Flip the script on how employees perceive compliance training

Compliance training often carries the stigma of being mundane and obligatory, with employees seeing it as a chore. However, as Jennifer Dowdy emphasized in Episode 2 of our podcast, L&D in 20, this underappreciated yet crucial part of workplace learning holds serious upskilling potential that goes beyond any regulation or legal adherence. By approaching compliance training as an opportunity rather than a regulated business requirement, your employees will do the same.

Step away from out-of-the-box compliance training

Traditional compliance training, often supplied by your legal, cyber, or HR vendors, focuses heavily on rules, policies, and scenarios that might feel detached from employees' daily work lives or the specifics of your business. So while it's crucial information, we're big believers that no employee training should be one-size-fits-all, and that includes compliance training.

To make compliance training feel more personal to your organization, consider:

• Embeding growth opportunities: Infuse elements such as conflict resolution, communication, and bias awareness into compliance modules. For instance, teaching employees how to pause and check their biases during workplace interactions serves both organizational and personal benefits, and adds a more tactical element to the training. Take it a step further and add in examples that are most relevant to your teams based on region or industry.
• Adopting the "Pill in Peanut Butter" strategy: As Jennifer Dowdy described on L&D in 20, just like hiding medicine in a treat for pets, compliance training should blend regulatory requirements with engaging and practical content, ensuring the "medicine" is consumed effectively, and in a way that's enjoyable and memorable. In practice, this could look like gamifying the experience with streaks or prizes or even making sure the trainings are visually and aurally appealing.

The role of behavioral insights

Behavioral insights play a crucial role in compliance training as they help employees understand the reasons behind regulations and how their behavior can impact the organization. Rather than exclusively addressing regulations, the best compliance programs focus on the behaviors and attitudes that underpin them. Behavior is often at the heart of why compliance issues arise, making skill-building an essential layer.

For example, in the finance industry, compliance training could include scenarios that reflect real-life situations where employees are tempted to cut corners. By incorporating these specific examples, employees can better understand the potential consequences of their actions and develop the necessary skills to make ethical decisions.

Similarly, compliance training for a retail company may include scenarios related to customer data privacy and security breaches, empowering employees to actively protect sensitive information and avoid potential legal ramifications.

As the team responsible for employee development, it's imperative that you focus on the most relevant areas and bring it to the employees' attention directly to address these behaviors head on. By focusing on behavior and providing relatable examples, compliance programs can mitigate risks and promote a culture of ethical and responsible behavior within an organization.

Tackling ethically ambiguous areas of compliance

But not every compliance training it cut and dry. Teaching employees how to navigate ethically ambiguous situations, however complex, is at the heart of impactful compliance training. When done right, these trainings can empower employees to make ethical decisions and prioritize inclusion and trust in their actions.

How can you incorporate these more ambiguous areas into your compliance training?

• Try case studies and real-life examples that can better illustrate the complexities of ethical decision-making. This allows employees to see the potential consequences of their actions and the impact it can have on others.
• Interactive and scenario-based compliance training can provide employees with a safe space to practice navigating these situations and receive feedback on their decisions.
• Emphasize the importance of speaking up and reporting any potential ethical violations, as well as providing employees with a clear and accessible reporting operating procedure within the training to refer back to and practice.

Addressing the harder, behavioral parts and the actions that brigs us to compliance training in the first place ensures that employees understand the significance of the training, while picking up the necessary skills to handle complex situations effectively.

Ultimately, incorporating personal experiences, offering behavioral insights, and addressing even the hard and ambiguous topics in your compliance training can help create a culture of accountability and ethical behavior within the organization that goes far beyond the compliance training room.

For more on the topic of creating the most engaging compliance training, be sure to check out L&D in 20 Episode 2: More than a checkbox: Unlocking value and professional growth through compliance training with Jennifer Dowdy of Emtrain