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7 reasons why employees dislike compliance training – and how to fix it

why employees dislike compliance training

Why employees dislike compliance training. Something HR managers and their teams often bring up in conversations about their compliance training programs is how these programs have earned a reputation among employees for being boring, unrelatable, or too time-consuming.

If you’ve had trouble getting employees interested in compliance training, here are nine ideas for creating a training program your employees look forward to and enjoy.

1. Compliance training isn’t engaging or interesting

One of the main reasons employees dislike compliance training is that it tends to use the same teaching methods that have been around forever. So if engagement levels are low at your business, it could be time for a training refresh.

How to fix it: If your employees think compliance training is boring, adding variety to the content could make it more interesting. As educators and compliance training experts, we’ve helped companies find success by using a wider range of teaching and learning approaches, such as videos, simulations, games, and other interactive content that enhances the learning experience.

2. Compliance training takes too much time

Courses that require learners to stay focused for long periods of time could be doing your employees and company a big disservice. Not only do longer lessons add strain to an employee’s busy day, but research also shows that learners stop retaining hard skills like compliance after 15 minutes.

How to fix it: Microlearning is a great solution! Instead of guiding learners through a series of compliance concepts in a single course, shake up your current training program by creating shorter, bite-sized lessons that enable learners to focus on learning one topic at a time so they can learn and retain the information better.

3. The training is irrelevant

A one-size-fits-all approach to training can confuse employees, who may not find the content relatable to their work or the compliance problems they encounter on a daily basis. If your training doesn’t speak to the current issues employees are facing, they can lose interest quickly, making it difficult for compliance skills to stick.

How to fix it: Your compliance training program should address the unique challenges of your organization and industry. The best way to achieve this is to provide learners with scenarios they’re familiar with, so they can relate with the content better, and see how their decisions have an impact.

4. Training isn’t flexible

If compliance training is only available on the company computer or through in-person training sessions, it can make training more difficult for employees to finish. It can also limit the number of employees that can be trained at once, making it harder for HR managers and their teams to check compliance training off the list.

How to fix it: Giving your employees more ways to do compliance training – whether that’s at work, at home, on a mobile device or computer – makes them more likely to complete their training and learn compliance concepts at their own pace.

5. Employees don’t find compliance training important

It can be tough to get employees excited about compliance training because they sometimes view it as a business necessity instead of a way to protect themselves, their jobs and the business. If employee resistance to compliance training is a problem, filling that gap could help solve it.

How to fix it: Helping your employees understand why compliance training is important is critical to a program’s success. This is why it’s always a good idea to include information about the consequences of non-compliance employees can relate to, and how a simple violation could affect everyone in the organization.

6. The training feels repetitive

Do employees complain that training feels repetitive? If so, it could be causing employee fatigue, which is one of the major barriers to learning new skills and information. While some repetition is important to help learners acquire and use compliance skills, it can also work against you if there’s too much.

How to fix it: Repetition can be a valuable teaching tool, but it can make training more difficult if repeated concepts aren’t spaced out appropriately. The best way to reach learners and instill knowledge is to teach related concepts using a spacing effect, which helps expose learners to information over longer periods to improve retention.

7. Employees have a hard time remembering the information

Providing your employees with training may not be enough for them to remember the skills they learned and apply them at work. If your program doesn’t currently include a strategy for reinforcing key skills taught during training, there’s a good chance employees could forget most of what they learned.

How to fix it: To help compliance knowledge stick with employees, create follow-up activities that reinforce their learning after training is completed. Ideally, your business could provide employees with short refresher courses throughout the year to ensure the information stays top of mind and compliance skills are never lost.

While there are a few challenges HR managers to making compliance training more enjoyable for employees, overcoming them isn’t difficult. The important thing is to ensure employees have a baseline knowledge of compliance and feel confident in their ability to adapt when issues come up.

To learn more about how you can create a compliance training program that works best for your employees and organization, book a free demo with Fit2Trade. Our teaching experts know how to help you make the most of training and get your staff excited about learning.

Written by Christian Willis from Fit2Trade

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