Compliance Training

An article written by Karl Kapp, voted as one of TrainingIndustry.com's 2007 Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals...

Compliance training is seen by many organizations as a "necessary evil." Training that is mandated. Well, yes it might be mandated but that doesn't mean it needs to be "death by PowerPoint" or "PDF on a stick" (that is a PDF document that a learner reads and signs off on to indicate they’ve been trained). Compliance training can and should be made attractive, relevant and interesting.

Here are common problems and suggested solutions.

• Much of the content of compliance courses are a list of what the learner should NOT do...how about what they can or should do for compliance and profitability.
• The format seems to be a page of text followed by two more pages of text followed by a multiple choice question (repeat until final mastery test)...let’s be a little more original with clickable spots, drag and drops and scenarios.
• The course is simply the memorization of information and then a regurgitation of the exact same information...how about application questions or scenarios where the learner applies what he or she has learned to solve a problem encountered on the job.
• These courses tend to have a lack of war stories or history of what has happened at that company...when an organization does have a compliance violation (like not reporting a large deposit and tracking it to an illegal activity and the subsequent firing of the individual)...how about adding that to the training...make it relative to the people at THAT organization.
• The courses do not have a chain of events sequence...what I mean by this is that most compliance disasters or major problems are a result of not one violation but a series of violations often by different people, illustrate this chain of events so learners understand how one little oversight can be compounded into a larger problem.
• The "Why" is missing. The learner is told what not to do but the real impact on the individual in terms of what might happen to them or their co-workers is never explained. Hey...I know I shouldn't speed but if I do...what could happen? Compliance programs need to explain...you could loose control of your car, get a speeding ticket, be unable to avoid an obstacle on the road, not notice a warning sign..etc.