4 Ways to Make Compliance Training Fun!

Training isn’t all fun and games, but a little humour goes a long way in boosting employee participation and knowledge retention.  In this article, I’ll share some top tips to make your online compliance training more enjoyable and engaging.

Adding fun and humour to online compliance training can help lighten the mood and increase employee engagement, which not only makes the online training experience more effective but also reduces stress and anxiety for corporate learners. However, you must be careful not to offend employees or give the impression that L&D is a joke. As such, your organisation needs to have a firm grasp of your remote workforce’s background, such as their cultures, personalities, and personal experiences.  Here are seven tips to inject more fun and humour into your online compliance training.

Start off the online training course by introducing an intriguing online course guide who points employees in the right direction.  For example, a cut-out character or cartoon who offers tips and valuable feedback at strategic points throughout the online training course.  Give them quirky personality traits or backstories that boost the fun factor.  For example, a mad scientist who guides corporate learners through the safety online training module and offers interesting facts along the way.

1. Create animated demo videos

Demo videos are often saturated with bad acting and boring scenarios. The compliance issues are usually exaggerated to illustrate the point. Who can forget unrealistic dialogues that make employees roll their eyes. But this doesn’t have to be the case. In fact, you can use animation software to produce engaging compliance animated demo videos that connect with employees on a personal level. This also allows you to illustrate situations that are too risky for live actors. For instance, a hazardous chemical spill that shows employees how to wear the proper safety gear and evacuate the premises.

Use real-life stories that highlight the subject matter to entertain and educate your audience at the same time. Stories give you the chance to grab their attention and maintain it. For example, incorporate an emotionally compelling story that features an employee who always disobeys company rules and regulations. Demonstrate the negative repercussions of his actions without interjecting too much doom and gloom. The key is to keep it light-hearted and relatable so that employees understand the consequences without feeling overwhelmed or anxious. These examples will not only make the online training content memorable but also make it easy for employees to understand the role of rules and regulations.

2. Add serious games

Develop a serious game that has various levels, filled with interesting characters and realistic situations. Employees are only able to proceed to the next level after successfully answering compliance questions or completing relevant tasks. You can even add fantastical or humorous elements to entertain as you educate. For example, a clumsy character who always seems to get himself into trouble or make a mistake that the player must fix. However, bear in mind that encouraging favourable behaviours takes top priority. The game mechanics are merely there to motivate your corporate learners and support the learning objectives.

3. Offer bite-sized bits of knowledge

Compliance training often contains an abundance of relevant content that employees must absorb to improve their performance. This alone can be overwhelming for them and cause unnecessary stress and anxiety. Having lengthy modules only makes matters worse. However, you can break online training content into small digestible bits to reduce cognitive overload and make the online training experience more enjoyable. Use bullet points for key pieces of information. Better yet, create an infographic that blends visuals with explainer text to improve knowledge retention. Or provide a microlearning online training library that’s packed with entertaining videos, simulations, and serious games that are quick to consume.

4. Offer the element of mystery

People always enjoy a good mystery that makes them use their later thinking skills and breaks from the norm. So, why not give your employees the opportunity to solve a whodunnit during the compliance training course? For example, develop a simulation that explores COI compliance. The main character must evaluate all the clues to determine if the suspect violated company policy.  You can also provide employees with an anecdote that has an open-ending. Then, encourage them to draw their own conclusions before revealing the actual outcome. The secret is to keep them guessing so that they feel compelled to explore the topic further and reflect on the subject matter.

The goal is to add humour and entertainment into your compliance online training course so that employees are more likely to participate. But too much humour can diminish the value of your online training content and have the opposite effect. For example, employees encounter jokes and puns on every page. So much so that they grow tired of the forced quips and over-the-top characters. The golden rule is to use humour sparingly and only when it suits the subject matter.

Bonus tip: Do your homework before injecting humour

Every employee on the payroll comes from a different background.  As such, something that’s funny to one member of your staff may be offensive to another.  It’s essential to do your research to determine how much humour to add and what kind.  For example, test the waters and see if mild-mannered joke or pun is well received.  Surveys, polls, and focus groups are a great way to gather employee feedback.

Humour in compliance online training increases comprehension, motivation, and memory retention.  But you need to be careful not to offend certain groups or take the fun too far. Supporting favourable performance behaviours and imparting valuable compliance knowledge is still the name of the game.  Use these tips to make your compliance training fun and engaging for every member of your team.

Are you still unsure whether humour and fun are a good fit for your compliance online training programme?  Read the article, Top 5 Tips To Effectively Use Humor in eLearning to learn more tips on how to use humour in your e-learning courses, without stepping on any toes or compromising your learning goals.

About the author
Christopher Pappas is the founder of The eLearning Industry’s Network, which is the largest online community of professionals involved in the eLearning Industry.  Christopher holds an MBA and a MEd (Learning Design) from BGSU.