercise to something that can bring about real and positive change.