3 examples of compliance training challenges (and what you can do about them)

A lot of people dislike regulatory compliance training, but it’s a reality that every business must deal with. Often, it’s even mandated by law. Instead of just checking the box and getting it over with, here are actionable suggestions for improving your compliance training for three of the most common topics.

1. Workplace safety training

Safety training is one of the most common things you’ll see in a compliance training program. For anyone who works in a safety-sensitive role or operates dangerous equipment, your internal safety and compliance team might require safety-specific training. In a retail or warehouse environment, for instance, employees might need to know how to safely lift heavy equipment on the job floor. A lot of companies just frontload the content and deliver it during onboarding. Then they wonder why someone makes a bad decision and an unfortunate incident happens 6 months later.

How to improve your safety training 

Reinforcement training is key here. You may be required to deliver a specific safety course or a certain amount of training time by a regulator, but that doesn’t mean it’s all you can do. Use reinforcement to ensure that key points stick and people know how to apply what they learned to create a safer workplace. 

Reinforcement is a key component of Axonify, as daily lessons are designed to revisit key information in spaced intervals. This is in accordance with proven brain science, as we know that spaced learning is highly effective for long-term retention. When it comes to safety, retention is absolutely essential. 

2. Anti-harassment training

You might have specifically mandated harassment training requirements depending on your state or region. This type of training typically covers acceptable workplace conduct, sometimes limited to overt harassment but sometimes encompassing broader ideas like workplace sensitivity, equity and microaggressions. 

How to improve your harassment training

Microlearning principles are essential for harassment training. Different regions, states, and municipalities require different training topics. Microlearning allows you to build modules focused on specific anti-harassment concepts and then push the right content to the right audiences based on regional requirements and company policies. Reinforcement then helps you go beyond checking the box once per year to actually changing behaviors.

Axonify delivers training in just 3 to 5 minutes per day, and each lesson is focused on a single learning objective. This allows you to reinforce the right workplace behaviors well after initial training.

When developing your training modules, use scenarios to challenge people to make the right decision as bystanders to potential harassment behavior. In general, if someone is going to harass someone, reinforcement training isn’t going to stop them, so you can’t approach this training simply from the standpoint of “how not to harass people.” Bystander-based training scenarios can empower your team to hold one another accountable and look out for each other. Deliver these practice opportunities throughout the year via online training instead of waiting for an annual refresher. 

3. Anti-money-laundering  

AML training is a type of risk assessment training designed to inform employees (especially in financial industries but often in retail) on what money laundering looks like, how to identify common money laundering schemes, the consequences of money laundering, the processes for handling suspected money laundering and related concepts. 

This compliance training example may seem niche on the surface, but it’s a topic that’s incredibly relevant for those who are near the financial pieces of a business. For the employer, this is often a regulatory requirement as well as a means of helping employees to make good decisions and mitigate risk to the organization.

How to improve your AML training 

It’s important to provide lots of on-demand resources to help people make decisions that mitigate risk. An employee may take this type of training during onboarding and revisit it once per year, but in between, they may go months at a time without having to make a related decision. 

Provide checklists and guides for the moments that may introduce risk so people don’t have to try to remember all of the rules or guess their way through it. Axonify’s platform is especially effective when it comes to financial service training since it offers embedded lists, infographics and other helpful resources directly within the training system. This way, employees can easily use their mobile devices to access helpful guides on the fly.  

The recommendations from the previous two training examples are applicable here as well. For instance, you can use microlearning to assign just the pieces that matter to the right employees, and use reinforcement and scenarios to practice and keep information top-of-mind.

How to execute compliance training effectively 

Yes, compliance training can be a hassle, but it’s not just about checking boxes. It’s about helping people make good decisions to keep themselves safe and the business risk-free. By improving your compliance training, you help to improve your company as a whole. 

So whether you’re training on physical safety, workplace sensitivity, business ethics or any other aspect of compliance, be sure to review and consider these best practices. A better-trained team is a more compliant team.