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Compliance Training and Tracking
Compliance training is a necessary part of any organization. The training ensures employees are aware of the rules and regulations they need to follow in their work. It may not be something everyone enjoys doing, however, it's importance can't be understated!
Organizations simply cannot be effective without a certain level of compliance. Non-compliance can have seriously negative impacts on your business, from fines or penalties to criminal charges and lawsuits.
In the past, companies have been able to get away with not complying with rules and regulations set by government. However, in recent years, more and more companies are being fined for not following these rules.
This is why it is so important to have a system that ensures compliance with regulations. A compliance training and tracking system will ensure that your company is following the government’s rules and regulations. It will also make sure that your employees are aware of how they should act in different situations.
It's also important to consider business partners, customers and suppliers in your compliance plans. Your organizations entire supply chain may be affected if one element is found to be non-compliant.
The difference between corporate and regulatory compliance
Corporate compliance is the process of ensuring that an organization is in compliance with the law, while regulatory compliance is the process of ensuring that an organization complies with regulations.
Corporate compliance is a subset of regulatory compliance. It's a company's responsibility to ensure they are in line with all applicable laws and regulations. This can be achieved through internal processes or by using external consultants.
Regulatory compliance, on the other hand, refers to the requirements set by government agencies for companies to follow. These requirements are often put in place for public safety reasons. They can range from environmental regulations to occupational health and safety standards.
The need for compliance training
Organizational compliance requirements as well as regulatory compliance requirements may change regularly. Therefore, it is important to maintain an ongoing compliance training program to ensure all employees are kept up to date.
Employees need to be able to understand all of the relevant laws, regulations and policies that affect your organization. It's the organizations responsibility to ensure that they are fully informed. Therefore, developing a compliance training program is one of the best ways to ensure that everyone has the information they need.
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What is compliance training?
Compliance training is the process of providing information to employees about the company’s policies and procedures. It ensures that your employees know how (and why) they are relevant to them. A great compliance training program will help your employees thrive. They will understand what is expected from them and should be able to work effectively with minimal supervision.
In many cases, compliance training is required by law. In addition, it can be seen as a way to reduce risk and protect the company from liability.
There are many different compliance requirements that organizations must meet. Some of the common ones are:
- Data privacy. This covers all aspects of data, from personal information, to information security. See our beginners guide to information security policies for more information.
- GDPR provides guidelines for how companies should handle their personal information. It includes those who are not based in Europe but still have European users or customers.
- Data retention policies provide guidelines on how long certain types of data should be stored.
- Anti-money laundering guidelines for fraud detection and prevention
Compliance training vs corporate training
A corporate compliance system is a program designed to ensure that the company’s policies and procedures are being followed at all times. The company establishes these policies and procedures to meet the requirements of laws, regulations, and other standards in the industry.
On the other hand, corporate training focusses more on practical tasks essential for the organization to function. For example, these could include on the job training on how:
- Trademarks and corporate branding should be used by the marketing team
- Products should be packaged by the distribution department
- Telephone systems should be used by the reception staff
- Customers should be contacted by the sales team
- Computer systems should be used by the administration staff etc.
The benefits of compliance training
Compliance training provides a number of benefits for an organization. It helps to maintain a safe, healthy and clean environment. It also helps to avoid lawsuits, fines and other penalties.
Compliance training is also an effective way to prevent accidents from happening in the workplace. Training employees on the safety standards of the company ensures that they are aware of any potential risks in their work environment and can take appropriate precautions to avoid them.
The course material can be delivered in a variety of ways. The most common way is through live, instructor-led training that takes place onsite at the company's location. Another option is online training, which can take place at any time and location as long as employees have an internet connection, but this type of training is not preferred by many employees because it lacks the personal touch of instructor-led training.
The course material can also be delivered through videos or text documents available for employees to read or watch on their own time and pace. This can be the most cost-effective ways of reaching large numbers of employees. However, tracking who has or has not completed the online tasks becomes increasingly important with this approach.
Using Compliance Software
With the advent of technology, compliance training has the potential to become more complex and tedious. Consequently, there is an increasing need for better compliance software to help companies train their employees more efficiently. Using compliance software can also assist with the tracking of compliance training as digital records are kept proving the training has been completed.
The following are some of the features of a good compliance software, which should:
- Be able to provide relevant training content for different scenarios
- Track employee progress
- Allow users to create their own content
- Be scalable
DocRead for SharePoint (soon to also be available for Office365) can be used to help organize and track your compliance. For example, policies, procedures or any other information essential to your compliance process can be assigned to users. A reporting suite and email reminders help ensure that the right people complete the right compliance tasks at the right time. It also provides important evidence of training and proof that you took sensible steps to achieve compliance.
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Final thoughts on an organization's compliance training program
Employer compliance training programs are a necessary part of an organization's training and development strategy. These programs can help employers stay compliant with relevant federal and state laws.
Employers need to be mindful of the following when developing compliance training programs:
1) The content should be tailored to the company's specific needs
2) The content should cover all relevant topics, such as harassment prevention, discrimination prevention, wage and hour law, etc.
3) The content should be engaging and interactive to keep employees engaged
4) The content should be accessible to current employees and those not currently employed