Can we design compliance training to be meaningful?



Compliance training is a commonplace of the modern workplace. But most of us settle down once a year to do our mandatory compliance training with a heavy heart.

I think LXDs (Learning Experience Designers) and other types of learning designers can make it more meaningful by following these three principles:

1. Design around behavioural outcomes.


Often it seems like the design principle behind our yearly ‘Slips Trips and Falls’ training is to provide knowledge about slips, trips and falls. We have to move from knowing about… to knowing how to... If the learning was developed from behavioural outcomes like ‘Identify tripping hazards’ or ‘Remove slipping hazards,’ design would improve for a few reasons. Firstly, it would permit designers to be more ruthless about cutting away unnecessary information. Secondly, it would push designers to make lifelike scenarios for assessment, rather than abstract knowledge tests. Thirdly, the purpose of the training would be clear to learners, which would be motivating. I think all this would increase transfer of knowledge to real-world situations.

2. Start with ‘why’.


Starting each module with a brief explanation of the actions and outcomes the training is designed to promote, and why that is important, could increase a sense of importance. A few stats or case studies would be enough.

3. Design around practice.


I personally don’t think that elearning designers need to completely forgo presenting information through text, audio, explainer videos, etc. But they need to start their design process by designing how the behavioural objective is going to be practiced. And I don’t think a quiz checking understanding is practice. We have the technology now to make scenarios that give practice of decision-making in nearly any environment. Safeguarding training could be based around practice of receiving and reporting disclosures. Health and safety training could be based around identifying, removing and reporting risks. Only after we’ve designed the practice should we think about what knowledge we want to impart to the learners before or whilst they practise.My thinking on all this has been largely inspired by Cathy Moore’s model of learning design called Action Mapping. I highly recommend her book on the subject. I made a video summarising the model here.


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