E-learning and LMS blog articles

Compliance training is a practice that any business needs to get 100% right as even the smallest mistakes can present serious problems. The consequences of non-compliance are significant, from hefty fines and legal penalties to unsafe working environments. So, businesses must create effective compliance programmes and avoid the common pitfalls that put them at risk of non-compliance. In this blog, we’ll discuss some of these common compliance training mistakes and how to avoid them.

Not focusing on the ‘why’

How do your employees view compliance training programmes? Do they simply see it as a tick-box exercise to help the business avoid regulatory action? If so, you need to make a change.

To get the best results from your compliance training programmes, you need to focus on the ‘why’. For example, a compliance training module on cybersecurity shouldn’t just inform employees on best practices for mitigating attacks, they should also outline the ‘why’. In this case, helping employees understand the aftermath of a cyber-attack. When employees have a better understanding of the consequences of non-compliance, they’re likely to be more engaged and motivated to complete training and apply acquired knowledge beyond the training process.

70% of corporate risk and compliance professionals say they have noticed a shift from ‘check-the-box’ compliance to a more strategic approach over the past two to three years. Now is the time to incorporate the ‘why’ into your strategy. Not sure how? Try incorporating scenario-based training content into your online compliance training courses.

Scenario-based e-learning lessons take real-life situations and place them in a virtual learning environment. Learners can work their way through the situation and using branching opportunities, any choices a learner makes will drive the overall outcome of the scenario. Any mistakes they make will demonstrate the risk of gaps in compliance training knowledge.

Want to find out more about this effective content type? Click here to read our guide to risk-free training.

Relying on one delivery method

Let’s face it, compliance training content is often dry so getting the delivery method right is crucial for boosting the effectiveness of your programme. However, all too often we see companies falling into the same trap of sticking to just one. Whether solely relying on lecture-style delivery or text-based e-learning courses, when a compliance programme is delivered using the same method you can expect low engagement and retention rates.

To capture your audience's attention, you need to deliver compliance training courses that utilise a mix of multimedia and interactive content. Think microlessons, gamification, audio clips, and podcasts. With the right e-learning platform and a well-thought-out content strategy, your compliance training courses can easily be diversified to yield the best results.

Just how effective is interactive content? Find out here.

Lack of continuous training

As many compliance regulations will update annually, with regulatory bodies conducting audits once a year, many businesses make the mistake of closing compliance gaps and completing mandatory training during a small window of time right before regulatory deadlines. Asking employees to complete compliance training in a short timeframe can be extremely disruptive, impacting their daily tasks and often leading to poor knowledge acquisition.

To combat this, 91% of companies plan to implement continuous compliance in the next five years. Breaking up a compliance training programme into multiple manageable segments that can be completed continuously is far more beneficial than cramming training into longer sessions over a short period of time.

Continuous compliance training mitigates the risk of information overload and provides an opportunity for employees to complete refresher courses throughout the year. As a result, retention rates are higher, keeping employees informed and safe.

Relying on manual processes

Are you taking advantage of today’s e-learning software and compliance training functionality and tools or are you still relying on outdated and inadequate manual processes to support your compliance training programmes? With 65% of compliance professionals advocating the use of technology to streamline and automate manual processes in order to help reduce the complexity and cost of risk in compliance, now is the time to move away from manual compliance management.

Automation played a key role in the compliance training success story of Hubken client, Arriva. To achieve a 99% compliance training completion rate, they took advantage of the automated workflows in their Totara Learn platform. Using the programme feature, they could fully automate compliance training processes by automating course assignments based on user profiles, allowing them to send out the correct course to the right individual and in the right language. With automated notifications they were able to send out reminder messages to those who hadn’t completed mandatory training along with messages to managers who could then follow up on why training hadn’t been completed.

Read their award-winning compliance training success story here to find out more.

Lack of analysis and feedback

A common compliance training mistake that can undermine the effectiveness of any programme is not focusing on analysis and feedback. Rather than simply asking employees to complete training and ‘tick the box’, you need to put measures in place to evaluate its effectiveness.

Try incorporating feedback sessions into your programme, this is an opportunity for managers to provide feedback on training progress, looking at areas such as assessment results or course completion and identify whether additional support is needed to help avoid non-compliance. This is also an opportunity for employees to provide their own feedback on the compliance training programme. By analysing this feedback and data gathered from progress reports, you can take appropriate action, making any relevant changes to ensure the programme aligns with compliance objectives and produces the best training outcomes.

Discover our award-winning compliance solutions

Ready to achieve compliance training excellence? We have the solutions and industry experts to help you do just that. Find out more by getting in touch today or explore our compliance training page to find out why we’re the ideal LMS partner for supporting your compliance needs.