Compliance training usually feels like an unnecessary task. The top people in most organizations feel like it’s a waste of cash and a distraction from the profit-making activities. Meanwhile, employees see it as a pointless task that has nothing to do with their formal roles. In fact, the mere mention of “compliance training” is usually met with grumbling among most employees. That’s the unfortunate attitude that most companies and professionals have on this exercise.
With that said, you have to understand that compliance training is very crucial for your organization. It may be an extra expense, but its impact can never be understated.
What Is Compliance Training?
Compliance training is all about educating your employees on the policies they need to adhere to while executing their daily roles. It involves teaching both organizational and legal guidelines that apply to their specific roles and the industry at large.
At the organizational level, the exercise can cover anti-harassment (both general and sexual harassment ) and anti-violence policies.
Legally mandated programs may include HIPAA, which applies to different players in the healthcare industry like healthcare providers and clearinghouses, health plans, and business associates.
In general, compliance training usually covers confidentiality, code of conduct, health and safety, and conflict of interest.
How Is Compliance Training Important?
1. Reduces Risks
Compliance training reduces different risks and especially legal implications. It helps your employees know the boundaries of their specific roles when interacting with clients and other workers within the organization.
2. Increases Understanding Among Employees
Policies mean nothing if no one knows about them. The truth is a significant majority of employees never go through the legal jargon that comes with their contracts.
This program offers a much easier and effective way of making your employees understand your organization’s policies. As Easy Llama reports, the training doesn’t have to be boring. An interactive training session can compress all the paperwork into an easy-to-comprehend video and guide.
3. Creates A Productive And Safer Working Environment
Creating a safe and productive working space is a top priority for all businesses. This is precisely what the training aims to achieve. For instance, it takes your employees through sexual harassment policies and eliminates grey areas that can make the working environment unsafe for some people. Not only does this protect employees, but it also safeguards you against bad PR and legal issues.
4. Provides Proof Of Completion
Having proof that your employees have gone through the training is beneficial in many ways. The first and most obvious one is you’ll have met the state and federally mandated laws like the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA).
The proof may also help you secure low-premium insurance covers for your organization.
Other benefits of this training are:
- It boosts your company’s reputation
- It reduces absenteeism due to injuries and other issues
- It makes detection of violations easier
How To Make Your Compliance Training Effective
1. Make The Objectives Clear
The clearer the objectives, the easier it is to achieve your goals. Make sure your employees understand the whole point of the program beforehand. Take them through the importance and benefits of the training, so it doesn’t feel like another formality.
Also, people tend to respond better to programs when they understand their importance.
2. Cover The Relevant Issues
Compliance programs can be very broad. However, depending on your industry and the roles of your employees, some subjects may not be relevant. Take the time to come up with a guide covering only the policies that apply to your staff. You may also want to divide them into several groups if that’ll make it easier to achieve the set objectives. Alternatively, you can try e-learning which allows employees to learn different modules at different paces.
A relevant training program also ensures the participants do not lose interest in it.
3. Make The Program Engaging
The attitude on compliance programs is terrible among most professionals. Therefore, don’t make it worse by sitting them through several hours of a dull session. Otherwise, most of them will only attend the session because they have to and they’ll come out of it having learned close to nothing.
How do you make the training interesting? Start by cutting out or explaining the legal jargon with practical and real-life examples. E-learning can make the sessions more engaging. It’ll also give your staff flexibility while learning within a given deadline.
4. Ask For Feedback
Ask your employees to provide feedback on the training. Let them tell you how relevant the training was and what they would improve. If the program was done through e-learning, consider holding a meeting and address all the feedback you’ve received.
Compliance training is crucial for all organizations, and it doesn’t have to be as boring as most people perceive it to be. Breakaway from the papers and adopt a modern interactive procedure.
