Regardless of company size or industry, remaining compliant with current laws and regulations is imperative. At the same time, it’s essential for employees to stay compliant with internal policies and rules. With both, an organization runs smoothly, safely, and effectively. The best way to protect your business is by adopting the right corporate compliance program, one specific to your type of operation.

Compliance programs cover a wide variety of topics. For instance, implementing machine guards as part of a manufacturing process, using a properly rated fire suppression system in an internet data center, installing a ventilation system in a restaurant, or as in the case of Medicaid, saving a minimum of $5 million a year under the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 are all examples. Regardless of the situation, an effective program accomplishes multiple goals, including:

Operating in accordance with current laws and regulations

Meeting high professional and ethical standards

Maintaining a culture of integrity and honesty

Identifying compliance issues early on, followed by taking prompt corrective action

Developing employee and customer confidence and trust

What it comes down to is corporate compliance programs ensure your company and workers follow all applicable laws and regulations mandated by the government, along with ethical practices and standards established in-house. 

By not meeting all compliance guidelines, your company could be at significant risk. Perhaps the most critical concern is it changes the legal status, making your business vulnerable to government audits, hefty fines, lawsuits, and even failure. Following are a few examples of how a non-compliant issue could severely compromise your company.

Not paying your staff minimum wage plus required overtime pay would put you at risk of violating your state’s compliance laws. Once someone reports it, you could expect an audit and possible lawsuit, not to mention losing valued employees and damaging your company’s reputation.

In recent years, the government has come down hard on businesses with unethical and even illegal hiring practices. As an example, you can’t discriminate a job interview or actually bringing someone onboard due to age, race, gender, sexual orientation, and so on. Make sure your HR Director is up-to-date by visiting the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s website.

For multiple businesses like law firms, hair salons, day spas, and automotive repair shops, staying compliant requires them to maintain all necessary business licenses and permits. For instance, a convenience store that sells alcohol must have a current license from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

One of your greatest responsibilities as a business owner is to provide your employees with a healthy and safe work environment. The great thing about compliance programs is they ensure everything is in order from the floor to the ceiling. Even one accident leading to an injury could prove catastrophic to your company. 

Often, the requirements to remain compliant are complex, which is why becoming educated and having the right leadership team in place is crucial. Thanks to compliance programs, which include training courses offered online through a reputable Management Learning System platform, you have a way to protect both your financial and legal standing.

Compliance programs are a formal solution based on current laws and regulations combined with your company’s policies, procedures, and actions. The ultimate goal is to prevent, detect, and fix issues. This type of program goes well beyond a standard “code-of-conduct” policy by focusing on specific risks within your organization and then addressing them by taking the appropriate measures. 

Even if you have a compliance program in place, it may not offer the maximum level of protection that you need. In fact, the wrong program could be wasting valuable time, money, and resources. Instead of a “hit and miss” system, meaning some things are compliant while others aren’t, you need to implement a comprehensive program. With that, your company leaders can detect all potential problems quickly. 

Whether you need to develop a corporate compliance program for the first time or fine-tune an existing program, it’s essential that you keep it focused and simple. After all, your HR Director, Risk Management team, and corporate trainers need to communicate the details of the program to their staff in a way that’s easy to understand and adhere to. 

From day one of bringing a new employee onboard, your HR Director needs to have information prepared to ensure that person has what he or she needs to follow compliance laws, regulations, and policies. Again, during orientation and training, it is imperative your leaders provide the same information.

As for your current employees, they need the same details. Any time a compliance law, regulation, or policy changes, the respective department’s manager should pass down the information to every employee. If you receive a fine, get audited, or face a lawsuit, ignorance isn’t going to help. Fortunately, there’s an abundance of videos, podcasts, and articles available online that cover a broad range of compliance topics.

Every corporate compliance program worth adopting consists of specific core elements. Knowing what these are will help you develop or refine a program that protects you, your business, and your employees. The benefits of building a successful corporate compliance program far outweigh the risks. 

The program works to develop a work environment based on accountability, starting with the top executive level and moving down. A well-developed program also makes it easier to identify and address issues, document all pertinent information, and evaluate the efforts made.

Have a credible Compliance Manager as part of your team. It’s this person’s responsibility to understand current laws, regulations, and policies, educate employees, detect potential risks, correct issues, and create detailed reporting. Overall, the Compliance Manager protects the company from fines, audits, lawsuits, and failure. This individual will lead the way in building compliance into your company’s operations.

