Let’s be honest. No one is lining up to take compliance training. It’s dry, dull, and employees would literally do anything to get out of it. But here’s the thing, the information in compliance training is actually really important.
So how do you get employees to engage and participate?
Change the way you present the material.
That’s where game-based learning comes in. Unlike gamification, where points and badges are simply added to existing content (you finished reading a 100-page PDF, here’s a gold star!), game-based learning completely transforms the content into challenge-based elements.
This approach piques the learner’s interest, encourages them to interact with the content, and ultimately, learn more from the material. Not only does it drive results, but it’s also cost-effective and quick to implement for the organization.
There are many advantages to using game-based learning, but here are the five things trainers and L&D departments get most excited about:
1. It’s Engaging
Most organizations use passive methods for compliance training. Think reading PDFs, watching videos, or sitting through lectures. The problem with this approach is that there’s no interaction or engagement. They lose focus, daydream, or even catch up on sleep.
On the other hand, game-based learning uses the same principles as the most addicting mobile and social games to draw learners in. They require constant interaction (active learning) with the content and present information in an informative (and enjoyable) way that grabs the learners’ attention to keep them coming back for more.
Don’t believe us? Believe the employees that have taken game-based training:
83% feel more motivated after using game-based learning
89% said they’d spend more time on software with game elements
89% state that games make them more productive
As for the type of training employees would add game-element to if they had the chance:
You guessed it, corporate compliance training[1]
2. Increases Retention
When people are presented with a heap of information at once — like sitting through three-hours of mandatory compliance training — they’re not going to remember everything. In fact, they’re going to remember very little. Studies show that information overload is real and has a detrimental effect on knowledge retention.
Research reveals that without follow-up, people forget about 50% of the information presented within one-hour. In 24 hours, they’ve likely forgotten about 70%, and within a week, the number climbs to 90%.[2]
Game-based learning overcomes this by using a distributed practice approach. Instead of cramming all the information into one session, the content is broken down into manageable segments. Employees learn a little bit every day and have time to reflect on what they’ve learned and apply it within their workflow.
Once confident with the material, only then do they move on to the next segment. When compared to long-form training, this type of microlearning approach drives over 20% more information retention.[3]
3. Flexible Training Schedule
Game-based learning is self-paced learning — meaning there’s no mandated training time. And since each training module only takes a few minutes to complete, any space in an employee’s schedule can be turned into meaningful training time.
The few minutes between meetings
The start (or end) of the day
During the commute
While waiting on never-ending hold
Giving people the flexibility to train when they want (and on the device they feel most comfortable with) will improve participation and engagement rates.
4. Cost-effective
This is where many people’s ears perk up. Game-based learning is cost-effective, especially if you purchase a pre-built solution instead of building your own in-house.
There are two main reasons game-based learning is more affordable than other methods.
Workers spend less time training and more time doing their jobs. Instructor-led learning was still the most popular training method in 2019 — but it’s also the most time-intensive. That’s why the average employee spent about 42 hours training in 2019.[4] When you switch to a game-based approach, the training time goes drastically down — leaving more time for workers to, you know, actually work.
Game-based learning is also usually less expensive per employee than other training methods. Think about it. You don’t have to hire a trainer, rent a facility, transport employees to the site, or pay for 100s of PDFs to be printed.
5. Easy and Fast for Course Authors
The last reason training departments should use a game-based approach for compliance training is because it’s fast to author content.
Lessons are bite-sized, so the resources needed to develop the content are bite-sized as well. This makes life easier, and it allows organizations to respond to changes in regulations or policy quickly. The government changes the legislation, directly affecting your business? No problem, just update an existing course, or write a new module and push it out to employees. No fuss, no muss.
Compliance training has never been something that employees (or even employers) look forward to — but it is important. If you change the perception of compliance training by transforming how you present information, engagement, and participation levels, as well as knowledge retention will increase.