What is compliance training, and why is it important?
Did you know that only 29% of businesses assess compliance proficiencies and staff skills on a continuous basis?
Compliance training is a process by which organizations ensure that employees understand and follow the policies and procedures of the organization as well as the presiding laws.
Setting up a compliance training program is critical for businesses, not only because it ensures that employees are all working toward the same goals, but it can prevent your company from accruing legal fees and penalties.
By providing information about what the rules are, why the rules exist, and how to follow those rules, compliance training aims to reduce the risk of non-compliance within an organization. Essentially, it is like an insurance policy. It is not only good for organizations but also for employees.
Keep reading to find out some common examples of compliance training, the importance of following regulatory compliance training as well as the main benefits associated with it.
Examples of Compliance Training
Compliance training is a big part of regulatory compliance, and it’s one of the most important parts of your business. There are several different types of compliance training, depending on the type of business.
For example, financial institutions that have international customers, you’ll need to make sure all employees are trained on the Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations.
Likewise, your business may require different forms of compliance training. Here are the most common compliance topics to keep in mind.
Healthcare training
It is important to ensure that all employees are aware of and follow all healthcare laws and regulations so that they do not violate any of them while they are working. This can be especially important in the healthcare business itself (think: hospitals and pharmaceutical industries) because many violations can result in fines or even criminal charges for the person who committed the violation.
For example, if you work in a hospital setting, your healthcare compliance training will likely focus on the different levels of infection control, how to properly handle equipment and sterilize it without compromising its integrity, as well as protocols for dealing with hazardous materials.
On the other hand, if you work in a nursing home or private practice looking after patients at home, you might have a greater emphasis on paperwork and records management as well as patient rights.
In addition, any business can incorporate healthcare training in the form of first aid and industry-specific training content.
Workplace safety training
Many employers offer compliance training as part of their overall health and safety program. They are designed to help employees learn about their rights and responsibilities in the workplace, as well as the related policies and processes.
Some section topics covered in workplace safety training may include:
- An intro to safety at work including the meaning of occupational health and safety
- How to report hazards at the workplace
- Description of personal protective equipment (PPE) and how to use it safely
- Anti-harassment training
- Training on emergency procedures
Workplace safety training is often mandated by law. These may be regional, state, or federal laws, or simply the company’s own rules.
Compliance training is also often required for certain types of insurance policies, such as workers’ compensation or business liability coverage.
For example, if you’re a business owner and you want to carry insurance, you may be required to provide your employees with compliance training covering topics like sexual harassment and discrimination, because these are two areas where the law is particularly strict about what employers allow in the workplace.
Diversity training
Diversity training is a type of compliance training that refers to the education and increased awareness of employees, usually in terms of race, gender, or sexual orientation.
This type of training is used to combat discrimination and create an environment where everyone feels comfortable, regardless of any differences they may have.
It helps them understand why these issues are important and why they need to be part of the business’ overarching mission.
Diversity training will not end discrimination overnight, but it will make the workplace a better place for all employees, foster healthier company culture and thus improve productivity and the bottom line too.
Data protection and privacy training
Data protection and privacy training is a vital part of any business’s compliance program. Anyone who works at a company that deals with personal information—whether personally-identifiable or protected health information—should receive this training to be able to do their jobs properly and responsibly.
The training must cover what you should do if a breach occurs, as well as the repercussions for violating data protection laws. This can be an important part of managing any business with customer information. If you collect information about your customers, such as credit card numbers or email addresses, you are responsible for keeping it safe from unauthorized access.
While many businesses have their own internal data protection policies, there is legislation in place that dictates how companies should store and handle personal customer information. For example, you cannot use a customer email address to send advertisements without obtaining permission first by disclosing this in your privacy policy (although different countries have different laws on this issue).
In addition to protecting your customers’ data privacy, it is also important to ensure that your own employees are not accidentally revealing sensitive information. You need to train them on what they can say to others about their work, how they should handle customer information when it comes into their possession, and provide training materials on overall cybersecurity practices as well.
A lot of businesses provide data protection training at the start of employment so that new employees are aware of these issues before they become personally involved with confidential data.
6 Benefits of Compliance Training
Now that you know about the different facets of compliance training, here are the benefits you stand to gain from integrating it into your HR department’s goals.