On a periodic basis or as compliance laws, regulations, and policies change, it’s critical to identify both internal and regulatory compliance needs. At the same time, the program scope should properly align with responsibilities across the organization. 

For some people, the only way they will open up about a potential problem is if they feel comfortable going to their direct manager. For that reason, provide your leadership team with training resources that help them improve communication and build relationships with their staff. You want your managers to have an “open door” policy so that employees feel safe to bring up even sensitive topics.

Unless there are distinct and clearly defined objectives, your employees will struggle to achieve the set goals. As part of your strategic planning process, make sure to include a list of well-defined objectives based on both internal and external mandates.

Your HR Director, Compliance Manager, and L&D Manager all play a critical role when it comes to identifying risks and probabilities. As trusted leaders within your organization, they need to develop their knowledge, giving them a keen sense of what to look for, how to report it, and what corrective measures to take. These three positions, in particular, need a clear understanding of their roles in relation to compliance.

Especially if you have a company with more than one location, it’s vital to provide training to ensure the culture matches across the board. In other words, your Compliance Manager might be on top of things at headquarters while at a remote site, non-compliant issues exist. This is a prime example of why education and training are crucial for all employees regardless of position or level of authority.

The last thing you want is to receive notification from a state or federal entity advising your company is being audited due to a possible non-compliant issue. To avoid embarrassment, risk, and fine, develop an internal monitoring system into the corporate compliance program.

You also need a place within the program for keeping your leadership team abreast of results, changes, and other pertinent information. Cross-communication about internal and external matters is of significant importance when it comes to compliance.

Remember, maintaining compliance requires a joint effort by many different people within your organization. However, it starts with the people you put in positions of authority. For the program to work, it must contain the following core elements. Even one oversight, whether intentional or not, could bring your entire company crashing down.

Designated Compliance Manager (and other members of your leadership team)

Quick response using appropriate corrective action for any identified problem

Enforce standards based on clear disciplinary guidelines

 As for the seventh core element, “enforce standards based on clear disciplinary guidelines,” you want your HR Director to work alongside your L&D Manager to create a set of internal policies and procedures. You need to provide this information to all new hires, as well as current employees. Your entire staff must understand the risks of being non-compliant and what their role is in reporting an issue. 

Not only does this give your staff better direction and expectations on what you expect from them, but it also helps them invest more in the company. In other words, understanding how critical their insight is into possible compliance issues will make them feel valued and respected. After all, you depend on them to report anything suspicious. In return, you’ll find your employees more dedicated to achieving the company’s broader goals.

Those three words are the epitome of what an effective corporate compliance program is all about. Prevention covers your written policies and procedures, having a qualified Compliance Manager on staff, and ensuring that everyone within the organization has the proper training and education. 

As for detection, this includes your manager’s “open door” policy for communication. Now, if you have a sizable company, you should consider setting up a toll-free hotline. That way, your employees can report an issue quickly but also anonymously if they choose to do so. Detection is also about internal auditing and reporting.

Then there’s corrective action. Included in this is the investigation process that commences after detecting a potential compliance issue, followed by determining the best remediation and taking action. Your disciplinary policy for failure to report or causing a compliance problem also falls under this category.

Of particular interest are the written policies that you include in your code of conduct or code of ethics policy. For this, you need documentation for two levels. First, your leadership team needs complete details about the program, how it works, and the implementation process. Keep in mind; this goes beyond your HR Director, Compliance Manager, and L&D Manager.

Second, you want information compiled that goes out to every person working within your organization. These details should stress the urgency of staying compliant and what non-compliance could mean for the company and their employment. Again, recirculate information on both levels whenever laws, regulations, or internal policies change.

You also want the right person in the position of Compliance Manager. As a critical player in your company, this individual should have a bachelor’s degree at a minimum, experience, and compliance certification specific to your industry. A lot falls on this role, so having a qualified individual serving as your Compliance Manager is vital.

However, for your compliance program to work, your Compliance Manager can’t carry all the burden. This person needs an excellent support team. For this, consider establishing a committee that meets anywhere from two to four times a year. Along with other leaders in your organization, you can include outside experts.

During compliance committee meetings, the group would discuss trends, new and amended laws, regulations, and policies, reporting, grievance monitoring, additional employee training requirements, and any other topics of interest or concern.

According to LW Consulting, Inc., when it comes to leadership, “A successful compliance program is fully endorsed by senior management. In addition to support and endorsement by senior management, a company’s board of directors should also be involved in the process.” It went on to say, “When senior officers take compliance seriously, employees are more likely to follow suit.” Talk about spot on.

