When it comes to teaching our employees, a big concern for many of us is that it will be too boring, and they won’t pay attention. This is a real problem, especially for something as serious as compliance. Because it deals with conforming to laws and company policies, it’s critical that our workers engage in the material.
How can we make it exciting, though? It’s something a lot of us struggle with. Presenting and educating is an art to learn. Some people are more naturally inclined to it, but everyone can hone their skills to learn how to inform others even better.
The Principles of Presenting
This is probably the best place to start. Once you learn them, the rest will come a lot more naturally. Something to always keep in mind is that humans are visual learners. So, when you are designing a seminar or module, there should be at least some visual components. Slideshows are an effective way to do this, as you can see on this page: https://libguides.unm.edu/presentations.
As you design, though, you will want to stay consistent between each page. Different fonts and colors can be distracting and take away from the points you are trying to make. Most programs offer some pre-set design templates, so going with one of those is a good way to begin. As you improve, though, you can make your own.
Something else to consider is the overall structure of your session. When training, this is a good way to keep people entertained. Start with a hook to get people interested. This could come in a variety of forms, so just pick one that works for you.
The middle of the slides should contain some data or other evidence that what you are showing is important. That being said, you shouldn’t overload the pages with too much text. When you do that, your audience is much less likely to read them.
One technique that I like to use during them is to tell stories. Now, they should not be about yourself. Rather, you can use an experience you have had and pivot it to suit the topic at hand. Metaphors can also help your audience to relate to your words. Those are some of the key components to a successful presentation.
What About for Compliance Trainings, though?
This is where it gets a bit trickier. Making this topic more engaging is difficult, but if you apply the above techniques to compliance trainings, you might find that you can succeed. One way you can tune things to this kind of discussion is to provide examples.
If you tell a story about an office that had a lot of tension and disagreements, it might help your employees to understand why that is such a negative thing. Arguments are frequent and coworkers can rarely work together to accomplish things. At the worst, an incident might occur, and the business could even get sued.
Of course, this will result in a poor reputation, and things can spiral. Detailing this spiral is an effective way to prevent it from happening. However, that is not the only thing you can cover.
Harassment is a vital category to discuss with your workers. Remember that while most of us have heard of sexual harassment, it is not the only type that exists. Discriminatory practices and microaggressions, for example, can fall under this umbrella.Any behavior that is persistent and not wanted can be considered harassment.
Obviously, having this happen in a workspace is not a good thing. The supervisors and/or human resources department should always be a safe resource to listen to complaints and report them. This is one reason that training should start with anyone in a management position.
For harassment, I would say the best way to keep people engaged is to emphasize the seriousness of what is being discussed. You might explain some of the laws surrounding it, which you can learn more about at this link. There are protections in place on a local and federal level.
Explaining the policy your business has for ethics is another method. You could have a few slides with nice visuals that depict ethical actions and how important they are to you and the whole company. They should be emphasized as a cornerstone of the organization.
If you’re wondering why you should provide these sessions at all, remember these key words: risk management. If you do not train employees, you will be held much more accountable if things do go wrong. You reduce your own liability in the instance of a harassment case if you have provided adequate education.
This can also help protect the reputation of your organization. Obviously, our primary concern is for human life. However, the well-being of our businesses are also important.
