Compliance Training Can Take a Page from Classroom Learning

Annual compliance training used to be conducted by sitting down at a desktop with a series of hour-long courses that you had to complete all in one sitting. 

But through studies and research, we have found that this is actually an inefficient way to truly learn much of anything.

So, what is the solution? Making training like a classroom.

According to German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, when studying something new to a learner, most of that information is lost within the first day of learning it.

Recall that in grade school lessons were taught in the classroom and then reinforced again with homework that evening. Often teachers would also use Mnemonic devices to help students remember details, like "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" to recall order of operations in math class, for example.

The same approach should be taken with compliance training.

Some suggestions for the best way to implement such an approach? Use a corporate compliance event, like the one available in the TRACE Compliance Event Toolkit, as a means to also complete compliance training.

Compliance should, ideally, be completed in short intervals, with spaced, repetitive reinforcement. By using a dedicated day (or two!) to speak to compliance, you can allow users to:

• Complete a short training

• Speak to colleagues about what they learned in an office-wide or department-wide discussion

• Discuss learning objectives by developing a Mnemonic device that the whole office can help create and vote on together, then display around the office space

• Complete activities in-person, or through conferencing calling applications to ensure maximum attendance

By working throughout the day to reinforce learning, with short breaks included, the entire office audience should be more focused, retaining more of what was taught, and ensuring higher overall completion by requiring each employee to participate. 

So start thinking back to your classroom days, and get started!

Blaise Stanicic

Associate Director, Compliance Training, TRACE