Digital compliance training

Legislation, guidelines and benefits

In a world where ethical conduct and legal compliance have a major impact on business success, it's important to look at compliance training in a new light. In doing so, please say goodbye to the boring notion of dry training. Imagine if you could make your company a showcase for ethics and legal compliance. A company that not only knows the rules of the game, but lives by them. A company that customers and business partners trust unconditionally. Sounds tempting, doesn't it? That's where compliance training comes in.

What are compliance trainings?

With compliance training, you educate your employees about legal regulations, corporate guidelines and ethical standards. They are designed to raise awareness of compliance issues and provide employees with the knowledge and skills they need to act in compliance with rules and regulations. Compliance training familiarizes your employees with the legal framework that applies to your specific industry and company. Your employees will learn to identify legal risks, avoid compliance violations and respond appropriately to ethical dilemmas. Training courses cover a wide range of topics, such as labor law, data protection, anti-corruption, competition law or insider trading.

The goals of compliance training are manifold. On the one hand, it informs your employees which laws and guidelines are relevant in their area of activity and how they can comply with them. This minimizes legal risks and protects the company from potential penalties, legal consequences and loss of reputation. Secondly, training raises awareness of ethical standards and ensures that your employees make appropriate decisions in ethically sensitive situations.

Compliance training can be delivered in a variety of ways, including classroom training, e-learning modules, interactive workshops and case studies. The choice of method depends on your company's needs, industry, and employees' individual learning preferences.

Compliance training, moreover, cannot be viewed as a one-time event. Rather, it is an ongoing process, as laws and regulations can change and new compliance challenges emerge. Regular training and updates are therefore crucial to keep employees' knowledge and compliance skills up to date.

The most important topics in compliance training

The compass to compliance

Compliance training covers a variety of topics that can vary by industry and company context. In general, however, they cover the following core areas:

Legal framework

Legal framework training provides your employees with a basic understanding of the applicable laws and regulations relevant to your business and industry. This may include, for example, labor law, data protection laws, environmental regulations, anti-corruption laws and industry standards.

Ethics and integrity

These trainings focus on communicating the importance of ethics and integrity in the business environment. They help your employees make ethical decisions, recognize and avoid conflicts of interest, and identify and report corrupt behavior.

Internal policies and procedures

This teaches your company's internal policies and procedures aimed at ensuring compliance. These include, for example, codes of conduct, information security policies, data protection policies, anti-money laundering measures, and trade restriction compliance measures.

Risk Management

Risk management training raises your employees' awareness of potential risks and hazards in the business environment. They learn to identify and assess risks and to take appropriate measures to minimize or avoid these risks.

Compliance in sales and marketing

These trainings are designed for sales and marketing personnel and cover specific topics such as antitrust, advertising law, product labeling, customer communications, and sales and marketing compliance.

Corruption prevention training

This training is about making employees aware of the dangers of corruption and showing them how to protect themselves against it. This includes training on bribery, kickbacks, conflicts of interest, and gifts and entertainment.

Data protection and data security

In view of the increasing importance of data protection, training is provided on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or other relevant data protection regulations. Your employees learn how to protect personal data and handle it securely.

Advantages of compliance training

Legal compliance

With regular compliance training, you ensure that your employees are informed about the applicable laws, regulations and internal policies. In this way, your company also acts in accordance with legal requirements and avoids potential violations.

Risk mitigation

With knowledge of potential risks and hazards associated with certain activities or decisions, your employees can take early action to minimize risks and protect the integrity of the organization.

Protection of the corporate reputation

Violations of compliance can lead to significant damage to your company's reputation. Through regular training, employees are made aware of the effects of misconduct and learn how to behave in an ethically correct manner.

Promoting a culture of integrity

By providing your employees with regular training on compliance topics, they are made aware of the importance of legal compliance and ethical conduct. This helps them identify more strongly with the corporate values and implement them in their daily work.

Avoidance of fines and legal consequences

Violations of compliance regulations can lead to significant financial penalties and legal consequences. With regular compliance training, you ensure that your employees are informed about the current legal requirements and thus help to avoid violations.

