Get It Measured Get It Managed
“Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so”. This quote that is attributed to Galileo Galilei should be considered by those who believe compliance training sessions and compliance programs are not measurable.
Training sessions metrics are some of the quantifiable measures compliance leaders must use to monitor the effectiveness of a compliance program and to evaluate their team’s and co-workers’ performance level.
Training and education are some of the critical elements of an effective compliance program.
Compliance training programs are mandatory for employees and third parties as they reduce risks and typically meet compliance objectives.
More and more regulators ask companies for their compliance program metrics. If well conducted and measured compliance training programs can prove that the company is testing its policies, procedures and controls.
An organization has to be able to demonstrate its program as robust and reliable. Therefore, it’s crucial for the compliance department to keep training sessions records such as: attendance list, attendance confirmation, content, test results and, last but not least, what the company has done with the information it gathered from the test results.
Traction
The completion rate of compliance training programs doesn’t reflect employees and third parties knowledge and if they put it into practice, although many organizations still use this type of metric for measuring their training effectiveness.
By accessing an eLearning tool and pressing play, it provides evidence that people required to do so have completed training. Yet by clicking through slides neither indicate knowledge nor compliant behavior.
Without adequate information about session outcomes, how does one know if attendees are doing well or poorly?
Companies have to build a compliance training culture of learning.
Action
As most part of the compliance work, strategy is key. A compliance training program has to be carefully planned for the year ahead based on:
- Needs assessment: The right content for the right audience.
- Target audience: Small groups.
- Date and time: Annual training calendar.
- Duration: Short to medium session length.
- Vehicle: Slide-based? Game-based?
- Tool: Software? Communication platform? In-person workshop?
Not less importantly, the quizzes and real case discussions. They have to be designed to assess how attentive people are during the sessions and how much of the content they recall. They are a leading indicator of compliant behavior. Even though they cannot guarantee that an attendee’s behavior on the job will be compliant, their results will show how likely attendees will use their knowledge and safeguards.
Lastly, what to do with the results: Once the outcomes are identified and evaluated, let’s start working on communication and education plans, have people retrained and retested. It is a non-stop process.
Satisfaction
It is important to get feedback from the attendees about what they thought about the training sessions.
Are people going to be excited about halting their work and getting pulled from their inboxes to attend compliance training? Highly unlikely. However, when the training session was over, did they walk away with an appreciation for why they attended?
Compliance training should make people aware of the challenges that compliance presents and their role in maintaining it. Effective training creates positive results for everybody, attendees and company.
Get in Touch
Prae Venire provides practical training solutions to help businesses with their most significant compliance challenges. If you have questions about measuring results, we will be happy to work with you. Training should be implemented whenever a new policy is issued and then annually to maintain the systems you have put into place. During our training sessions, we will test your employees to see how much they have retained. Wrong answers and failures need to be reinforced. Contact Prae Venire to learn more.