Allow us to help with your compliance program

For a broad range of compliance topics, as well as those covering leadership responsibilities such as communication, motivation, building morale, and more, we have a vast library of professionally created training courses available. Especially in today’s world, you can’t afford to have any non-compliance issue. Start developing or refining your program today for optimum protection.

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How to establish or refine corporate compliance programs

Compliance is the one thing a lot of companies fear yet the same thing enhances overall safety in the work environment. For you to keep your company in line with current laws and regulations, it’s imperative that you provide your staff with compliance training. As a result, they’ll have the ability to spot potential problems and know the correct way to handle them.

Before going into the specifics about the value of training, you should understand the consequences of non-compliancy. For whatever reason, some companies do not take compliance seriously, that is until they get caught. Then, they realize just how impactful their mistake was. While some of these companies recover, others don’t, meaning they actually fold.

One key factor to keep in mind is non-compliance is not only damaging to your business, but it’s against the law. Another critical thing to remember is because compliance laws and regulations change, it’s vital that you stay on top of current requirements. In other words, your business might have been compliant in 2016, but now in 2019, it’s not. Thanks to training, there’s no excuse to fall behind and end up paying the costly consequences.

Following are just a few examples of areas where your company might not be compliant.

Especially with discrimination, your HR Director and other leaders who hire need to understand the rules to follow. As a prime example, there are acceptable and unacceptable questions to ask job candidates. This becomes somewhat tricky considering potential employees need to meet a minimum age requirement, possess specific skills, have the ability to perform certain tasks, and so on.

The person hiring needs to gather critical information without breaking the law. By posing the wrong questions, there’s an excellent chance of someone filing a lawsuit against your organization. Again, thanks to compliance training for 2019, the members of your staff have all the needed guidelines to hire the right people while staying compliant.

Another potential problem area has to do with paying your employees the correct amount for the work performed. If you have workers who put in approved overtime yet you fail to pay them, you become non-compliant. Not only does that put your company at risk for a lawsuit but the state could also penalize you.

Along with paying your employees the correct amount of wages, you must pay them on time. Whatever schedule you set up for your business, you need to follow. If you have a payroll schedule for the 1st and 15th of the month, you can’t hand out paychecks on the 5th and 20th. For this, you need to provide your HR Director and Payroll Manager with the appropriate training.

Depending on your type of business, you must maintain specific licenses. As an example, a convenience store owner needs licenses to sell alcohol, tobacco products, and lottery tickets, along with the standard business and health licensing. The fact is without obtaining and posting your licensed credentials, you could have your operation shut down.

Without question, workplace safety is one of the most significant areas where companies fail to stay compliant. For every industry, there are set safety standards. By failing to meet them, especially if a worker sustains an injury, you could end up paying out tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation, perhaps even more.

 When it comes to workplace safety, there are multiple things to consider, including machinery, processes, technologies, and so on. For the sake of compliance, you need a skilled Compliance Manager onboard – someone who knows the current laws and regulations and enforces them. 

Just a few of this person’s responsibilities include assessing all security measures, identifying potential threats and risks, and determining the likelihood of an accident. Your Compliance Manager plays a vital role within your organization, ensuring the safety and security of all personnel.

This too is another significant area to focus on considering the high number of breaches, identity theft, and even holding companies for ransom. You need a leader who has both experience and training to protect the integrity of your entire IT system. Failing to stay compliant could cost you in several ways. 

For one thing, you could face a civil penalty, which typically covers cases of wrongful neglect. There’s also the risk of a criminal penalty if someone discloses proprietary information, whether intentionally or unintentionally. If your business is healthcare, HIPPA could also hit you with a substantial fine. 

Failing to meet even one compliance law or regulation could have substantial consequences. Along with putting your employees at risk, whether an accident or by sharing personal information, this could permanently damage your company’s reputation. After all, customers want to do business with an organization of high integrity and honesty.

As stated in a Forbes publication, “A professional compliance officer understands the various nuances that can ultimately protect your company from problems and save your company’s bottom line and reputation.” This is why having an experienced and knowledgeable Compliance Manager on your staff is critical.

Compliance laws and regulations affect companies of all sizes and industries. Regardless of the type of business you have, it’s imperative that you provide not only people of authority but also all your employees with the necessary compliance training for 2019.

With compliance, you have a bona fide method for protecting your company, employees, and even your customers. Although there are multiple players when it comes to regulatory compliance, three, in particular, stand out.

