6 Key Ways to Reduce Ethics and Compliance Risk [Free Guide]

By adopting these six strategies, organizations can reduce risks, empower employees to make ethical decisions, and create a proactive culture of compliance.

At Learning Pool, we’ve been providing best-in-class compliance training for years, gathering valuable insights from millions of user experiences along the way. Within this data, we see patterns, expected outcomes, and—importantly—risks.

For example, in our anti-bribery and anti-corruption course, 93% of employees correctly identify egregious expenses, such as theme park tickets or donations to a charity run by a government official. However, while most employees recognize these obvious corruption red flags, the data shows confusion around company gifts and entertainment policies. Specifically, 32% of learners mistakenly believe there is a legally mandated threshold at which a gift or business expense becomes a bribe. These gaps in understanding in a high-risk area require attention. While ethics and compliance risk can never be fully eliminated, it can be mitigated—especially through adaptive training. Adaptive training doesn’t just teach compliance; it personalizes the learning experience to address each user’s needs. Here are six steps to reduce risk with adaptive training.

1. Assess Needs and Resources

Many organizations have compliance training programs that meet basic industry standards, but simply checking the box doesn’t effectively reduce risk. To truly mitigate risk, it’s essential to evaluate whether your resources are sufficient and if your training program addresses all relevant risks. Start by reviewing your company’s compliance risk assessment to identify key risk areas that require training focus. From there, use your compliance data—such as training outcomes, employee feedback, and incident reports—to validate these risk areas. This data can help you understand where your training efforts are most needed and where gaps may exist. Understanding this baseline allows you to evolve your compliance program to be more targeted, efficient, and impactful.

2. Identify Training Gaps and Opportunities

Rather than reacting to ethics or compliance violations only after they occur, take a proactive approach. By identifying training gaps early and educating employees in those areas, you can avoid costly and stressful incidents later. This proactive mindset ensures your employees know the right thing to do before they’re presented with a situation in real life, and it can potentially prevent serious violations.

3. Be Immersive and Adaptive

Compliance training can often feel irrelevant and boring to employees, leading them to disengage. Reading dry legal language and clicking through slide after slide is no one’s idea of a good time. To truly mitigate risk, training must be relatable and engaging. Adaptive training ensures that each employee’s learning journey is tailored to their individual needs. This real-time adjustment makes training more effective by keeping employees engaged, ensuring they are more prepared to apply what they learn in real-world situations.

4. Learn from the Data

At Learning Pool, we’re big fans of data—and you should be, too! Training data not only shows how well employees are learning but also reveals potential compliance gaps and where future risks might arise. It also helps you measure the effectiveness of your program, which is becoming a key consideration of many regulatory bodies around the world when evaluating compliance programs. Consistently embracing data helps build a culture of compliance and integrity.

5. Re-evaluate and Revise as Needed

Compliance risks are dynamic. New threats, changing regulations, and evolving best practices mean your training program needs to stay flexible. If a new area emerges—geneartive AI is a great example—training may need to be rapidly deployed before employees start encountering the related risks in their daily work. If training data shows a gap or a topic needs more focus, it’s important to adjust your strategy accordingly. Reinforcement tools and continuous updates are key to keeping compliance concepts fresh and to address emerging risks before they become bigger problems.

6. Build a Culture of Compliance

Beyond individual training, adaptive learning contributes to a culture of compliance across the organization. By creating a safe, controlled environment for employees to practice critical skills, by tailoring training to each learner so they feel like their time and knowledge is respected, and by clearly conveying that every employee has a role to play when it comes to compliance, organizations can significantly reduce their risk. Fostering this culture reinforces your commitment to compliance and ensures long-term organizational success.

Are you ready to build a compliance training program that actually works? 

We’re sharing our free, comprehensive guide that explores the challenges of traditional compliance training and outlines a strategic approach to create a program that truly makes a difference. Get yours here.