When you hear the phrase “compliance training,” odds are you immediately feel a rush of boredom. Perhaps you get visions of an all-day seminar and the sting of a costly bill for an instructor, a facility, and materials—even though employees will walk away having gained relatively little insight.
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Compliance training gets a bad rap because we perceive it as a mandatory, check-the-boxes variety of staff development. Employees go through the motions to pass a final exam and appease their higher-ups, but they rarely absorb corporate policies or learn how to apply them. It’s vital that employees receive proper compliance training, however, to ensure they don’t create legal problems for themselves or your company.
The biggest problem with compliance training is the way countless companies approach it. Instead of corralling your team into a conference room for hours on end, the power of the Internet can change the game entirely. Online compliance initiatives turn dull training on its head, and interactive online training resources make it more engaging and effective.
Furthermore, a fully featured learning management system gives you the ability to pinpoint gaps to enhance personalization while earning a return on your investment. With compliance training software, your employees will actually learn something without the need for a nap-worthy seminar.
Keep Compliance Training Simple with an LMS
A compliance training learning management system (LMS) can liven up the learning process while ensuring results. Despite this fact, many organizations are hesitant to implement online compliance training. Why? Some people aren’t sure that compliance training software is an improvement.
For example, I worked with one company that was worried its employees would not respond well to a structured online program. In truth, compliance training software gave this company the opportunity to develop entertaining online resources that team members can access anywhere at any time.
Furthermore, using an LMS improved this company’s ability to measure the effectiveness of its training—metrics that many organizations feel like they’re getting wrong. Instead of relying on surveys and printed exams, the software’s built-in analytics capabilities provide a far more accurate way to track initiatives.
The most important advantage of investing in LMS software for compliance training is the power it gives you to prevent costly violations. Failing to resolve these issues can also hinder workplace productivity, cause on-the-job accidents, and compromise safety. There’s also a higher likelihood that you’ll lose your top talent if team members lack the targeted training necessary to bridge gaps in skills or knowledge. A compliance training LMS plays a crucial role in finding and addressing these gaps to ensure you have an effective training program.
Using an LMS to Pinpoint Compliance Training Issues
So, how can compliance training software improve your program beyond enhancing the way you deliver lessons? You can tap into several ancillary learning management system benefits—such as the data these platforms collect—to evaluate your program and determine those areas for improvement. Here are five ways to make the most of your training software.
- Launch online compliance certification courses. An LMS allows you to develop and deploy customized online certification courses based on your organizational needs. Consider certifications that align with newly mandated laws, industry regulations, or company policies—this will ensure that you can pinpoint gaps based on employee participation and performance. For example, if a large portion of your team is unable to pass the online training course to receive Occupational Safety and Health Administration certificates, it might indicate other issues with your training strategy.
- Monitor metrics to pinpoint personal areas for improvement. Another area of concern is the progress and growth that individual employees achieve. By monitoring compliance training LMS metrics, you can quickly identify employee pain points that might be hindering this progress.
For instance, completion reports might reveal that your customer service team lead is not earning the required badges. This gives you the opportunity to work with those team members to determine what might be holding them back. Using LMS reports to figure out where employees are struggling gives you the ability to customize your training to address their individual needs.
- Develop qualitative assessments to test real-world application. An LMS also gives you the power to identify skills gaps that are symptomatic of more serious issues. It’s critical to address gaps in your compliance training program that are undermining on-the-job performance and leading to costly violations. The software allows you to test real-world performance using interactive qualitative assessments, including simulations, scenarios, and games.
- Gather survey data to gain an insider’s perspective. Audience participation goes a long way in identifying compliance training shortcomings. An LMS gives you the ability to gather, evaluate, and act upon survey data rapidly. You can collect insights from your employees about the aspects of your training that they consider problematic.
Do your metrics show dissatisfaction with the variety of support resources in your compliance just-in-time repository? Do users say that the level of interactivity and real-world application meets their expectations? Now you know exactly where to devote your time and resources.
- Analyze performance reports to identify common sticking points. A solid online training program can help you evaluate ongoing performance to detect patterns and trends. You can easily identify online training resources or modules with a high rate of failure or sticking points.
Let’s say your employees are taking longer than expected to complete a training module on conflicts of interest. The software’s charts might show you that a specific section slows them down or spurs them to travel down the wrong path. With this knowledge, you can figure out the cause of the struggle and find ways to improve related content.
LMS software not only pinpoints compliance training gaps, but it also gives you the tools you need in order to address them before they escalate into full-fledged violations. Sufficient training is essential to prevent employee turnover and mitigate on-the-job risks. The right LMS with advanced reporting, simulation/scenario integration, and certification support can finally end the notion that compliance training is boring or ineffective.
Christopher Pappas is the founder of eLearning Industry, the largest online community of eLearning professionals in the world. Pappas established the company as a safe online community for eLearning professionals and instructional designers to connect and share their knowledge. He holds an MBA and a Master of Education from Bowling Green State University. Connect with him on Twitter.