 As the acronym for the “Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act” established in 1996, this affects any business that deals with personal health records or health information, including doctor’s offices, clinics, hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies, psychology firms, nursing and assisted living homes, and dentists.

HIPPA protects a patient’s personal and medical information. Only after giving authorization can a healthcare professional or facility release these details. 

SOX, which stands for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, is a federal law that protects businesses from accounting and corporate scandals. According to this compliance law, organizations must handle things in a specific way such as financial reporting, auditing, and corporate governance.

 PCI, or the “Payment Card Industry,” protects credit card information. All the major players, including MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and American Express, must follow the data security standards as part of this Act in an effort to reduce credit card theft and fraud.

As you can see, compliance stretches across all areas of an organization, from safety to patient information to credit card processing, and more. If your company doesn’t follow these and other compliance laws and regulations, you can anticipate a severe punishment that ranges from a financial penalty to actual jail time. Just one example, failing to stay compliant with SOX could result in a $10 million fine or more, as well as up to 30 years in jail. 

Instead of putting your company, employees, and customers at risk, take advantage of a vast library of online training courses. Updated to correspond with current laws and regulations, this provides an excellent opportunity to stay compliant throughout your organization.

With so many resources at your disposal, there’s no reason for your company to have any non-compliant issues. Especially as the digital footprint becomes more prominent in companies of all types and sizes, it’s essential that you gain insight into current compliance training trends.

For starters, a lot of employees prefer to take control of their learning. With advanced yet easy-to-use technology, you can offer your staff members a host of training opportunities, for both business and personal growth. Your L&D Manager would take the lead, but with overwhelming demand, an online course streamlines compliance training. 

In other words, you can provide your employees with courses they can take at home yet at the same time, have your L&D Manager organize group training sessions. That combination ensures that everyone stays up-to-date on compliance requirements.

By providing your employees with training, you not only educate them but also enhance overall morale. To them, this shows that you’re willing to invest in them as a viable member of your organization in helping them gain more knowledge. In turn, this positively affects dedication and production.

Standard training often takes weeks to organize, whereas online courses are on-demand. For example, if an employee informs a department lead about a compliance problem having to do with machine guarding, you could give that manager immediate access to several appropriate courses. As a result, that person could take quick action to avoid a potential disaster.

In the meantime, your L&D Manager could organize group training to address the issue among the entire team, so it has a better understanding of things to look for, whom to report to, and the correct compliance action to take.

When utilizing the right source, you can select among thousands of related topics. Along with immediate access, experts develop and often present these online training courses, all affordably priced. Ultimately, you prevent a serious problem and provide ongoing education about additional compliance issues that might arise. 

What that means is that you have an instant and long-term solution for keeping your company compliant. Again, the manager can apply the newfound knowledge immediately while your L&D Manager brings the issue before a large group as a way of spearheading future problems. 

Another hot trend for compliance training involves mobile access. Having the opportunity to complete courses via a smartphone or tablet has definite benefits. For instance, staff members who have a long bus, train, or subway commute could complete training on their way to work or back home.

Another consideration is that because many are glued to their mobile devices, you’ll discover that your employees are more apt to complete courses if they can do so using their smartphone or tablet. That’s not to say there’s no need for training via computer, just that mobile-friendly courses expand the opportunity to keep your company compliant.

Both digital and mobile content and delivery are vital components of a successful training program in 2019. As quoted in a 2018 LinkedIn study, “Delivering your training on multiple platforms, such as classroom, mobile, and on-demand, can help eliminate the time crunch for busy employees.”

Even with online courses, it’s imperative that you have a plan in place. One of the many benefits of e-learning is that your staff has immediate access to a wealth of information, whether in article, podcast, or video format. However, the goal is to create a plan so that when something comes up, you have already established a systematic process. 

For compliance training to work at its best, it must be engaging, effective, and immediately accessible. The goal in putting together a compliance training program is to cover all aspects of your organization to ensure they’re in line with current laws and regulations.

As part of your plan, you need to meet with all your department heads to identify potential risks. From there, your Compliance Manager can take the lead in reviewing and assessing everything to confirm any non-compliant issues. Obviously, a good training program requires input and action from your entire management team.

Keep in mind; you want compliance training to accomplish several specific goals. Beyond identifying possible risks, it needs to focus on trends, organization, and on meeting regulatory requirements. You want your program to appeal to your employees but also teach them about the critical nature of compliance and what non-compliance would mean to them and the company.

Start by identifying the ongoing requirements and training goals for each department within your organization.

