There’s been a great desk of chatter recently about compliance training. Actually, maybe it’s no more than usual, perhaps I’m just sensitive to it at the moment.
Why so?
Well because since the beginning of 2013 I have been working to revamp our mandatory compliance training offering from 2 perspectives
1. Is the content technically correct (fear naught Dear Reader, I’m passing the buck on this one to the SME)
2. Is the method and media we are using the most likely to positively effect behavioural change (this is where I swing into action!)
Our current mandatory training is offered via traditional ‘click-next, self-paced’ eLearning delivered via our LMS and covers the following subjects
Data MattersManual HandlingDisplay Screen Equipment (DSE) awarenessRisk AssessmentHealth & Safety (H&S) InductionDiversity (I’m still arguing the toss as to whether Diversity training is mandatory or not and I have some interesting researched kindly surfaced by Donald Clark that suggests even if it is, that it’s not proven to effect any positive change)Financial Crime PreventionPrivacy and ConfidentialityTreating Customers Fairly (TCF)
My plan is to adopt a campaign not course approach for each of these subjects, which (in my head) seems a logical and effective thing to do, all I have to do is convince the compliance department….
…. and you know what….
I have!!!
Keep on reading this series of posts to discover how I managed to get the SMEs/sponsors buy in, ascertain what we wanted, engaged with suppliers and (in the fullness of time) the end result!
If you haven’t read this series to date it may be worthwhile doing so in order to set the context for this post…
Once I’d won the SMEs over (I’m still pinching myself to be honest) I invited 3 x local vendors to come and meet with me to discuss my idea and to see if they would be interested in participating in the procurement process. This was a huge advantage for both sides as it:
allowed me to sense check my ideas and proposed approachprovided the vendors with an opportunity to take a brief look around my organisation, observe some of the resources and channels that we currently use (and may well use to communicate the campaign resources) and ascertain whether they felt we could work together.
I’m pleased to say that at this stage all 3 vendors were keen to work with us and all of them commented on how refreshing it was to see a traditional subject such as compliance training having a radically different approach taken to it.
Having previously worked as a vendor I understood the complications and ‘quirks’ that can be associated with a tender process, so I was very keen (from both perspectives) to own a process that was as transparent, fair and simple as possible. Rather than wrestle with (or expect others to) the typical procurement portals that are often the bane of a vendors life I decided to use Google Docs (I can’t get into the habit of calling it Google Drive) to write and communicate my Request for Proposal (RfP) through.
This had the advantage of being:
freesimple to usemobile friendlyable to allow each of the vendors to ask any questions ‘within’ the document, thus negating the need for a procurement portal and allowing each of the vendors to see each others questions – and of course my responses – thus keeping the process as fair and transparent as possible.
Several of the vendors said that they seldom saw GDocs being used in this way and were welcoming of the approach.
In terms of what I included in my RfP I used a great deal of the advice contained in this post from Stephanie Dedhar along with my own previous experience as a vendor
Once I’d released the GDoc RfP I set up a f2f meeting at our offices to:
allow each of the vendors to come inask further questions in an open forumand also to provide them with another opportunity to look at some of our existing comms channels etc.
Again, the feedback I got from this was very positive with one of the vendors saying that it helped to confirm their interpretation of the RfP and removed any ambiguity.
At that point I:
sat backanswered questionsarranged some access to some of our portalsconducted a few Adobe Connect session to explain our internal collaborative platform to some of the vendorswaited…..
I did learn some lessons along the way with this approach, here they are:
Get your potential providers in early, way before you write the RfP – the conversation will inevitably help you shape your thinking.No matter how long you provide people with the opportunity to respond, somebody will be late.Include a ‘please let us know if you intend to submit a proposal by xyz date’ request. I didn’t, and as a result had a vendor drop out with only 1 week to go until final submission, despite having the best part of 2 months visibility of the project scope!!!
Keep on reading this series of posts to discover what happened after we’d received the proposals and what I’m calling the ‘end of the beginning‘
If you’d like to discuss how we may be able to work together to bring about a fundamental change in the way your organisation delivers its mandatory training or would like to advise on how you can maximise the effectiveness of your next tender process then please get in touch.
Regular readers will know that my previous Organisation made the transition from outsourcing it’s self-paced elearning modules to bringing them ‘in house’ almost 2 years ago.
Once we had sourced the software my Head of Department insisted that we launch the system with a fanfare etc and advertise it’s existence. Now I must admit that at this stage I was a little reluctant to follow this course of action because self-paced elearning was nothing new to my Organisation, it was just that we had decided to bring the development in-house; I even quoted the old “YouTube was never launched line“, but he was having none of it….. so it was off the the PR & Comms department (which is ironically where I ended up working) to ask for some advice.
Rather than waffle on about the advice that they provided, I thought it would be far more interesting to show you….
They advised that I should ‘brand’ the elearning. Not from a screen layout, fonts etc perspective but from a ‘logo type’ angle; this is what we came up with
It plays upon the ubiquitous ‘e’ that many people associate with online activities as well as the ‘swirls’ which were a part of that organisations branding.
We then discussed how we could use the info-screens that are situated around site to enhance our campaign and settled upon what my colleague called a ‘sting campaign‘. If you are unsure as to what this is, then think about the run-up to Big Brother every year. Channel 4 ran a ‘sting’ campaign consisting of 1-2 second pieces of footage showing the Big Brother eye, usually with a few beats of the Big Brother music.
I decided that I also wanted to take this ‘teaser’ approach too, but more importantly wanted to get people talking about the campaign whilst still maintaining an air of mystery….. very much like the British Gas “tell Sid…..” campaign from yesteryear.
This is what we came up with, as you can see we have used the elearning logo to maintain the ‘branding’ of the campaign…
and I don’t actually mention what the hell it is that is coming. This was something of a gamble, however it really got people talking about the ads and what it was and when it was coming.
Our campaign was working.
Towards the end of the campaign we started to reveal a little more about what it was via a poster & flyer campaign.
The posters were placed in all the usual places
stairwellsnotice boardsKitchen areasBack of toilet doors…………. Above the urinals
I was shameless!
I also took a leaf out of McDonalds book and placed the posters on the trays in our on-site, self-serve restaurant to…. well… ram it down people’s throats even more (pun intended)
Once we had launched the system we then followed it up with an interview to fill in the gaps that the marketing campaign had been unable to do (this was one of our first recorded interviews and we were still learning the ropes (as you’ll be able to see), but it got the message across)
So folks, that was how we launched the in-house elearning system in my previous organisation.
Would I have chosen to do it that way?
No.
Am I glad that I did it that way?
Yes.
Why?
Because it taught me a great deal about thinking about the bigger picture around a single initiative. Although this was a piece of software and subsequently multiple self-paced elearning modules I would still choose to take this ‘campaign’ approach to the implementation of almost anything.
Granted, the effort involved may vary, but certainly from the perspective of a learning resource I’ll always try to ensure that it is only ‘part’ of a much bigger picture.
So that’s what I did, but what about you?
Have you ever mounted a campaign as part of a learning initiative?
Did it work?
What did you do?
Have you tried this but found it to be a waste of time?
Why not let us all know via the comments box below……
