In today’s modern workplace, it has become crucial for every organization and company to regularly organize compliance training programs for all employees. However, a lot of employers tend to shy away from such programs because they cost a lot and eat into ‘productive work hours’.
A great way to make compliance training seem more like a profitable venture and less than a complete waste of time is to create a comprehensive strategy.
In this article, you will learn everything you need to know about compliance training, from definition to the tips you need for learning how to develop a training program.
What Is Corporate Compliance Training?
The compliance plan definition is a simple one. It refers to how employees within an organization learn about the relevant regulations, laws and company policies that impact their overall work experience.
For this kind of training, it is important to have an actionable plan to ensure that employees get an in depth education that aligns with the organization’s goals. But how exactly do you do that? Read on to find out.
How to Draft a Plan for Corporate Compliance Training
If you’re trying to develop a strategic plan for a compliance training program, here are some methodical tips you may find useful:
Read the regulations
Before a compliance training program can be carried out, it’s important to thoroughly read its regulations and define what they mean. In this case, ‘regulations’ entail all the relevant rules, procedures, standards and company policies.
The essence of this step is to get a clearer view of the exact requirements mentioned in regulations. What part of employees is required by industry standards to take this training? Why do they need to take it?
You should be able to answer these questions when reading the regulations and policies. Once you have done this, you can then go onto the next step.
Pro Tip: Many organizations may experience a little difficulty in correctly defining and interpreting policies and guidance. If this is the case, you could hire a legal or industry expert to clear any ambiguities.
Conduct a comprehensive needs assessment
After interpreting relevant regulations, the next step to take is to conduct a compliance needs assessment. It will help you identify problematic areas and priorities.
At this stage, you should gather and analyze data in order to find any training needs that should be addressed in the program. Consider the latest industry trends and regulatory changes and compare them to your organization’s current abilities.
Are there any knowledge gaps or inadequacies that should be addressed in the compliance training? Find this out and then account for it in the compliance training strategy.
Gather relevant company data
It is important to gather information about your organization and assess it to see if there have been any significant changes since the last compliance training. However, the type of information you need to gather mainly depends on the industry or the organization in question. If your organization is in the service providing industry, you might need to gather information on any customer complaints or lawsuits directed against the company as a result of employee misconduct.
After collecting the relevant data, you should go on to identify any patterns that signify a problem area or training needs. For instance, if there’s a trend of customer complaints about harassment from employees, that is the area you may need to look into.
Assign roles and make decisions
Based on the data and information gathered in the first three sections listed above, you can now go on to rank training needs in order of priority and then highlight the job roles that require targeted compliance training.
Once this has been done, the organization can now move forward to organize the compliance training program.
Remember to track and measure the success of training by using KPIs, such as employee performance reports or customer feedback.
What Elements Should A Compliance Training Program Include?
At a minimum, an effective compliance program includes four core requirements which include the following:
Written policies
Every organization should have written policies that outline compliance expectations. These policies should be clear and free of ambiguity to avoid any misinterpretation from employees.
The compliance policies should be approved by the organization’s governing body and compressed into a single document to enhance readability.
Pro Tip: To enhance the effectiveness of these policies, they should be readily available to all employees and not just members of the board.
Non-Retaliation and Non-Intimidation
More often than not, employees tend to shy away from compliance programs because they fear that they may lose their jobs when they report potential issues within a company. As such, the compliance officer should ensure that employees are not subjected to retaliatory or intimidation tactics.
Investigations
When confronted with a compliance issue, it’s important to respond quickly. Qualified individuals within the organization should perform thorough investigations to get to the root of the matter and then take corrective actions.
Disciplinary policies
There should be clear disciplinary policies for employees who have engaged in unethical actions. However, to promote impartiality, these policies should cut across all levels, including board members.
Final Thoughts
A compliance training program is crucial to the success of any organization or establishment. As such, it is important to draft and execute a strategy that delivers the best training possible and ensures optimal progress
Author’s Bio
Amanda Dudley is a seasoned writer and lecturer with a Ph.D in History from Stanford University. Since 2001, she has pursued a fulfilling career in lecturing and education. Amanda also writes for EssayUSA, a leading college essay writing service where she delivers high-quality academic papers and dissertations.