Review current training for present-time needs to help identify any required changes.

Evaluate your current training program to understand both strengths and weaknesses. With that, you’ll have a clearer insight into what your new program needs to address.

Identify and then implement changes, making sure they meet not only current laws and regulations but also department and corporate policies.

Advise your employees about the training opportunities available. Along with specific compliance courses they need to take, provide them with a link to the training site where they can scroll through and identify additional topics of interest.

Have your L&D Manager organize group training as needed. Even for this, you can utilize online courses. Along with making the process more convenient and cost-effective, this creates an environment where your staff can collaborate on keeping the company compliant.

 Due to the critical nature of staying compliant, you’ll have no problem finding different online platforms that provide training. However, not all have the same caliber of resources and the affordable prices that Go1 offers. As a leader among Learning Management System platforms, we have a vast range of compliance topics, regardless of your company size or industry.

As we operate in an increasingly complex risk landscape, it’s crucial that companies get things right when it comes to compliance. 

 All organisations, large and small, need to make sure they’re being compliant with the relevant laws and regulations for their industry. 

This is important not only for the safety and wellbeing of employees, but also for the success of the business. After all, there are serious consequences of non-compliance, including legal proceedings, fines and penalties, and the loss of income and reputation. 

The best way to significantly reduce your compliance risk, while helping to keep staff safe and accountable, is to provide mandatory compliance training to all employees. 

With proper compliance training, employees will be kept up-to-date on the laws, regulations and policies that are applicable to their employment, while gaining a solid understanding of their rights and responsibilities in the workplace. 

Wondering what compliance issues your mandatory training should be covering? 

Here are some of the key areas of compliance you should be including in your employee training. 

Workplace safety is one of the most important compliance areas and something that should definitely be included in mandatory compliance training. 

Companies face considerable fines and business impacts if they fail to be compliant with current workplace safety laws and regulations. 

To avoid this, and keep your employees safe on the job, employers must provide appropriate workplace safety training for all staff and take responsibility for providing them with a safe workplace.

That means delivering mandatory compliance training to all staff on workplace safety policies and procedures. Depending on your industry and job role, this could include modules in areas such as manual handling, PPE awareness, and emergency and evacuation training. 

Workplace issues such as bullying, harassment, discrimination, and inappropriate conduct also pose a significant risk to both workers and businesses.  

According to Safe Work Australia, work related stress and bullying is costing Australian employers $693 million every year. With the maximum penalty for breaching the Work Health and Safety Act being $3 million, it’s really not worth the risk of being slack when it comes to compliance. 

Unfortunately, company scandals involving ethics and corruption continue to demonstrate that many organisations are failing when it comes to building a culture of compliance. In the interest of your company’s reputation and long-term success, you must understand the importance of compliance and build an ethical work culture that respects and follows it.

Make sure you’re delivering mandatory compliance training on topics such as bullying, sexual harassment, discrimination, and equal opportunity, to continually remind staff of important key messages. It’s important to look at the policies you have in place across these areas and the legal obligations and laws around them. 

Next on the list? Data management and security training. 

Unfortunately, many companies have experienced the effects of serious data breaches and cyber attacks. 

It’s really important that companies have effective security programs and policies to keep these threats at bay, to protect company data, as well as any sensitive and confidential information relating or belonging to their customers or clients. 

Earlier this year,­­­ we saw some very important changes around data breaches. These changes were made to increase the level of security for individuals, protecting customer data that companies have access to. Organisations will now have to prove that they are taking this issue seriously. 

Businesses that fail to show they have the right compliance measures in place – or are at least making efforts to – will face serious fines, with civil penalties of up to $1.8 million.

To minimise this risk, make sure you’re educating staff about data security and compliance. Investing some time and money in compliance training is worth the investment, to make sure your business is safeguarding against the event of a data breach or cyber attack. 

Training staff around this issue and increasing your cyber security is your best line of defence. You can learn more about the precautions you can take to protect yourself and your business from malicious ransomware and the risk of cyber attack here.

Using eLearning to reduce compliance risk

Now that you know the key areas to focus on with your mandatory compliance training, you’ll need to get things set up and running for your employees. 

If you’re keen to update and improve compliance training for your employees, moving your training online is a great place to start.

Using an eLearning platform such as Go1 Premium to create and deliver compliance training will help your staff engage with learning materials while completing their mandatory courses. 

The Go1 platform also allows you to easily track staff progress, see how each team member is going with the content and whether they may need additional direction, assistance or further resources. 

