We’ve got compliance data—now what?

If you’re leading a compliance program today, chances are you’ve got more data than you know what to do with. Dashboards. Reports. Surveys. Benchmarking studies. Metrics for completion, engagement, and participation. Maybe even analytics from your learning platform or hotline provider.

And yet, the hardest question to answer isn’t “Do we have data?”—it’s “What do we do with it?”

For many ethics and compliance leaders, the challenge isn’t a lack of information. It’s knowing which data points actually matter, how to interpret them, and how to translate them into action that moves the needle on culture, risk, and effectiveness.

Too often, data collection becomes an end in itself. We track completions, clicks, and case counts because they’re easy to measure, not because they tell us something useful. But raw data, no matter how much of it you have, doesn’t create insight.

Think of it like walking into a grocery store filled with ingredients. You’ve got endless options, but without a recipe—or at least an idea of what you’re trying to make—you’ll end up with a cart full of things that don’t go together.

The same goes for compliance data. If you don’t start with a clear purpose, your reports will give you volume, not value.

Start by defining the problem

Before you collect a single new data point, ask yourself:

• What am I trying to understand or solve?
• What would “better” look like if this worked well?
• Who else in the organization might already have part of the answer?

Maybe you want to understand why employees aren’t using the hotline, or whether your training is driving real behavioral change. Those are two very different questions—and they’ll require different kinds of data.

The goal is to think backwards from the problem. When you start there, you can make strategic choices about what to measure and how to interpret it. Otherwise, you risk drowning in dashboards that tell you everything except what you actually need to know.

Not all data is meaningful

One of the biggest misconceptions I see is that more data equals better insight. But volume isn’t value.

Take training completion rates, for example. They tell you who clicked “done,” not whether anyone learned, understood, or applied the concept. If your course completion sits at 99%, that might mean your learning culture is thriving—or it might mean employees are rushing through required content without absorbing it.

Instead of counting completions, ask what the data reveals about comprehension, confidence, or decision-making. Adaptive learning technology can help here—by adjusting training paths in real time based on in-course performance, it captures behavioral signals that go far beyond attendance.

That’s where Adaptive Compliance comes in. It moves compliance training from a check-the-box exercise to a continuous learning process, giving you data that actually reflects how employees think and respond in ethical situations.

Connecting insights with action

Once you have meaningful data, the next step is to connect it back to your goals. This is where analytics tools—like Learning Pool’s IQ Analytics—make a real difference.

IQ Analytics helps you visualize and interpret learning and behavioral data from Adaptive Compliance, giving you a clearer picture of how employees engage and perform. From there, many organizations extend that insight by combining IQ Analytics data with operational metrics outside the platform—such as investigations, disclosures, audit results, expense report patterns, gifts and entertainment spend, or approval workflow data—to see the bigger picture. When you start overlaying these perspectives, patterns emerge: a drop in learning engagement might align with regions experiencing higher turnover or increased policy violations.

That’s the moment when data becomes useful—when it helps you diagnose a problem, prioritize your efforts, and design interventions that work.

The key questions to ask are simple but powerful:

• So what? (What does this tell me about the state of my program?)
• Now what? (What action will this insight drive?)

When your data answers both, you’ve moved from reporting to strategy.

Build a data-driven, human-centered program

A truly data-driven compliance program isn’t one that chases metrics—it’s one that learns from them. It’s also collaborative. The most valuable insights often come from connecting quantitative data that lives outside your function with the qualitative context your team gathers through conversations, surveys, or observations. When you combine what the data tells you with what people actually experience, you move beyond reporting activity to understanding behavior—and that’s where meaningful change takes root.

And remember: data isn’t meant to be perfect. The goal isn’t to prove your program flawless—it’s to understand it honestly. Sometimes “bad” data is the best gift you can get, because it points directly to areas where you can improve. What matters most is how you use it. Data should help you tell an honest story about your culture, not justify it.

Don’t boil the ocean—start with a single drop

You don’t need a massive analytics overhaul to begin using data effectively. Start small. Pick one problem that matters, gather the most relevant data you already have, and take one measurable step toward improvement.

If that step helps you make a better decision, strengthen a policy, or have a more informed conversation with leadership—then the data has done its job.

At Learning Pool, we believe data should drive ethics and compliance forward, not weigh it down. With Adaptive Compliance and IQ Analytics, our goal is to help you see not just what’s happening—but what to do about it.

Because the real value of data isn’t in the numbers. It’s in the direction it gives you.

Explore how Adaptive Compliance and IQ Analytics can help your organization close the gap between training and performance.

Get in touch to arrange a personalized demo today.

Courtney Sander is a compliance and operations strategist who’s worked with organizations from small, high-risk teams to Fortune 10 companies.

She brings a pragmatic, human approach to data-driven compliance—helping leaders connect insight to action, strengthen culture, and demonstrate real-world program effectiveness.