Aside from their day-to-day responsibilities, employees need to be aware of the rules and regulations they must follow to carry out their job safely and effectively. Compliance training plays an essential role in this.
What is compliance training?
There are myriad company policies, regulations and legal requirements that affect an employee’s day-to-day role. They are generally aimed at making the workplace safer and protecting staff members.
Compliance training can ensure workers are aware of the policies they must follow and understand what is expected of them.
Modules are likely to cover areas such as The Data Protection Act 2018, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, health and safety, and safeguarding (if working with children). They are mandatory for employees, so completions need to be recorded by the business.
Why is it so important?
First and foremost, a good compliance training programme will teach workers how to do their jobs correctly and empower people to keep themselves and others safe in the work environment. This can have the effect of improving productivity and reducing the risk posed to the company.
The right training can ensure employees meet all legal requirements and do not subject themselves and/or the company to potential legal complications that could arise from contravening rules and regulations.
If compliance training is not done right, it can put the safety of workers on the line. In 2020, 121,165 data breach notifications were recorded across the 31 territories operating under GDPR.
This could lead to lawsuits, regulatory penalties, or increased insurance premiums, so it’s worth investing in an effective programme to ensure all external and internal policies and procedures are adhered to.
How can it be done effectively?
Compliance training can be viewed as boring by employees, so it’s important to ensure it is made as fun as possible.
E-learning platforms can break topics up into more manageable chunks than is possible through face-to-face learning and reduce the time demands for its completion. This has been taken to a new level by the EduCompli app from Browne Jacobson and E3, which offers gamified modules and competitive features like leaderboards to promote engagement among staff.
E-learning can also provide a clear structure to the training and help employees remember the content, which they may find more difficult in a classroom setting.
It’s also important to ensure the training is relevant to employees. If a staff member is expected to sit through lengthy face-to-face sessions that they do not feel apply to their day-to-day responsibilities, they are unlikely to retain the information and subsequently comply with it.
Asking for feedback is another way of helping you improve your compliance training programme. If the majority of feedback is indifferent or negative, it may be worth considering looking at your options to ensure the package you have put together is delivering what is needed.