E-learning as a recognized solution for compliance training

Official legitimation by the DGUV

The most important question now might be: "Am I as a company allowed to offer instruction in the form of online courses or in digital form" at all? The answer is yes. The DGUV allows the possibility of "providing instruction using electronic media", provided that the following three conditions are met:

Requirement (1)

Workplace-specific content preparation and delivery

Requirement (2)

Integration and implementation of a comprehension check

Requirement (3)

Possibility of conversation between insured and instructor

In the past, web meeting tools were not recognized as a substitute for discussions, so that instruction still had to take place in analog form, at least in part. In the meantime, not least influenced by the pandemic, the DGUV has adapted the interpretation of its regulations to the extent that web meeting tools may now be used to fully digitalize the instruction process. Comprehension testing can also be integrated into the courses by means of tests. Therefore, when choosing your e-learning software, make sure that it offers the option to include different question types and final tests for comprehension. Optimally, the software also offers the possibility to create each online course in different variants to address the specifics of each individual workplace. Professional software is also able to counteract the DGUV's persistent reservations about the lack of individualization in e-learning in that it uses adaptive learning to make digital learning far more individual than face-to-face events can usually achieve. However, it is true that some instruction, especially in the areas of production, trades, and handling hazardous materials, should at least take the form of a blended learning format consisting of e-learning theory and a supplementary face-to-face exchange in order to adequately reflect practice.

Digital compliance training is the future of enterprise-wide compliance education. They offer flexibility, accessibility, updated content, interactivity, cost efficiency, and the ability to track learning progress.

Benefits of digital compliance training

Time and location independence

E-learning gives learners the greatest possible flexibility. Since the content can be accessed at any time on any device and there is no need to travel to the learning location, learning can take place whenever it fits into everyday (work) life - for example, on the subway on the way to work, on the couch in the evening, or at freely selectable learning times in the company. In this way, even more training is possible than would be possible with fixed seminars.

Time and cost savings

Although there are some initial investments involved in implementing e-learning (software, human resources, creating or purchasing course content), these are quickly amortized as the costs for travel, seminar rooms and trainers are eliminated. In addition, there is an indirect saving due to the significantly reduced absence times of employees and the increased effectiveness of the training courses.

Individuality

Everyone learns differently and prefers different learning formats. Due to its multimedia nature, e-learning makes it possible to provide content to all types of learners in a form that is optimal for them. At the same time, not all of your employees need the same knowledge. The e-learning software allows you to assign only the training that each individual employee really needs.

Standardized quality

With face-to-face training, quality and learning success are directly related to the teaching staff and can therefore fluctuate. With e-learning content, on the other hand, the quality is consistently high and can therefore even be guaranteed.

Any number of participants

E-learning is easily scalable: Once developed, material can be made available to any number of employees, regardless of spatial capacities. The following applies: The more learners, the faster the costs are amortized.

Motivation increase

E-learning has a motivating effect on learners at various levels - be it through multimedia, multisensory, playful elements such as quizzes, virtual rewards or the final certification. E-learning offers plenty of options to increase intrinsic as well as extrinsic motivation.

Image enhancement

According to a survey by SPLENDID Research, just under 80% of respondents said that it was important to them that seminars and training courses were offered when choosing a job. Accordingly, companies that offer digital training convey a sense of responsibility, an innovative mindset, and thus strengthen employer branding.

Learning success check

E-learning offers a wide range of reporting options and makes learning progress measurable. In this way you can see which contents were internalized, which knowledge you can assume with your coworkers and also, at which points the learning contents can be optimized.

Multilingualism

While analog seminars can only ever be held in one language, e-learning enables learning in different languages. This is an immense cost advantage compared to analog training, where another teacher would first have to be hired for another appointment.

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Technology solutions for digital compliance training

The switch to digital compliance training opens up new opportunities and benefits for you. Technological solutions developed specifically for e-learning play a central role in this. Below are some key technologies and tools that can be used when implementing digital compliance training.

Learning Management Systeme (LMS)

A Learning Management System is a software platform that enables the management, organization, and delivery of training. With an LMS, you can centralize your compliance training, deliver learning content, track learner progress, and generate reports on completions and certifications. LMSs offer a variety of features, such as creating interactive courses, scheduling training, and delivering learning materials.

