What is Compliance E-learning?
Compliance E-learning is employee training mandated by legislation, regulation or policy. It educates and trains the employees on the laws or regulations applicable to their job function or industry. Here are some popular compliance e-learning topics that are mandatorily conducted in organisations around the world:
•Anti-Harassment Training
•Workplace Safety (OSHA)
•Workplace Violence
•Workplace Substance Abuse
•Information Security Training (HIPAA)
•HR Law
•Diversity Training
Compliance e-learning as we all know has constantly been a challenge to the L&D teams and compliance enforcement teams of every organization. With a lengthy list of Do’s and Don’ts, training the employees on the compliance topic is always a challenge. Here are some other problems that affect compliance training
•The constantly changing business environment demands to update the compliance policies.
•The perception of learner towards compliance training has not changed much as they still consider it as boring and a waste of time, and irrelevant.
•Compliance training fails to engage the audience.
•Compliance training take the employees away from work for extended hours making the learner feel that the learning is forced and the compliance learning becomes just a tick the box exercise from then.
However, the biggest challenge is posed by the demands of the modern workforce who are connected 24*7 with the high speed networks for whom the information is just a few taps away. Hence, in this blog, let’s explore the ways to train the modern workforce on compliance training.
1. Enable on demand learning
With the increased penetration of mobile devices, high speed internet connectivity etc, the modern learners are always connected to their workplaces, social hangouts etc. Hence the compliance training for the modern workforce shouldn’t be restricted to a classroom training or a standalone compliance e-learning only.
I suggest to implement on demand learning for compliance training, a form of compliance e-learning which provides them with the information they seek and when they seek. On demand compliance learning must be made available on mobile devices across platforms. This allows employees to check information on the job, at their desk, on the road, out of the office as and where they need it. With the rise of mobile learning apps and LMS that allow offline course downloads, there is an increase in accessibility of the learning course and importantly there is no information overload as the information is not pushed to the learners. Instead, the learners are pulling the content at the time of need and requirement.
2. Engagement and interactivity holds the key
2.1 Introduce multimedia elements
I recommend to make the full use of multimedia elements while designing the compliance e-learning. Rather than following the regular design style, the designers should try experimenting with the multimedia and new design styles. Take a break from the old flat and heavy texts and plain white background that was a common visual element in every compliance e-learning. Make sure the chosen design style reflect the context in which the employees will use their training. For example, images that reflect the day to day working environment ensure the credibility of the information. High resolution images, bold colors and fonts, gradients etc can bring a delightful learning experience to the learners . Get more information on what are the e-learning design trends for 2019 here.
2.2 Gamification…gamification
Gamification of learning is a welcome solution to solve the danger of disengagement and passive learning in compliance learning provided it is used in the right way. Like gamification of learning can be used for immediate gratification as the modern workforce is tuned to enjoy instant success, rewards, and recognition.
With gamification of compliance learning, you also have the ability to set targets and challenges and reward the learners with points and badges for the correct actions. Another benefit of e-learning gamification is that it can blend with newer technologies like Augmented Reality etc to deliver more immersive learning experiences.
2.3 Scenarios and engaging storyline
E-learning scenarios wrapped in a good storyline is another favorite choice to deliver an immaculate compliance e-learning for the modern workforce. Stories and scenarios offer interpretations that give real meaning to the rules and regulations of compliance by showing how they’re applied in practice. If you’re looking to make scenario-based learning part of your compliance e-learning, here are few tips that are worth considering:
•Use realistic setting and stories for your compliance e-learning
•Use characters and objects that resembles what your audience might actually encounter in their work environment
•Branching scenarios are more preferred for compliance e-learning than traditional non branching ones.
3. Just in time support
If the Microsoft study is to believed, the average attention span of a learner is less than 10 seconds. According to the Udemy report, two-thirds of us spend an hour a day looking at our phones, and more than half can’t get through the day without looking at social media apps, which are the biggest attention stealers.
With compliance learning, it is very essential that learners retain and recollect the learning topic for long . For example, the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare sector are required to follow strict compliance guidelines. It is very essential for such organisations to ensure that employees are able to retain and recollect these compliance guidelines and apply them in day to day jobs. Hence to combat the short attention span of the modern learners, the organisation can implement microlearning . The short duration of the microlearning (generally less than 5 minutes) help the learner to keep their attention focused.
Organisations can also adopt the microlearning approach as PST or as reinforcement tool to support learning. Like after the completion of compliance e-learning or a traditional classroom compliance training, the organisations can use microlearning as a quick tool to create positive reinforcements and also to support spaced retention
4. Make your compliance learning personalized
Personalization gives learners a sense of control and hence motivation from the learning experience, which is most critical in any compliance e-learning. From the past many years, compliance learning in all forms were mostly focused on the ‘one size fits all approach.
Here are some popular ways to personalize compliance e-learning:
- Targeting compliance learning at people who do specific jobs increases relevance and helps learners understand how regulations apply to their work. For example, know your customer is important both for a teller or a back office person of a bank but the context for each of them differs.
- Another way of personalizing training is to provide individual learning paths and targets to employees. Rather than direct training at a whole cohort of employees, as in a classroom setting, allow learners to navigate their own way through the training.
- Branching scenarios are the ideal choice for creating a personalized learning experience.
If you are considering to implementing compliance learning for the modern workforce, make sure to try out these four tried and tested strategies. Feel free to share your suggestions and recommendations using the comment box below.
