Let’s face it. No one EVER looks forward to compliance
training sessions. The reason people attend compliance training sessions is same
as the reason six-year-olds brush their teeth every morning. Because it’s
mandatory.
Compliance trainings are somewhat tricky to administer because
they are not about sharing information or teaching a new skill. Instead, compliance
training is usually about influencing employees to alter their behaviour
favourably. When it comes to topics such as anti-discrimination, anti-bribery,
business etiquette etc. the training needs to teach employees to behave in a
certain fashion, irrespective of their personal values or prejudices. And because
behaviour is always a choice, it becomes that much harder to bring about a
behavioural change.
Compliance trainings are viewed as an obligation
Because these trainings need to be repeated regularly
(usually annually) as mandated by law or company policy, attending these becomes
tiresome and extremely boring, especially for repeat attendees. As a result,
most employees tend to look at compliance training as an obligation or a
necessary evil, rather than a choice.
The lack of enthusiasm for compliance training is not
restricted just to the audience. On their part, instructional designers too
tend to invest relatively minimal efforts to design compliance training courses
because they are mandatory trainings delivered to a captive audience. There is
a tendency to stick to the basics and not think much about the user experience.
Over time, this becomes problematic because trainings become less impactful and
defeat their very purpose.
Instead, it would help to change the perspective and view
compliance trainings as a great opportunity to positively influence a captive
audience. With a little bit of effort, it is possible to make compliance
training both impactful and entertaining.
Upping the ‘fun and engagement’ quotient for compliance training
We were chatting with one of our customers on this topic and
she had some great insights. She suggested the use of gamification, video,
multimedia to make compliance training as engaging as possible. The key is to
make it relatable to the audience.
For instance, she talked about how she uses short, impactful
supplementary training sessions through the year to reinforce the lessons
learnt during a particular compliance training. She designs these supplementary
sessions in the form of contests, quizzes or ‘spin the wheel’ type games. Like
she rightly pointed out, it’s impossible for attendees to retain all aspects of
the session in one go, irrespective of how they perform in post-test
evaluations. Gamification can be a great tool to reinforce the lessons in an
interesting and fun way.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the impact of such efforts
is apparent. Far from taking a ‘let me get this over with’ approach, people
actually begin to enjoy the sessions. These sessions break the monotony of the
work day and give employees an opportunity to challenge themselves against
peers. They can compare their knowledge on the subject with that of peers in a
fun and competitive way. Wrong answers help them learn too.
Even if the subject of training is slightly sensitive (such
as anti-discrimination), there are several ways to make it engaging. For
instance, presenting information in the form of a book you can flip through can
be an interesting change. Using simulations and what-if scenarios to engage the
trainees can also help in better recall when it comes to sensitive topics.
Apart from the gamification aspect, a good compliance
training session needs to have these four Rs. It needs to be:
- Relevant to the subject matter
- Relatable to the participants
- Repeatable to engage the audience for multiple sessions
- Must have Recordable results
For instructional designers, the fact that there is a
captive audience that is bound to attend the training is a good problem to have.
Making it impactful, engaging and interesting can create a positive experience
for both the course designers as well as attendees. There are many solutions
available in the market that could help you build interesting interactivities. Raptivity by Harbinger is one such tool that is
widely recognized for its variety of templates that could help increase the fun
quotient of your compliance training modules; and eLearning modules in general.
Do drop in some ideas on how compliance trainings are made
fun at your workplace.
