Compliance training in a classroom setting is popular with compliance managers. And for good reason: compliance officers and employees can come together, interact, ask and answer questions directly and even undertake role plays and group work. However, with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and changing work practices, face-to-face training is, and looks likely to remain (at least for some time), challenging.
So what can you do to enable in-person compliance training to also work in a virtual setting?
Use a videoconferencing tool
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the trend of companies making video conferencing and chat tools such as Zoom, Teams, Skype or Slack available to all employees. As well as one-to-one interactions, most of these providers can be used for larger video conferences and therefore to undertake training. Just make sure the platform supports at least the number of participants that would normally attend a face-to-face training session.
Here are a few tips for delivering training via video conference (although most of the points apply to training more generally):
- Use screen-sharing to present PowerPoint slides or other media.
- Make the training content as relevant as possible to your audience by using real-life examples that the group, for example sales or purchasing staff, might face.
- Use real-life examples from the company or from the same industry where possible.
- Avoid too much text on slides.
- Work with images and graphics.
- Keep it as short as possible, without leaving out the essentials.
Make training interactive
We’ve all taken part in video conferences that seem never-ending. Short, interactive training sessions help participants to retain the content, increasing the effectiveness of training. Therefore, avoid long sessions of lecture-style training. Here are some tips to make compliance training more interactive, especially in a virtual format:
- Limit the length. The majority of participants switch off after 1.5 hours at the most. If necessary, divide the training up into several shorter sessions.
- As a trainer, try not to speak for more than 30 minutes at a time. Instead, keep asking the audience open questions such as:
- How would you act in this situation?
- Has anyone experienced something similar?
- Is there anything else that springs to mind when discussing this topic?
- Use in-app or other tools such as Mentimeter to polls your participants. The results can provide interesting talking points.
- Replace flipcharts and Post-its with digital tools. For example, you can use PowerPoint and share your screen to collect suggestions and ideas from the audience.
Enhance your training with blended learning
You could save yourself the effort of live training and simply roll out compliance training as an eLearning course. Experience has shown however that engagement and information retention is lower when this is the sole delivery method for training.
This is why the concept of “blended learning” is becoming ever more popular. Traditional face-to-face training (or in our case: virtual training) is supplemented, but not replaced, by digital learning tools.
In practice, blended learning for compliance training can take many forms:
- After the live training session, an online questionnaire can be sent to the participants to check their level of knowledge.
- In the run-up to the live training session, participants can complete eLearning modules. The live session can then be used for a deeper dive and Q&A.
- Using your compliance risk assessment, determine which topics need live training sessions and those for which an eLearning module is sufficient.
- Use microlearning activities such as infographics, mini quizzes and cheat sheets to reinforce messages on an ongoing basis.
Clearly eLearning may be the only viable option in certain scenarios, for example if you need to train tens of thousands of employees on the implications of a change in law by a specific date.
In terms of implementing eLearning, many companies have Learning Management Systems in place, usually managed by the human resources department. If you are simply looking to monitor the success of live training, surveys and tests can be easily created using tools such as Microsoft Forms, Google Forms or SurveyMonkey.
Record the training sessions and create a library
Being able to record live sessions is an advantage that virtual training has over the classroom setting. Most video conferencing tools offer this, and it has many benefits:
- Recordings can be made available on the intranet. The link can be sent to participants enabling them to review the content as well as to those who were unable to attend the session.
- Create a training library online. Existing and new employees can access training at any time and as part of any induction programme.
- Create “train the trainer” recordings. This allows you to roll out consistent training across the organisation.
- If necessary, you can simply record the presentation part of the session and stop recording for the interactive part.
Measure the success of your training
Like all aspects of the compliance programme, you should be monitoring the success of your training. Do not wait for a compliance incident to indicate whether your training was successful or not.
The most common method of checking whether compliance training is effective is for participants to do a short test following the training session. Doing it in this way means you can check whether the content conveyed has really been understood. Some tools even provide further detailed insights, for example how long it takes participants to answer certain questions.
By conducting a short survey, you can ask employees for their opinion on your compliance training (for example, was the content easy to understand? Is there a topic where more information is required?). Ideally after every virtual training session you would gather immediate feedback from the participants.
Conclusion
Clearly, the new normality presents challenges but done right, virtual training can be just as effective as classroom training. It is clear that companies do not need to cut back on their compliance training and even without normal classroom events, it is possible for trainers to convey relevant content clearly and efficiently.