To make things even easier, you can choose to use your own compliance content with the Go1 platform, creating a fully customised program for your employees.

By making compliance training mandatory for all staff, you’ll soon have greater peace of mind for your employees and your business. Remember, when it comes to compliance you really need to get it right. 

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

Wondering what issues your mandatory compliance training should be covering? Here are some of the key areas of compliance training you should include in your employee training.

Basic mandatory compliance training that companies should be delivering to their staff

Wondering what issues your mandatory compliance training should be covering? Here are some of the key areas of compliance training you should include in your employee training. 

The adage “time is money” is no secret to the United States’ $60 billion corporate learning industry. It’s also known that historically, many training programs have been viewed as “one-size-fits-all,” with facilitators simply going through the motions of the mandatory training process. A recent Forbes article reported that only 10 percent of corporate training initiatives are effective.

One area of training that is incredibly important from a legal perspective – and to your company’s bottom line – is compliance training. Depending on your industry, this area may be highly regulated. You may face rules on the type of content provided in compliance training and how many employees are required to participate in and pass the training. That’s a tough goal to achieve, especially when the training content can be uninspiring and disengaging.

How can you make compliance training more engaging, and ultimately more successful, despite legal regulations? Consider implementing technology.

As technology advances and more training programs are offered partially or completely online, industry innovators can use tools like adaptive learning and gamification to make the process more successful and engaging. We shouldn’t view compliance training through a different lens than onboarding – so why not use existing technologies to revamp these trainings, too?

Last year, the Education Technology Industry Network of the Software & Information Industry Association valued the EdTech market at $8.38 billion – and that’s just for PreK-12. In addition to the many apps, digital assessments and technologies available, personalized learning has contributed to this growing market.

Adaptive learning is made possible by algorithms and machine learning that recognize what users already know, what they need to learn and how best to learn it. Benefits include increased control over learning material, higher learner engagement and confidence, increased knowledge retention, and higher pass rates. Adaptive learning is the future of education – and for corporate compliance training.

Learning platforms often use tagged content or quiz results to alter content, but new-to-market analytics and algorithms can help L&D managers apply true adaptive learning to training and compliance content. When machine learning recognizes that an employee already has a basic understanding of the content, the employee can save learning time by starting at a more appropriate level, focusing on content that will truly benefit them, rather than using across-the-board introductory materials.

Perhaps most importantly, predictive and prescriptive analytics have the ability to track behavioral patterns – such as when a user re-reads passages several times, rewinds videos, skips back and forth, or passes through a learning unit – to identify employees who are not likely to pass the training. By identifying these employees early, platforms can adapt training content automatically to increase pass rates, improve knowledge transfer and save time.

Millennials grew up in the digital age, with computers, cell phones and video games at their fingertips. Technology might not come as second nature to all learners, but for millennials, digital is their way of life. In fact, 78 percent of millennials feel that the use of technology in the workplace makes them more efficient, according to PwC.

A recent report by U.S.-based global market research and consulting company MarketsandMarkets suggests that gamification can “align the motivation of the employees… to derive the desired actions and results from them.”

But how? Gamification is engaging, motivating and inspires creativity. It can make repetitive training content more exciting. Goals and rules are defined, and progression is based on merit. Training milestones are achievable and can be displayed on a training leaderboard for friendly competition.

In 2013, select Applebee’s franchise locations used gamification in the workplace to promote new menu items and teach employees about workplace rules and safety. Employees received points and prizes, and winners were recognized throughout the restaurant. As a result, customer service ratings improved at the top performing franchises. Staff felt more motivated, and long-term retention improved.

Whether in the food services industry, banking or manufacturing, compliance training can be made more efficient and engaging through the use of technology. Adaptive learning helps trainers deliver the most relevant content to each learner, and gamification makes the training fun and exciting.

Josh Bersin of Bersin by Deloitte has said that corporate training is “one of the most important (yet often least respected) parts of business.” But innovations are changing the industry for the better, and you can make a difference in your employee training with these investments.

How to increase engagement in compliance training

More than likely you’ve heard the word “HIPAA” but still don’t fully understand what it is and why it’s such a big deal. HIPAA is the acronym for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act established in 1996.

In basic terms, it requires your organization and employees to keep all information about your patients confidential, regardless of the medium including paper, oral, or electronic device.

For starters, HIPAA consists of five different titles, each playing a distinct role in the overall protection of someone’s personal information.

Title 1 – This title is what regulates the availability and access to healthcare plans, as well as the renewability and portability of coverage. In other words, for someone with a pre-existing condition, this title regulates the way group insurance plans handle him or her.

