Employees ignore your compliance training—here’s why

For HR and L&D teams, compliance training is one more thing to get done—but if employees are skipping it, delaying it, or just clicking through without engaging, it creates more work for everyone.

Employees aren’t ignoring compliance training because they don’t care. They’re ignoring it because it doesn’t feel relevant, engaging, or flexible enough to fit into their work. According to our research, the top challenge L&D and compliance leaders in the US face with compliance training is employee engagement. And we’d bet that’s true in other parts of the world too.
Let’s break down the two most common compliance training roadblocks—and how to fix them.

Trainings feel irrelevant against day to day work

Employees disengage when training doesn’t connect to their day-to-day work. According to Gallup, only 11% of employees—not even a quarter—would strongly agree their coworkers apply what they learn through compliance training. When training is too generic, employees struggle to see why it matters to them, making it easy to ignore. A one-size-fits-all approach often means employees sit through content that has little to do with their role, making the experience feel like a waste of time rather than a valuable learning opportunity.

One way you can fix this

To keep employees engaged, compliance training should be tailored to their specific responsibilities as much as you can. A data security module for an IT team should look entirely different from one for customer service. 

But if that’s not an option due to time, team size, or budget, try tailoring your training to your company at the very least. For example, if you’re a remote-first organization, be sure to spend more time on cybersecurity over physical security. Real-world examples that mirror actual work experiences make training feel more practical and applicable.

It will also help them see how these safety measures can directly impact their roles and day-to-day decisions.

Employees forget or tune out the due date

When compliance training is just another mandated requirement, employees may tune it out all together. They figure that someone will chase them as a reminder. And even those who do care about following company policies may be frustrated if training is rigidly scheduled, must be completed in one sitting, or lacks reminders. They just keep telling themselves they’ll get to it, but never do.

When employees are given little choice in how or when they complete training, it can lead to resistance, procrastination, or rushing through the material without actually learning anything.

One way you can fix this

Giving employees more autonomy over their training experience can significantly increase engagement. Self-paced learning allows employees to complete training at a time that works best for them, rather than interrupting their workflow with inconvenient deadlines. Offering multiple formats and allowing for pauses also makes training more accessible. 

And to save yourself the chase, set automated reminders for those who aren’t on your completion lists!

A real success story: How GT's Living Foods 3x their engagement with Go1

GT’s Living Foods transformed compliance training by making it more accessible and proactive. The result? Active learners (those that are engaged in a set timeframe) tripled to over 300 employees. Instead of chasing employees down to complete training, the L&D team created a culture where learning happens naturally—beyond just the required courses. Read more about how they did it → 

Find your success story with Go1

With the right approach, compliance training gets done faster, engages employees more, and requires less admin. Go1 helps HR and L&D teams curate engaging, relevant, and flexible compliance training—without the extra workload.

Want to make compliance training something employees complete on the first send? Let’s get you closer to that goal. Speak to our team today!