How to Establish Effective Compliance Training
Hopefully, by now most businesses know how critical enforcing compliance laws is to maintain a high reputation and positive relationship with your local community.
However, it’s when you start to consider implementing these learning sessions that things can start to get muddy. After all, how can we ensure that our employees digest the information and apply it each day?
Of course, there is no way to entirely guarantee this. There is always a chance that someone will doze off or simply not want to engage with the content.
However, here are some tips for presentation and instruction that can help you create a successful curriculum.
Location is (Almost) Everything
This might be a fairly basic principle for presenting, but it’s one we often forget. Make sure you don’t go to the regular conference room for an instruction session on a topic like this. You see, if you do, it will reinforce the perception that this is simply a routine meeting. Unfortunately, this could lead to less people taking it seriously or even higher levels of slacking off.
The goal here is to stop that from happening. Consider changing up the routine and opting for a room you rarely use. You could even take it a step further and schedule it at a location of your office property. Some people opt for virtual sessions, too.
Any way that you can shake things up and impart the message that this is important to pay attention to is a good thing. So, when you’re planning it out, just think about where to host it and try to select somewhere ideal for this purpose!
Plan Activities – Get Your Audience Engaged!
This seems cheesy, but it’s a surprisingly effective way to get people to remember the information you present. One of my favorite methods is to incorporate icebreakers. There is a variety out there, so pick what suits your style!
Consider activities that don’t make anyone feel pressured or ostracized. They are meant to be a simple way to introduce everyone to each other and make them feel comfortable in the environment, not to do the opposite. So, consider asking what people prefer or see if there are any games your employees hate in specific.
This does include if you go for virtual compliance trainings, as a meeting over certain video platforms still allows for discussion. Going around and taking turns sharing is one way to do it in this sort of environment. Just try to prioritize comfort for your audience.
Now, as you go through the material, you want to keep those levels of interest high. How can we do this? Well, keeping your presentation interactive is one way that I have found works quite well. Asking questions and providing small incentives for correct answers is a great strategy – even if it’s as simple as a piece of candy, there’s a high chance people will get excited about it.
As a final note here, make sure the actual slides are attention-grabbing and visually stimulating. Don’t overload with information. I would say a good rule of thumb is to have no more than three bullet points on each slide so that employees don’t have to read too much. Instead, provide the information as you speak.
Including images and graphics can also help. Just ensure that you can keep your inflection up the entire time and utilize a variety of techniques to keep your energy high throughout the training session!
Impart Your Values
Make sure you inform your audience of why you are going over this material. Tell them how it reflects the qualities and values you want your company to embody. Remind them that an effective way to boost sales is by creating a good reputation for your brand.
After all, customer and brand loyalty are something to focus on for any organization, be it a small or large one. We want free word-of-mouth advertising that can come from customers who enjoy our products.
Having a poor compliance plan can compromise your public image. This means it can impact the reputation of anyone working there as well, so it might not be a bad idea to remind them of that as well.
Each person plays a part in adhering to laws and regulations regarding compliance. You might link them to a page like this one, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/OMB/circulars/a133_compliance/2013/pt4int.pdf, to provide concrete examples.
The main thing to remember is that you should not skimp out when it comes to educating workers on these topics. It’s important both on a human level and for risk management for your company.
You don’t want to risk any incidents occurring between coworkers or a potential lawsuit that gets leaked to the public and can tarnish your brand image forever. Better safe than sorry, that’s for sure!
