This is part 2 of a 5-part podcast series with Tom Fox and the FCPA Compliance Report on Culture, Training, and Compliance. Listen to the series from the beginning.
What are ‘espresso shots’ of training, and how do they help facilitate attainable training demands? In the early phase of the pandemic, when all planned instructor-led training was cancelled or transitioned to virtual training, institutions had to quickly change to a fully virtual working environment and find creative solutions to adapt their training programs.
The impact on compliance training plans? While the ultimate impact varied, the delays, rescheduling, and redesigning of mandatory trainings to accommodate the virtual working environment caused a big training load and a heavy training burden for institutions. Many institutions delayed mandatory training as they tried to work through issues as mundane as increasing bandwidth to support having all employees remotely logged in to the same learning management system at the same time every day. Many organizations pushed training to the end of 2020 or into 2021 as they managed competing priorities and demands. Moreover, even though the virtual work environment has become routine for compliance professionals, the pressure is on to get back up to speed on all those trainings.
One solution: offering “espresso shots” of compliance training. These short but concise shots drill down to specific risks relevant to an institution. This means that instead of offering half-day and full-day sessions, an institution could break programs into shorter segments of 20 minutes or less, which are easier for participants to absorb—and schedule. Creating solutions that deliver shorter and more tailored training ensures the training is more relevant to the employee while imposing a lighter burden of training hours. Embracing espresso shot training can help employees to better manage their workload while keeping up with important issues relevant to their roles.
Most compliance professionals strive to find the right balance between training on general awareness topics and shorter, more relevant and practical training opportunities. Compliance training that incorporates real-life scenarios, case studies, or simulations gives employees an opportunity to learn in a sandbox environment and to practice the skills that they are being taught. Now is the time for institutions to think creatively about the delivery and modality of training content. There are many creative ways to engage and stimulate users, such as videos and interactive virtual training. For example, short cartoons or animated videos can be excellent quarterly reminders.
