From ??? to A-HA!!! Risk mitigation through training

We love training. Why? Because, done right, training and awareness can mitigate risk and change behaviour for good. But compliance training has gotten a bad reputation. All too often employees associate compliance training with a day in a stuffy room with an even stuffier attorney.
Companies spend massive amounts of money on training that probably won’t change any behaviour and that doesn’t have a measurable outcome. You end up having no idea whether employees will be able to use what they’ve learned. And isn’t that the point of training?
What can you do about this?

• Compliance training is no different to any other kind of training. Use the existing training platforms, methodology and facilitators to train employees to do their jobs. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Your facilitators should ideally not be attorneys, but professional facilitators – training is a science.
• Leave the legislation to the lawyers. Employees don’t need to know what legislation says, they need to know what the impact of legislation is on their job. Training should be focused on what an employee has to do differently. Ask yourself: How does this change the way in which my employees should do their jobs? If the answer is that it doesn’t, they don’t need the training. If you find yourself using the name of legislation or quoting from it, you are doing something wrong.
• Different strokes for different folks. All employees don’t need to know everything. Nothing will alienate an audience as quickly as irrelevant information. Your first step should always be to identify the different audiences within your business and to figure out how the compliance issue impacts their lives. Yes, that means you may need to tailor your training to meet the needs of different business units or departments in your organisation.
• Compliance training doesn’t have to be boring. While workshops work for some audience (egmanagement or training compliance officers), the sage on the stage method is not necessarily the most effective way to impart knowledge.
• Use the opportunity to demonstrate to the business that compliance doesn’t limit their ability to make money, but that it can make their lives easier. This means that you have to think about how you can improve business processes while you become compliant. No compliance for compliance’s sake!

So, how can you switch up your training?

• Try e-learning. Why? It is a brilliant way of delivering the relevant information to each individual. You can test whether the training has sunk in through interactive learning and tests. This enables you to measure whether your employees know what is expected of them.
• Think more like a marketer. Use all the communication channels available to you. We use websites, apps, videos, e-mail campaigns, social media, posters, videos, stickers, competitions and games – the sky is the limit.
• Have fun with it. Make your training memorable by making it edgy, witty, eye catching etc. Push the envelope.

 
Here is a taste of what we can do. There is no reason why you can’t do it too. If you are interested, contact us!