As much as we would like to think otherwise, few employees are excited about compliance training. Most view it as a mundane, arbitrary speed bump they have to endure before being allowed to return to the duties of their actual job. The usual engagement for most employees is “click to go to the next module” as quickly as you can.

But what if we could make the compliance training process more interactive by improving user engagement, encouraging participation and influencing behavior?

Adding a sense of gamification can make compliance training more fun while bringing the best out of your participants. But what does Gamification actually mean? Lets define it this way: “Gamification is when you apply the typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition, achievements) to compliance training in order to encourage engagement.”

At a high level, gamification is appealing because it promises to make the hard stuff in life fun! Let’s look at some of the best ways to engage your learners through gamification of in-person and online training.

Give Your Training a Theme

With gamification, your goal for compliance training is to get participants excited for each step in the training process and pique their interest as they move through it. Adding a theme – or storyline –  to your compliance training makes workplace learning more enticing and attention-grabbing; turning a dull task into a more entertaining experience.

When you include realistic characters and themes that resonate with employees, then your storylines provide examples of successful compliance situations that employees can emulate. For example, try using a character who climbs up the ranks of their company by following the company’s compliance guidelines, referencing a new milestone achieved in each portal of the training. Showing participants how following your organization’s compliance guidelines benefits them personally and career-wise, helps them relate to what’s being taught.

Articulating your training into a storyline – or theme –  makes each lesson more palatable, and ultimately more effective.

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Right Answers Get Rewards

Another effective gamification technique is to award points for each correct response given. Instead of giving the conventional “correct” or “incorrect” for every answer, use a point system that gives participants quantifiable evidence of their progress.

Gamification is also the same idea behind Starbucks’ rewards app. By using a points system, users are made to feel excited each time they buy a coffee. The more frappuccinos they buy, the more rewards they accrue.

Keeping score plays into human nature. People naturally become more interested in an activity when there’s something at stake. It raises their sense of engagement on an emotional level, thus creating a more positive experience.

The same principles apply to compliance training. By gamifying the learning experience through points and rewards, participants will feel more inclined to want to “level up” throughout the training. Motivation and morale will grow among your team as a result.

Use Leaderboards to Build a Sense of Friendly Competition and Community

Just as organizations work systematically to influence behavior in their target customers, which occurs through community building, similar tactics can work with employees as they go through the compliance training process.

You can help participants feel like part of a community by using inclusive elements that produce encouragement throughout their training. One method of inclusion is the use of a game style leaderboard.

In the leaderboard results image, we can see that participants are angling for the “highest score” against their co-workers. Leaderboards are a friendly way to promote gamesmanship during training and keep participants motivated to complete it. A sense of community will naturally emerge as employees embrace compliance training as part of company culture and co-worker fun.

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Taking Training to The Next Level

Most everyone understands the concept of leveling up. It’s the idea of getting to that next level of skill or understanding as you advance in any endeavor. When you treat the entire compliance training process as though each participant is advancing through levels on their way to “beating the game”, they develop their own sense of motivation to keep going.

The key is to make participants feel like they are moving vertically rather than horizontally. They are effectively improving towards an end goal, not going through the motions without any constructive results.

Personalized Training for Better Results

Personalizing the learning content helps learners to relate to what they are learning. This is why it’s important to  tailor the level of gamification to their specific needs. For example, some participants might identify more with a small quiz or assessment that’s gamified versus having their entire course be gamified. Other participants may respond better in a scenario-based learning environment, where they are called upon to answer questions based on real-life scenarios.

Tailoring your course to the needs of participants will encourage more engagement and more successful learning, but getting there will involve proper evaluation of what motivates and drives your employees.

Scavenger Hunt

Compliance training also doesn’t have to stay online. A fun way to get employees collaborating together is by using in-office game techniques like a scavenger hunt.

It works like this. Use a few desks throughout the office to illustrate clear compliance issues. Tell employees to survey the area individually or in teams and report back on which compliance issues they noticed. Then discuss and explain why each of the infractions constitutes an issue.

This activity can be further  gamified by introducing a points system. For every infraction uncovered, each team gets a point or some other reward.

Compliance Trivia

Trivia games are another way to marry outside-of-work social activities with compliance training. Bring team members together for an enjoyable activity that they would normally do outside of the workplace helps learner engagement on a more personal level.

The key is to treat this like a typical “trivia night.” The only difference is participants are winning points for correctly answered compliance questions. During this time of social distancing, trivia games are easy to do with remote meetings.

Gather More Feedback with Gamification

Regardless of which methods you employ with your learning, it’s important to build engagement with your employees by encouraging open feedback about your compliance process. Employees will feel more motivated to comply when they know their feedback is valued. Plus, you might gain a few useful ideas to improve policies and procedures.

In keeping with our theme, this feedback can be gamified as well. Introduce your open call for feedback as a “new idea” competition where points are rewarded to employees for each piece of input they provide. You might be surprised by the level of engagement that occurs when employees are called upon for their insights and are rewarded for providing it.

Gamification Sparks Company-Wide Interest in Compliance Training

Gamification has been proven to help participants remain interested and willing to learn. This results in better job performance and improved company morale. And that negative stigma for compliance training? Gone.

Talk to ComplianceLine about customized training that maximizes the potential of your employees and positions your organization for success.

Watch the Webinar:
How to Update Your Compliance Training
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