8 Compliance Trainings All New Employees Should Take

Ensure New Hires Are Compliant From Day One With These Eight Onboarding Training Topics 

The first week on a new job is an exciting time for any new employee and a busy one for HR professionals. 

Between checking items off the onboarding checklist, participating in important employee training courses, and filling out the required paperwork, an employee’s first day can be overwhelming for both the new hire and HR managers. 

The key to successful onboarding is offering learners multiple opportunities to grasp essential skills and integrate them into the company's fabric. This means planning an extended process for new team members beyond employee orientation. 

However, just 12% of employees feel their company did a thorough job of onboarding, leaving out essential information that may lead to mistakes or oversights that could have been avoided in their new role.

Your company could lose top talent if they don’t offer effective employee onboarding. Incorporating compliance training into the onboarding process is beneficial for new hires, creates a better work environment, and streamlines the workflow for HR professionals. 

But what is compliance training, how can it create a more effective onboarding program, and which trainings are essential for all employees? Let’s find out. 

What Is Compliance Training? 

Compliance training is a type of employee training that focuses on educating employees on the laws, regulations, and policies that apply to their job role or specific industry. 

These employee trainings help boost the integrity of your company culture, increase retention rates, and prevent issues between co-workers. 

Many compliance trainings are mandatory, so you must track their completion. This means HR professionals must devise a way to document the training and development of new employees. 

However, hiring managers may wonder if integrating compliance training into new hire training will bog down the onboarding experience. 

Let’s look at how compliance training can actually help HR professionals develop a more effective onboarding program for all involved. 

Will Compliance Training Help Create A More Effective Onboarding Program? 

The employee onboarding process is meant to assist new employees in becoming valuable team members. This means it needs to incorporate topics beyond the employee handbook. 

Compliance training during the employee onboarding process is efficient because it front loads essential knowledge. This will allow new hires to learn how to uphold the company’s values and meet all requirements. 

Ensuring all team members are on the same page with compliance also enhances the employee experience, helps prevent human resources issues, and can even positively impact employee retention. 

Let’s look at how you can adjust your onboarding training process to include modules and training sessions on compliance. 

What Is The Best Way To Administer Compliance Training During Employee Onboarding? 

In-person training has its place in the onboarding experience. However, more and more companies are taking on remote employees who need the same onboarding and compliance training as their in-office co-workers. 

E-Learning courses are a great way to bridge the gap between in-person and virtual employee onboarding and offer a seamless experience for all involved. 

Not only will the right learning management system make compliance training more engaging for your employees, but it will optimize the workflow for your human resources team, freeing up valuable time in their workday to tackle other essential tasks. 

Here’s what you need to look for when developing online training for your new employee onboarding program: 

• A user-friendly dashboard 

• Automated onboarding tracking 

• OnDemand content 

• White label capabilities 

• Live webinars and webcasts 

• Automated certificate delivery 

• 24/7 tech support 

While most of your new employee onboarding takes place within their first month, you can use online training and development programs throughout their first year to ensure you touch upon all necessary compliance trainings and administer check-ins to refresh your team members’ memories. 

Administering compliance training through an online training platform will also automate the tracking and certification process, allowing your HR professionals to efficiently organize new employee information and access the records as needed. 

8 Compliance Training Programs To Incorporate Into Your Company’s Onboarding Process 

There are dozens of topics that fall under the umbrella of compliance training. Many of them vary depending on your organization. 

In fact, the compliance training you must administer is dictated by your niche, industry, and even location. Some trainings are required by the state while others are specific to your company. 

However, some compliance trainings are beneficial for every organization, regardless. 

Here are the top eight compliance trainings you need to offer all new hires. 

1. Workplace Safety Training 

Whether your employees are working on a warehouse floor or in an office space, there are specific safety protocols that everyone must follow to prevent injuries in the workplace. 

Workplace safety training offers the skill set and knowledge necessary to safely perform their day-to-day tasks, identify possible hazards, and report them to the proper management team. 

