The impact of traditional training methods in our evolving regulatory environment has revealed skills gaps. The traditional approach, while a solidified strategy among organizations, tends to be sporadic and fails to ensure long-term knowledge retention among employees, which can make maintaining compliance a challenge. This is where continuous training can come into play. Organizations must offer ongoing learning opportunities to enable employees to remain compliant and apply this knowledge in their role.
This approach can aid in keeping up with the constant changes in compliance regulations and may require creating a safe learning environment for employees to practice procedures without the fear of high-stakes mistakes. By creating continuous training moments, you can make a significant impact on your people’s behavior. This article will explore the role of continuous learning in the workplace, strategies to implementing these ongoing learning experiences, and lastly, common challenges to overcome.
The Role of Continuous Training in Compliance
Continuous training differs from traditional training modules because it doesn’t have a strict beginning or end. Rather, employees attend courses and participate in modules as the need arises, whether due to changing policies and roles or to demonstrate knowledge learned. In this way, continuous training can reinforce newfound information and help employees retain a deep level of understanding of industry and company specific processes and policies.
However, in contrast, traditional training can result in employees losing knowledge quickly after the stagnant training session, treating it more as a box to check rather than a valuable resource for reference. Compliance regulations are constantly changing, so organizations must provide a consistent and ongoing way for employees to stay up to date on the most current regulations and procedures. To help them practice workplace procedures, learning and development (L&D) leaders can create low-stakes environments. This can help ensure memory retention and lessen the chances for mistakes.
4 Keys to Implementing Continuous Training
If your organization doesn’t already offer continuous L&D, it may seem intimidating to implement. On the surface, it can look like it takes more time out of employees’ weeks than traditional training systems. However, once you find a routine with your employees, you’ll find the benefits are worth it. Some ways to help implement your new continuous training program can include:
1. Leveraging technology.
Many employee training methods leverage technology. For example, employees may use eLearning platforms to provide flexibility in learning. This way staff can learn on the go or during the workday. This could potentially increase the likelihood of more learners completing the course. In addition to mitigating accessibility barriers, online training formats allow leaders to easily track the progress of their employees and organization as a whole.
Best practices: Ensure any online training platforms are secured to the degree necessitated by local information regulation laws. With compliance training, sensitive internal documents around policy and procedures may be shared through these platforms, like employees’ personal identification information for tracking purposes. In addition to keeping organizational records secure, employees should always know how their data is being used within these platforms.
2. Gamification.
Gamification is an engaging training method that incorporates gaming elements into the learning content. Gamifying learning can introduce points, badges, leaderboards and more to provide instantaneous positive feedback to employees as they complete training. There are a lot of online apps that can be customized and implemented, such as Kahoot!, Quizlet and Centrical. Each of these platforms have features that make the learning experience more engaging and foster a sense of competition and achievement in individual and group environments.
Best practices: Strategically align rewards with key compliance objectives, offering badges for completing specific training modules or demonstrating compliance knowledge in practical scenarios. Gamification also presents opportunities for cross-department collaboration. Integrate tasks and questions that relate to how departments work together to achieve compliance goals.
3. Scenario-Based Training.
Training is most useful when it can be used in a real-world context. Using scenario-based training puts employees in situations where they would actually have to apply compliance knowledge and make decisions, testing and reinforcing the practical applications of their training. Managers can use scenarios that are directly relevant to their industry or business, such as specific examples of situations that have already been encountered, to make the training more impactful.
Best practices: After the scenario, managers should facilitate debrief sessions where employees can discuss their decision-making processes and learn from each other. This incorporates a peer-learning approach that deepens understanding and encourages collaborative problem-solving.
4. Feedback loops and continuous improvement.
Establish mechanisms for employees to provide feedback on the training sessions. This feedback can be used to continuously improve the training program, ensuring it evolves to meet the changing needs of the organization and remains engaging.
Best practices: Conduct anonymous surveys post training to gather insights into what worked well and what could be improved. Regularly update training content based on this feedback to address any emerging challenges head on. Regardless of feedback, switch up training processes to keep the content fresh.
Overcoming Common Challenges for Continuous L&D
Continuous training and development opportunities has their challenges, and knowing ahead of time how you want to address them will help keep the training relevant and engaging for employees.
Measuring effectiveness.
A common issue for training managers is answering the question: Is this working? Measuring effectiveness can come in many forms and often is influenced by the size and structure of the organization. A key indicator for measuring the effectiveness of compliance training will be changes in incident reporting over time, with less internal infraction reports indicating employees understand and comply with the regulatory policies of their position.
However, in the short term, using feedback mechanisms such as employee assessments can be helpful in gauging the impact of training and flagging where necessary adjustments can be made. A benefit of continuous training that leverages technology is that you can quickly make updates, and employees will be taught in a new, more engaging way quickly. To ensure more honest feedback, make the intake channels anonymous.
Misalignment with culture.
One of the most detrimental pitfalls to continuous training will be if the content of the training does not naturally align with the culture of the organization. While compliance training is critical, and often mandated, the content itself is also policy and regulations that govern the employees. If your organization suffers from a toxic culture where biases, retaliation and intimidation are used despite policies against it, compliance training, no matter how engaging, will not be taken seriously.
Fixing a toxic culture requires a multi-faceted approach. Sometimes, it is a top down issue and perpetuated by leaders. Other times, it is due to a lack of clear policy being instated. Before you can start to train and inform employees about expectations, you must determine where the gap is, and adjust accordingly. Continuous training will serve as a fruitful effort in reversing toxic organizational culture.
Wrapping Up
With regular, engaging and up-to-date training sessions, you can help employees retain crucial compliance knowledge and remain adaptable to ongoing changes. The benefits of continuous training can extend beyond compliance, and also work to foster a culture of ongoing learning and employee engagement, and can even serve as a useful tool in reversing toxic culture.
While the implementation of such a program may seem overwhelming, leveraging technology, scheduling regular updates and incorporating interactive elements can streamline the process and maximize its effectiveness. Ultimately, with continuous training you can help your people mitigate risks associated with non-compliance and empower them to confidently handle responsibilities, making it an invaluable asset for any organization committed to maintaining high standards of compliance.