1. Reduced risk of non-compliance.
One of the most important benefits of compliance training is that it’s a cost-effective way to reduce the risk of non-compliance.
Most legal violations that occur within businesses are preventable. Compliance training helps you develop policies and procedures that make sure your business stays in line with industry regulations.
By encouraging employees to learn about their responsibilities and helping them understand how to comply with those responsibilities, you help ensure that they will take that knowledge and apply it in their day-to-day activities.
Doing so will save time and money down the road—and will keep your customers and employees safer than ever before.
2. Promotes an inclusive and safe work environment.
Compliance training is a major benefit to having a safe workplace. It helps employees know how to handle compliance issues, and why it is important to report them. It also encourages people to speak up about what’s going on around them, in order to ensure that the work environment is safe for everyone.
Employees who have undertaken workplace training improve their performance, make fewer errors, and are less likely to leave the organization.
Training also enhances an organization’s reputation as an employer that invests in its staff and provides opportunities for career development.
3. Defines organizational policies.
With so many best-practices to remember, it’s no wonder that high-level organizational policies are a benefit of compliance training.
Corporate compliance policies are good because they can provide structure and consistency for your employees. They are necessary to keep the workplace safe and healthy.
By having policies clearly defined, everyone will be able to refer to them as needed without fear of punishment for not following the company procedures or any other form of confusion about what’s expected of them at work.
The more details included in policy, the less time will be wasted on minor matters that could have been avoided through thorough planning ahead of time.
4. Balances ethics with priorities.
With any company, the overall principles and values are the same from one to another, although the details may vary. Compliance training can help employees learn how to use these systems correctly and to do their jobs in ways that adhere to both internal and external standards.
While most employees see compliance training as something they have to do to avoid extreme consequences and keep their jobs, companies with a culture of compliance are able to reward their employees for their positive risk management stance. This is because an organization that encourages e-learning, regular training courses for compliance learners, and provides rewards and incentives for positive results can ensure that its policies are followed and that company resources are protected.
When employees feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves—that they’re doing something important—it boosts morale, decreases turnover, and makes everyone feel better about working together toward a common goal.
5. Boosts company reputation and bottom line.
Training employees is one of the most effective ways to prevent violations, and compliance training is an excellent way to do it. It’s cost-effective—the return on investment (ROI) for compliance training is much higher than for many other investments the company might make due to the avoided costs in penalties and non-compliance.
Training employees increases their knowledge about how to handle themselves ethically in conflict of interest situations requiring them to make tough assessments and decisions. In most cases, this results in better decision making in general. When employees know what is expected of them and when they understand the consequences for violating these expectations, they’ll generally err on the side of caution and do the right thing.
Training your employees also helps you keep your best people at your company. You don’t want to lose your valuable employees because they made a mistake by not knowing what was or wasn’t acceptable behavior at your organization.
Compliance training helps avoid that kind of situation by giving employees a chance to learn what they need to know before they run into trouble with a tricky situation.
6. Creates evidence that employees received training.
When you have a company that deals with consumer information, such as credit card numbers or bank account details, you are legally required to make sure your employees are following the rules when it comes to security.
Effective compliance training is an important part of this process because it helps employees understand the importance of maintaining security over data that customers entrust to them.
Your business can display to its stakeholders (both internal and external) that all employees have received the compliance training certification. By doing this, business confidence will grow as stakeholders will feel employees are better able to recognize potential threats and take steps to mitigate those risks.
This means fewer problems and less risk for your company’s reputation and financial health overall.
eloomi’s LMS simplifies compliance training for various industries
With the number of compliance regulations increasing around the world, training employees on them is an expensive burden for companies. It’s difficult to ensure that employees are complying with all the rules and regulations, so a lot of companies are hiring compliance specialists to help train their workers.
Source: Statista
With so much to cover, it’s likely that your staff will only know the bare minimum of what they need to know.
In today’s climate, you don’t have to rely on outside consultants to train your staff on compliance requirements.
eloomi makes it easy for companies to comply with industry-specific training regulations. With eloomi’s course authoring tool, you can create compliance-related courses that are specific to your needs and upload them directly into our LMS.
eloomi handles the most difficult parts of compliance training for you, so you don’t have to worry about it.
