Keeping Pace with the Rapid Nature of Compliance

For far too many companies today, compliance amounts to little more than an expensive process of checking off boxes, with the overall goal of avoiding large fines. That’s in part because many leaders continue to view compliance as an overpriced, albeit essential, insurance policy: protection against worst-case scenarios. And so they continue to buy off-the-shelf training solutions that merely plug leaks without actually delivering any kind of strategic value or long-term return on investment.

That’s a big mistake, and it isn’t hard to see the reasons why. After all, in today’s rapidly changing business landscape, what about when employers suddenly find they need to mend skills gaps? What about when new regulations get introduced, or when new hires must get up to speed — fast— in order to contribute in a vital role?

It’s clear that any company that takes a “compliance for compliance’s sake” approach will be at a decided competitive disadvantage over the long run. But even companies that want to change often have difficulty doing so. Here are three of the most common obstacles standing in the way of best-in-class compliance programs.

Compliance is More than Classroom Training

Organizations that restrict their thinking about compliance to the narrow confines of classroom training are missing out on opportunities to create value and drive business outcomes. But, even worse, they’re likely also thinking about compliance, broadly speaking, through a far-too-narrow lens. After all, healthcare compliance isn’t only about HIPAA, nor is corporate compliance only about ethics. What about all the other compliance requirements that invariably pertain to the products or services that these organizations offer? What’s their strategy?

Classroom-based learning solutions, which often culminate in a 10-question quiz, cost organizations money, yet compensate them very little in the way of substantive knowledge gained by employees—the kind of knowledge that can be built upon to improve performance going forward.

That’s part of the reason that, today, learning technology is increasingly shifting toward curated learning experiences, with an emphasis on bite-sized, self-directed discovery and collaboration. Compliance, in this context, is not so much divorced from learning technology, but rather becomes more closely embedded within the core processes and culture of the organization itself.

Lack of Alignment between Learning & Development  and Business Leads

Learning & Development (L&D) professionals are the soup-to-nuts experts when it comes to the learning ecosystem: They know the tools—like learning management systems—that are available on the marketplace, the problems that these tools address, and the best ways to deploy them. Unfortunately, because these pros are beholden to goals that are often defined by business leadership, that expertise doesn’t always get optimal usage.

That’s risky. Consider that, in EY’s 2016 Global Fraud Survey of nearly 3,000 executives, 42 percent said they could justify unethical behavior in order to meet financial targets. So subverting L&D input when developing compliance training programs could cause more problems than it solves.

Undeniably, however, the sheer number of stakeholders involved is an endemic issue, especially for larger organizations, when it comes to compliance-related initiatives. Risk and subject matter experts, technologist, IT teams and leaders, HR teams, managers at nearly every level, not to mention L&D professionals and classroom trainers — as you can see, the number of stakeholders quickly gets untenable.

Nonetheless, to realize the maximum benefit from compliance programs, business leadership will need to work collaboratively and consultatively with L&D partners, while also engaging with a large number of downstream stakeholders.

A Good Strategy — But Too Many Technology Gaps

Having the right strategy in place, together with the right intelligence to act on, should be the first step in developing your best-in-class compliance roadmap. But, to fit together all of the pieces of the puzzle, you need to realistically appraise your technology. The question is: Do you have the technology and systems you need to actually execute on your strategy?

If you do, congratulations — and if not, that’s fine, too. There are a number of providers and solutions on the marke, but you’ll want to select a long-term partner that can support you across all stages of the transition from your “as-is” to “best-in-class” state.

What are some of the features you should look for in implementing a best-in-class compliance learning solution?

• Customizable workflows: increases visibility and keeps everyone on task and on the same page
• Interactive, mobile-enabled training modules: support the creation of targeted, impactful experiences and easily combine custom, licensed and curated content
• Robust analytics and a strong reporting framework: makes it easy to track data surrounding courses, classes, curriculum and learning histories, and assign training
• Automated processes and tools: supports development of more training invitations, evaluations and certifications and ensures the certainty of your learning data in environments where ‘certainty’ is a regulatory or legal requirement

It’s Time to Sunset “Window Dressing” Compliance Programs

Tired of wasting employees’ time having them check-off meaningless boxes? Want to turn your compliance program into a forward-thinking source of business value?

To make an impact, compliance training needs to be relevant, timely and optimized to deliver the maximum value to different audiences. And with a robust learning platform in place, that’s possible to achieve, too. Indeed, organizations can realize a host of broad-based improvements, ranging from higher engagement to the ability to drive cultural change and more.

If you’re looking to transform the way your organization approaches compliance — and shift the strategy from learning to performance — learn how Conduent can help today.