Can Compliance Training Impact Company Culture?
Are you an L&D professional tasked with the daunting prospect of creating compliance training for your company? Never fear, it doesn’t have to be as dull as it sounds! This article offers some tried and tested tips to take your compliance training to the next level. Compliance just got cool.
Why Bother? It’s Just Compliance
As tempting as it is to rush through the compliance training creation process to focus on more interesting soft skill projects, don’t do it. Here are a few reasons why you should crank up your compliance training:
Culture Is At The Core Of Everything
If, like mine, your company has a strong culture, you should consider creating a compliance training that reflects that. In this new era of remote working, a lot of us are missing our office, our colleagues, and just the culture in general. Create a sense of connection by capturing that company culture and voice in your training.
There Are No Second First Impressions
Do you remember your first week at your company? Let me guess, you had to sit through hours and hours of mind-numbing compliance videos, right? Give new starts the inside scoop from day one; showing them that even your compliance courses are personalized and innovative will let them know from the get-go what type of company they’re working for.
Happy People Are Learning Constantly
Creating an out-of-the-box compliance course that encompasses your company culture can also help boost morale and give a sense of unity in times when we all feel isolated. Make sure that employees get a taste of your company spirit in every training they take, even if it is compliance. Make your colleagues’ day and surprise them with a fun, interactive, and relevant compliance course.
Create, Engage, Repeat
Compliance training may not be popular, but it is essential for the business. Sending passive-aggressive emails might do the trick eventually, but wouldn’t it be great if employees actually looked forward to their next compliance training? Well, it’s possible! Try these tips:
- Storytelling is key
Creating a character allows you to use storytelling to bring boring topics to life. Whether it’s a superhero flamingo or a virtual assistant, use this character to humanize your training. Always make sure that this character fits with the brand and tone of the business. They can give tips, pop up with feedback, or be the hero in your compliance catastrophes, they’re your key to storytelling. - Create a communication strategy to pique interest before you even launch your training
Use corporate tools such as Workplace or Slack to share sneak peek trailers of upcoming compliance courses. Generate buzz and start conversations before your course even launches. Use video or image to attract attention, and if you have a willing CEO, have them do the voiceover and award points or badges for correctly identifying the voice. - Level up with a great gamification strategy
You’ve got your character, your comms strategy is on point, what’s next? Get 100% completion rates on your compliance courses by adding gamification to engage employees and get them to not simply complete the training, but to smash it! Try dividing training into levels and awarding badges, points, or certificates for successfully completing levels. Give out badges for the first employee to complete the course with 100%, and create compliance training leaderboards to really get people interested. - Pick a tone
Now that you have your character and your gamification strategy, it’s time to nail down the tone of voice and look and feel of your course. If you’re going for a superhero theme, for example, make sure your copy and visuals reflect this. - Don’t lose sight of your objective
Don’t get too caught up in the fun, at the core of any training is the learning goal. Constantly ask yourself if each piece of content contributes to the learning objective, if not, rethink it. - Keep it simple, stupid
Creative doesn’t mean complicated. Always prioritize clarity and clean user experience over gimmicks. Keep Call-To-Action buttons and navigation clear and simple, make sure your character adds value to the training content, and when in doubt leave it out.
Game Over
There may be more to life than compliance, but it’s a very real factor for businesses. When times are tough, an original, engaging, well-thought-out compliance course gives us a chance to reach our colleagues, cheer them up, and remind them of the culture that you both share. Just think, if that’s how innovative your compliance courses are, the sky’s the limit for your organization.