Business mogul Warren Buffet once said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
Your employees have the ability to help build or potentially ruin your company’s reputation, yet many organizations treat compliance training as an afterthought: a box that needs to be checked or a poster hanging in the break room.
Turn Policy into Practice
Meaningful compliance training gives your employees the tools they need to support your reputation, not undermine it. It leaves your people with more than an understanding of the policy and supplies them with the skill set to put policy into practice. Ultimately, meaningful training helps them invest in protecting your company.
The best trainings allow employees to visualize themselves responding to real-world situations and walk away knowing how to meet the businesses’ expectations. This holds immense value, as organizations that invest in learning are nearly 20% more likely to lead in market share.
In 2016 alone, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charged nearly 100,000 cases and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration conducted more than 75,000 inspections. Federal regulations, coupled with industry and state-specific regulations, can make it difficult, if not impossible for companies to design their own custom compliance training. Moreover, keeping up with legislative changes requires the vigilance of a compliance industry pro.
How can you ensure your employees learn all they need to comply with specific company policies and the law in general? By customizing pre-built compliance training.
Here are three best practices when deciding what existing content to use and how to effectively tailor it to the needs of your workforce:
- Ensure the training you choose is representative of your brand. It’s no secret that some compliance trainings can be clunky and dated. If your company prides itself on cutting-edge technology and a growing workforce of millennials, look for newly developed or recently updated trainings. Additionally, if the majority of your learners will be taking training on something other than a desktop computer, be sure to offer mobile-friendly learning.
- Add your own policies and resources. All compliance trainings will offer broad suggestions based on best practices (like reaching out to HR to report harassment). Add company policies or relevant contact information to the course so learners know exactly what your company expects from them.
- Quiz over company specifics. Depending on your industry and business needs, unique scenarios may exist that necessitate checking employees’ understanding of the material. After providing the information in a specific policy or resource, have learners answer questions by taking an additional quiz.
Compliance training recognizes that your employees have a stake in the reputation of your company, and lets them know how they can support that reputation and avoid making a mistake that quickly can undermine it. Make sure your corporate compliance training is easily accessible; can be customized to suit your company, industry and state needs; and provides the opportunity for employees to demonstrate what they’ve learned.