10 revealing compliance training research stats for financial services [Infographic]

A recent survey shows that 44% of financial services employees don’t feel very well equipped to protect themselves or their company following mandatory compliance training. Not a surprise when half say they don’t read or listen to this training in any detail.

We look at the key findings from our recent compliance training research – and share two must-do recommendations for boosting engagement when it comes to compliance.

Embed on your website

</p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <p><strong>Please include attribution to Elucidat with this graphic.</strong></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <p><a href=’https://www.elucidat.com/blog/research-compliance-training/’><img src=’https://3laqv717sts93xqsasfw9rkf-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/The-truth-about-compliance-training-infographic.jpg’ alt=’Compliance Training Infographic’ width=’750px’ border=’0′ /></a></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <p>

Top 10 compliance training research statistics from the survey:

1. 44% of financial services employees say they do not feel very well equipped to protect themselves or their company following mandatory compliance training
2. This isn’t a surprise given that 15% click-through without reading or listening
3. And 34% say they only skim-read the content or tune in or out to audio
4. Men are 2x more likely than women to click through without reading or listening!
5. By far the most common word used to describe compliance training was “boring”, a clue to why almost half of people are confessing to low engagement.
6. 70% of compliance training is over 30 minutes long, contributing to the boredom factor
7. 18% is over an hour long
8. The three most common mandatory compliance topics in last 6 months were Information security, data protection and code of conduct training
9. 77% of people say their mandatory compliance training is specific to their organization
10. But only 45% say it’s specific to their department or role

What employees want from compliance training

When asked how their mandatory compliance training could be improved, more engaging (less boring) content was a common request, along with shorter and more role-specific content. 

People want more real-life examples that relate to their role, more interactive content and opportunities to test out with a quiz upfront. 

What financial services employees said:

• making it specific to my business rather than just a cheap package my company purchases
• real life situations and or actual examples to better interpret what we can do to ensure better compliance
• less time explaining things that could be summed up in one slide instead of multiple slides.
• make it not a complete joke. the examples used are silly and feel like we as adults are being treated like mindless idiots
• make it relevant to my position (i don’t have a customer-facing job so stop telling me what to do in customer-facing situations)
• I think they should offer a quiz at the beginning. If you can pass the quiz, you don’t have to take the training. it would ensure that people knew the material, or knew where to get it. I would feel immense gratification at passing the quiz and would learn more via that than through the training.
• Better materials, and make learning more interactive and dynamic

The challenge for financial services L&D and compliance training teams

Failure to engage employees in mandatory compliance training is putting your business at risk. 

Regulators don’t just want to see the compliance training box ticked – they want to see training that’s targeted and effective. 

Taking a more people-centered approach to compliance training will not only reduce risk, it will have a huge impact on business productivity. 

The challenge: Increase engagement and effectiveness to equip employees properly. 

Read more about the business case behind engaging elearning. 

Two recommendations for major impact:

1. Respect time

Aim to reduce the time your employees spend away from their day-to-day duties on compliance training and make sure that time is well spent. Your compliance training needs to embrace microlearning – short, snappy, repetitive. When it comes to online training, anything over 20 minutes is too long. 

2. Personalize

The most effective compliance training is targeted to specific departments, roles and contexts. From using imagery in elearning that actually looks like your employees workplace, to offering role selectors up front so people can access the content that relates to their roles – there are plenty of simple ways to personalize training content. 

What does this look like in practice? 

Elearning is the perfect modality for compliance training – but a look of compliance elearning is dull as dishwater. It doesn’t have to be that way. We’ve collated our favorite compliance elearning examples to give you a little inspiration.

Use Elucidat? There are tonnes of compliance blueprints available in Learning Accelerator which you can use as templates to make producing your next project 4x faster. 

About the survey

Survey conducted between October 27 and 5th November using Pollfish. Responses collected from 400 people over the age of 18 working in finance and insurance organizations with over 1,000 employees in the United States.