Reading tip: "Learning Management Systems | Advantages & Functions of Learning Platforms"

Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) / Authoring tool

There are a variety of specialized e-learning authoring tools available to help you create and deliver your compliance training. These authoring tools provide user-friendly interfaces, templates, and tools for creating interactive learning content. They allow you to incorporate multimedia elements such as videos, animations, quizzes, and simulations into your training. They also offer features for monitoring learning success, tracking progress, and issuing certificates.

In addition, there is the option of purchasing ready-made online courses on various topics

Reading tip: "Find the right e-learning authoring software with this checklist" Reading tip: "E-Learning Content: Create Online Courses Yourself or Buy Them?"

Gamification elements to increase motivation

Gamification is an approach that integrates game elements into the learning process to increase participant motivation and engagement. Through the use of scoring systems, leaderboards, badges, and rewards, compliance training can be made more engaging and fun. This helps to increase learning and maintain participants' attention.

Reading tip: "Gamification in e-learning"

Legally relevant aspects when choosing your e-learning software

Every company is responsible for compliance with data protection regulations and must inform its employees about the processing of their data. Accordingly, e-learning platforms and software must meet certain requirements. Below are four aspects that you should definitely check before choosing a provider. In addition to DSGVO compliance, there are also some technical aspects that ensure secure handling of your data. Optimally, you should inform the providers about these technical measures without being asked.

...

DSGVO compliance Technical aspects

Company headquarters

If possible, the provider should be based in the EU to ensure that the GDPR guidelines that are mandatory here are observed.

In this context, an order processing contract must be concluded. The technical and organizational measures taken by the provider to protect personal data must also be reviewed.

Server location

Ideally, you should choose a provider with headquarters and server location in Germany, as this country has one of the strictest data protection regulations in the world, regardless of the GDPR.

This includes the fact that German providers and data centers are not obligated to provide information or access to any authority as long as no crime occurs. Even in such a case, however, German authorities do not have unrestricted access to all data. However, this only applies if the company headquarters and server are located in Germany.

In addition, German data centers are protected by world-leading fire safety regulations. These are not to be neglected, as there is an increased risk of fire due to the high energy density. German data centers are therefore required to take special fire protection measures. In addition, most centers have security guards on duty around the clock.

Avoid third-party interfaces

In this context, you should inquire whether there are any interfaces on the part of the e-learning provider to third-party companies outside the EU that could gain access to your data.

DSGVO compliant handling of your employees' data

Employees must be fully informed about the processing of their data within the e-learning software.

Therefore, make sure that there is a privacy policy that is easy to understand and that you can adapt to your actual circumstances if necessary. Also ask the provider to show you how they implement privacy by design: For example, can different roles be assigned depending on the authorization of your employees, are the activities of users in the software traceable (e.g., in the event that data has been deleted), or can user data be deleted or anonymized.

Single Sign On

A single sign-on guarantees secure and simple authentication of users.

Controllability of administrative roles and rights

Administrative roles and rights allow giving different rights in the system to different members of the e-learning team - depending on their roles and competences.

Options for deletion and anonymization

In addition to evaluation, anonymization is particularly relevant for compliance with deletion periods: i.e., if an employee leaves the company, his or her data must be deleted or stored anonymously.

Security and system backups

Backups should be performed either by you or better by the provider at regular and short time intervals.

Audit trail and monitoring

Constant monitoring and a permanent audit trail are important for documenting changes as well as their traceability of sensitive actions in the system at any time.

Sensitive actions (e.g. deletion of data records) in the system must be permanently documented historically. This means which changes were made, when and by whom (audit trail). This also serves to record and compare predefined process sequences (monitoring) as well as for the immediate identification of errors.

Support-Services

For quick help with questions and problems, various support services are optimally available during your working hours and in your language.

Bottom Line.

Compliance training can be perfectly mapped via e-learning. You offer your employees interactive, practical training that is geared to their needs. At the same time, you can fulfill your documentation obligations. In the process, you save a lot of resources: both time and money. Employees can attend your training courses at their workplace or on the move, do not have to travel, receive exactly the knowledge they need and are not bored by content that is irrelevant to them. As a company, you can easily tailor training to different target groups, ensuring relevance and quality and even automating rollout processes. At the same time, you have an overview at all times of which employees have not yet completed your compliance training, where content-related problems and thus risks exist, and can take targeted action.