Title II – Included as part of this title is the Privacy Rule, which regulates the ways you can share Protected Health Insurance or PHI with various covered entities such as healthcare clearinghouses and insurers.

Title III – Title III of HIPAA is what standardizes the amount of money a person can save for a medical savings account.

Title IV – The focus of this title is on the application and enforcement of group health plans.

Title V – For patients with life insurance premiums, this title regulates the tax deductions.

Although your HR Director needs proper training on all five Titles of HIPAA, you want him or her to pay special attention to Title II since it is something organizations associated with healthcare deal with often.

This title requires the person in your organization who oversees HIPAA to complete specific training. With this, he or she can protect data connected to 18 unique identifiers. Otherwise, an unauthorized party could determine who the information belongs to, which under this Act, should never happen.

Dates (birth date, termination date, hire date, date of death)

Beneficiary number for a health insurance plan

Biometric identifiers (retinal scans, fingerprints, voice, etc.)

Photograph(s) (extending beyond just the face)

Any other distinct characteristic, code, or number that would reveal a patient’s identification)

As explained by the US Department of Health and Human Services, “the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) required the Secretary of the US  Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop regulations to protect the privacy and security of certain health information.

If you operate a business in the healthcare sector, whether physical or mental, the law mandates you follow all titles, especially Title II.

HHS goes on to state before the enactment of HIPAA, there were virtually no set standards for the security of information nor were there any general requirements for protecting information on an individual’s health within the healthcare sector.

However, with advanced technology making it increasingly easy to obtain someone’s information, the government recognized the need to do something to change that in the form of HIPAA.

HIPPA training is not limited to just healthcare organizations. Any Business Associate (BA) or entity that requests, handles, and stores patient or client information must complete specific certification courses. Without proper training, there’s no way for your HR Director, Compliance Manager, L&D Manager, and others as you deem necessary, to successfully protect information about your patients.

As for Business Associates (BAs), the government defines these as any individual or business with access to a patient’s protected health information. Some examples include accountants, lawyers, and third-party insurance billing services.

While the government mandates certain HIPAA training, there are areas where training is not required. Even so, for optimum protection of the patients and clients your organization provides services to, you should have the appropriate leadership team take as many online courses possible while maintaining an emphasis on those pertaining to Title II.

If a breach of PHI compliance occurs, government officials would open a formal investigation. During that period, if they discover you failed to provide the appropriate people within your organization the training required, you would likely receive a significant fine from the Office for Civil Rights.

Furthermore, failure to comply would put your business at a tremendous risk for any involved patient or client to file a lawsuit against your company.

Keep in mind, the HIPAA training your staff needs and the courses you recommend will vary somewhat according to each of their positions and the specific functions they perform. Typically, companies that deal with sensitive and proprietary healthcare information complete multiple training courses to ensure managers understand all angles of security awareness.

Fortunately, many of the courses are available online through a reputable Learning Management System (LMS). Although an industry or topic expert develops each course, the majority only take about an hour to complete. These courses are also affordable and available in a variety of formats, including articles, podcasts, videos, and so on.

Between the mandated and selective training, there’s a tremendous amount of information. However, with an LMS, your staff can complete courses within a reasonable period, preventing them from trying to cram their minds with more information than they can retain.

After all, even mandated HIPAA training has no set timeframe, although the government expects organizations to complete it as quickly as possible to ensure compliance.

If you look under the Security Rule of HIPAA, you would see it requires training “periodically,” meaning there’s no set timeline. A good rule to follow is to have the correct members of your organization complete mandated training once a year. As for supplemental training, they could coordinate courses with their schedules. Of course, any changes to HIPAA would prompt immediate action.

The Compliance Manager within your organization plays a key role in keeping your L&D Manager up-to-speed on any HIPPA training issues. In this role, the individual responsible for compliance should perform several duties, including:

Monitoring – Monitor both the HHS website and various state publications for rule changes. Although HHS provides an advanced notice, it never hurts to have your Compliance Manager subscribe to several viable channels and news feeds.

Assessment – Whenever the HHS issues new guidelines or rules, your Compliance Manager should conduct a thorough risk assessment. With that, he or she can determine if the modifications impact your business.

 If it does, your Compliance Manager should work with your L&D Manager to ensure the proper people complete any necessary training, both mandated and supplemental. Beyond an assessment following changes to HIPAA, it’s essential to have your Compliance Manager conduct additional risk assessments regularly. That way, the risk of your organization to have a HIPPA violation decreases dramatically.


