The Importance of Compliance Training

You can run as many audits and inspections as you like, but at the end of the day, if your employees don’t understand compliance, they won’t be compliant. It may be boring to employees (and even management) but compliance does add value for your business.

If you want a smooth compliance process, you’re going to need compliance training. Still trying to pitch compliance training to upper management? Here are three reasons you can’t afford to ignore it.

The High Cost of Noncompliance

Between injuries, fines, settlements, business disruptions, and lost productivity, noncompliance is expensive. The average cost of noncompliance problems for organizations is around $14.82 million.

Think of the Big Pharma companies slammed with crippling fines for noncompliance with FDA regulations. Or the blow the SEC inflicts on financial institutions for similar noncompliance.

The soft costs of noncompliance are much closer to home. Poor compliance with safety regulation sends a clear message to your employees that you don’t care what happens to them. And employees of today aren’t willing to tolerate it. Unlike previous generations, younger workers are increasingly willing to change jobs when they feel that it isn’t the right fit.

Awareness=Engagement

Employee engagement is the latest buzzword, and for a good reason.

According to Gallup, disengaged employees have a 37% higher rate of absenteeism, 15% lower profitability and 18% lower productivity. In terms of cold hard cash, that means a disengaged employee costs you $3,400 for every $10,000 they make.

More than that, engaged employees are the kind of employees you want to keep. They’re bright, committed, focused, and on-message. You can rely on them as performers and standard-bearers of company values.

But most of all? They’re engaged. They show up and they look out for their colleagues. And when you teach them about their role in safety, they listen.

Compliance training works in your favor in two ways. First, it leverages the engaged employees you already have by applying their attentiveness to safety issues. Second, it teaches other employees to get engaged with safety by giving them the tools to do so. After all, if they don’t know what they’re looking for, it’s hard to expect them to look for it.

Clarity and Dialogue

Last but not least, compliance training gives you the opportunity to bring clarity and dialogue to your safety program.

If you’re doing safety training right, you’re approaching it as a discussion between your safety team and your employees. You use it as an opportunity to help employees understand your safety program. They ask questions, you offer guidance. It’s the perfect opportunity to make safety accessible to your employees.

Strengthening Compliance Training Day by Day

We know that great compliance training starts with great training tools. That’s where we come in.

Our training software is designed to make training that much easier for employees and EHS professionals alike. Employees can access and understand content and EHS teams can track employee progress toward training goals.

Sound like the right fit for your team? Then let’s talk. Get in touch today to learn more about our software.