This training also offers information on how to deal with emergencies, such as fires or natural disasters. 

Demonstrating to new hires that you care about making their work environment safe will help you make a great first impression during onboarding and prevent safety issues that can lead to disasters. 

2. Diversity Training 

Inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in the workplace are essential to your company's success.

And with a more diverse workforce, many unconscious biases may arise, causing tension and exclusion in the workplace that will endanger your company culture. 

When you offer diversity training during the onboarding process, you can cultivate a culture that allows employees to understand each other and effectively communicate regardless of their cultural differences. 

This will help prevent tricky HR issues, allow your human resource staff to focus on other tasks, and avoid leaving employees feeling disregarded and unheard. 

3. Anti-Harassment Training 

This type of training prevents HR nightmares stemming from incidents of sexual harassment that may occur in the workplace. 

And since over 80% of women have experienced harassment at work, it’s a good idea to offer this training to all new hires so they understand what harassment looks like and why it has no place in the office.

Effective anti-harassment training will prevent these incidents before they occur and empower your new hires to report and resolve these behaviors. 

4. Information Security And Privacy

Every industry has sensitive information that isn’t for public consumption. For instance, medical professionals must be wary of HIPPA laws to protect the privacy of their patients. 

Training sessions covering information security and privacy will help your new employees understand the expectations of handling secure information and the consequences of not following these policies. 

5. Code Of Conduct Training 

Each company has a unique set of rules that dictate the expectations for staff behaviors. They help guide employee behaviors and ethics to ensure they properly represent your brand. 

And while you may list this code of conduct in your employee handbook, hosting a dedicated training session or webinar covering the main points and reinforcing these policies is helpful.

This training will help you avoid accidental infractions and set clear expectations for new hires. 

6. Abusive Conduct And Anti-Bullying Training 

New hires want to know they are entering a professional, safe work environment. So covering anti-bullying during onboarding training will make new employees aware of this issue and help prevent it. 

While there is no legal definition for workplace bullying, it refers to intimidating, insulting, offensive, or malicious behavior meant to humiliate, undermine, or degrade a coworker. 

Companies that offer this type of training, especially in conjunction with anti-harassment training, define important terms and behaviors and demonstrate that your organization will not tolerate them. 

7. Workplace Violence Training

Much like running a fire drill, training new hires on workplace violence gives them the tools to respond to such an event should they experience it. 

Violence in the workplace training helps learners understand the warning signs, know where to report their observations, and how to respond if they experience workplace violence. 

8. 30/60/90 Day Compliance Training Reviews 

Make your onboarding compliance training more effective by offering reviews at specific intervals during the onboarding process. 

Track key metrics to see if specific regulations, rules, or policies aren’t being followed. Offer refresher courses to remind new hires of expectations. 

This will help prevent a hostile work environment by ensuring all new hires are aware of compliance. 

BeaconLive Can Help Your Company Add Engaging Compliance Training To Your Employee Onboarding Program

A comprehensive compliance training program will help new employees understand company values and expectations. 

Additionally, it will help mitigate any legal risks for your company should new hires not comply and create an enjoyable, more civil workplace for all employees. 

BeaconLive combines its powerful virtual event platform with its learning management system to help your HR team deliver a seamless onboarding experience that integrates compliance training with basic onboarding tasks. 

We offer tools that allow your human resource team to automate workflow, enabling them to turn their attention to other essential tasks. 

Contact us today for more information on how we can help you blend compliance with onboarding to take your new hire experience to the next level. 

References 

Chatterjee, R. (2018, February 21). A New Survey Finds 81 Percent Of Women Have Experienced Sexual Harassment. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/21/587671849/a-new-survey-finds-eighty-percent-of-women-have-experienced-sexual-harassment

Wetherell, E., & Nelson, B. (2021, August 12). 8 Practical Tips for Leaders for a Better Onboarding Process. GALLUP. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/353096/practical-tips-leaders-better-onboarding-process.aspx