Liaison – If changes occurred, your Compliance Manager needs to schedule a meeting with the L&D and HR Managers. Together, they can identify any impact relating to compliance with Title II of HIPAA.

Training – If HIPAA changes impact your employees’ compliance, your L&D manager would organize the necessary training. Remember, only members of your organization affected by modifications to HIPAA must complete the mandated training.

The government mandates specific HIPAA training, including the Administrative Safeguard of the HIPAA Security Rule and the Administrative Requirement of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Along with those two, consider several supportive training courses for each of the four remaining titles, as well as others such as Information Security and Privacy and Compliance: Privacy Awareness. The more knowledge your executives and senior management team has the better.

These two mandated courses cover a lot of valuable information. Following are some examples:

HHS provides templates for the various HIPAA topics, making it easy for you to stay on top of training, compliance issues, and other concerns. If you have a healthcare organization, you must explain HIPAA laws to patients and provide them with a HIPAA statement that clearly outlines their rights. You should do both of these before a person actually sees a physical or mental healthcare professional.

If you run a BA or entity, meaning you don’t actually see patients but still deal with personal information, again, you need to let your clients know about HIPAA. The best way to prevent an oversight is by establishing a privacy policy reflecting the Privacy Rule.

Whether an existing or new patient, make sure you have a check and balance system guaranteeing you provide everyone with both oral and written information. Then, have the patient sign the paper, followed by keeping a copy in his or her file and storing a digital copy.

If you have an insurance assistance, billing, or some other type of company that deals with patient information, adopt the same kind of system. The goal is to cover your back, ensuring your organization is 100 percent compliant and therefore, not at risk for a breach.

Along with this system, you could create a simple Excel spreadsheet listing the mandated training courses. Include a column for the team member’s name and the date of completion. For each person, you would then list secondary training on patient privacy courses. With this, you have control of HHS and your internal training program.

One important thing to note, if you anticipate sharing a patient’s Protected Health Information (PHI) with a third-party, you’re required to seek permission first. If granted, the patient needs to sign a form either created by you or one provided by HHS, which you then maintain as part of your record keeping system. If at any time a patient requests a copy of the signed document, you’re required to provide one.

Something else you need to know is if you have a counseling, therapy, or psychiatry business, under HIPAA, you’re not required to share mental health notes. In other words, you can share names, addresses, and various other patient details to a third-party but personal psychotherapy notes are off limit. What is comes down to is you and your staff must protect the security and privacy of every person seen.

The only exception is if for some reason you have a genuine concern a patient may harm him or herself, or someone else, you can contact family members or law enforcement. In such an event, you would need to make a relatively fast assessment, followed by taking the appropriate action to keep your client safe.

As mentioned, along with mandated training, it’s highly recommended you provide your leadership team with supplemental courses.

For both, consider some of the primary do’s and don’ts:

Do – Choose online courses of real value.

Don’t – Go into great detail about HIPAA’s history. While perhaps interesting to some individuals, most people really don’t care.

Do – Select supplemental online training courses your staff can complete in an hour or less.

Don’t – Make training boring. There’s no reason to provide codes and quotes from HHS. If you plan to have your leadership team complete training on the same day and at the same location, have your L&D Manager prepare an engaging presentation.

Do – Cover the different consequences of being in breach of HIPPA. For this, you need to send a clear message about the damage this would have not only on the organization but also employees and most importantly, patients.

Don’t – Overlook the importance of documenting all training provided and completed.

Do – Choose the right members of your team for training. The three most critical people include your HR Manager, Compliance Manager, and L&D Manager.

For the best HIPAA training, go through the US Department of Health and Human Services website. However, for additional training, make sure you choose a trusted, respected, and reliable source.

While you’ll have no problem finding an LMS, not all offer the same caliber of service. Go1 is by far your best option. With a vast library of courses on patient privacy and an affordable membership price, you can access whatever training you feel your team needs to complete in support of HIPAA training.

Although HIPAA training protects patients and clients, it also protects your business and the people who work for it. Enforce the completion of mandated courses and select supplemental training for optimum protection. The last thing you want is to have the government breathing down your back about a potential non-compliant issue. We invite you to visit our website or call to speak with a representative.

All you need to know about HIPAA training

For banks, insurance companies, brokerage firms, and other businesses engaged in financial activities, there are many complex requirements when it comes to compliance.

While all businesses need to be compliant with industry regulations, companies involved in financial services must be particularly aware of compliance concerns.