2 Top Tips To Make Compliance Training Fun Through Gamification

2 Top Tips To Make Compliance Training Fun Through Gamification
Summary: Each year you can hear the cries of thousands of employees saying: “Oh, no, please tell me it isn’t time to do that boring compliance training again!” What’s an Instructional Designer to do when it comes to building more compliance training? We all know that no one likes to take it; but it has to be done. So how do we design compliance training that employees actually want to take? We think outside the box and gamify it.

How To Make Compliance Training Fun Through Gamification

I work in a highly regulated industry and we have a lot of compliance training programs as a result. There are several topics we have to cover annually and it is always a challenge to create something that our employees are going to want to actually complete. I have achieved that by gamifying elements in each of these programs; training was created so that people can remember things much easier. So how did I do it?

1st Tip: Create an Investigation.

For one of our yearly compliance topics, an “incident” was created that needed to be investigated. The needed material was taught to the employees as they conducted their investigations.

To help employees feel like they were really participating in an investigation, I had them enter their names and called the resulting variable “Name”. This variable was used throughout the program to hold conversations between the lead investigator and the employees, as shown here:

use of student's name and investigation figure

Employees used a map during their investigations to move around and uncover each piece of needed information. A small icon of the map was placed on every page, so they could always go back to the main menu screen at any time.

map page How To Make Compliance Training Fun Through Gamification

To further create the perception that the employees were inside the investigation, in one section I used a drag and drop question to create the illusion of the employee swiping a badge to enter the building. This is something we have to do on a daily basis and it is familiar to them. Custom backgrounds were created in PowerPoint for each section of the program; such as the building background shown here:

hot spot question page How To Make Compliance Training Fun Through Gamification

In another section of the program, the employees needed to investigate the scene of a luncheon held at an off-site restaurant. They conducted the investigation by clicking on various items on the screen. I was able to include some fun “Easter Eggs” on this screen by having the juke box play music when clicked. If they clicked on the window, they saw a picture of our corporate headquarters as seen through the window. As you can see below, I had a little fun with them if they clicked on the steak dinner:

restaurant page How To Make Compliance Training Fun Through Gamification

One last fun element that was included in the program was interviews with fellow employees. Videos were inserted to make it look like the employees were remembering incidents that happened while being interviewed.

use of video for remembering sequences How To Make Compliance Training Fun Through Gamification

Employees kept track of all of the security violations they uncovered during their investigations on note pages that were provided to them at the start of the program. They were then provided a list to compare against at the end of the program, to ensure they understood all of the issues that were presented.

2nd Tip: Create a Board Game.

For another annual training program, I created a custom board game. Employees selected their game piece and then made their way around the board by answering questions based upon the laws they needed to comply with.
A basic game board shape was customized using bright colors that matched the game pieces.

game board2 How To Make Compliance Training Fun Through Gamification

Once an employee clicks the “Click to Roll Dice” button, their piece automatically moves the number of spaces shown on the dice. It also moves the piece automatically if they land on a “Skip Ahead” or a “Go Back” space. I used a series of simple “Move To” actions to create this automatic moving of the game piece around the board.

If the employee lands on a “Draw a Card” space, they will click the “Click to Draw a Card” button and be shown a question to answer. Once they answer the question and press the “Process Question” button, they are shown the reverse side of the card and the reason why one has to comply with that part of the law. Their score is then adjusted according to whether or not they have answered the question correctly and displayed on the screen at that time.

Employees complete two levels of the game, by going around the board twice and then take a standard test to complete the training.

game board with card turned up How To Make Compliance Training Fun Through Gamification

Both of these programs have been well received by our trainees and have added a bit of fun to what would normally be “hated” compliance training. So, just remember, the next time you are given an assignment to create a compliance program, try to think outside the box and add in some gamification where you can, so that people say “Compliance Training? Let me at it!”.