Compliance Training: Moving From Obligation to Opportunity

EDITOR’S NOTE: Because enterprise learning involves multiple disciplines and perspectives, we often invite experts from other organizations to share their insights. Today, Gill Williams, National Sales Manager at Propelr, discusses how to improve the impact of compliance training.

Inside the Compliance Training Gap

To operate successfully in today’s business environment, companies must follow numerous rules and regulations. In fact, 64% of CEOs view compliance as a core business enabler, and many leaders recognize the importance of effective compliance training.

But too often, this kind of training feels like a mindless checkbox exercise. Employees quickly click through a course, mark it complete, and move on. They rarely remember much of the content, let alone learn why it matters or how it relates to their role.

Recent research illustrates this disconnect. On one hand, nearly 60% of workers told SurveyMonkey that training helps them do their job better. Yet, according to Gallup, only 23% of employees rate compliance training as “excellent,” and only 10% say it changes their long-term work behavior.

And this issue doesn’t stop with employees. In many industries, contractors, channel partners, and franchise staff are expected to meet the same compliance standards as the internal workforce. So, for external contributors, compliance knowledge is equally important.

Regardless, many training programs are falling short. Why? And how can you overcome this challenge?

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Bridging the Compliance Training Divide

Training topics aren’t the problem. Think about the focus of common compliance courses:

• Workplace safety protocols
• Data security and privacy protection
• Fraud, waste, and abuse prevention
• Recruitment and hiring procedures
• Diversity, inclusion, and anti-harassment practices
• Operational ethics

These topics are business essentials. They’re not the issue. The problem is training delivery. Compliance courses often feel disconnected from daily workflows, so the message gets lost.

At its best, compliance training is about more than just meeting regulatory requirements. It’s also about aligning employees around common interests — shared expectations, safety, and day-to-day success. And that begins with understanding why it matters.

When people know the why behind compliance training, it becomes more than just a checkbox. It becomes a chance to learn how we work together.

This focus fundamentally shifts the mindset from obligation to opportunity. And it’s the key to transforming compliance into a tool for cultural alignment and long-term success.

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The Cost of Compliance Without Culture

If your organization treats compliance training purely as a regulatory necessity, you’re risking more than learning engagement. You’re missing one of the few built-in opportunities to reinforce values, clarify expectations, and drive consistent behaviors across your workforce and partner networks.

Without a mindset shift, here’s what you can expect:

• Participants rush through training with little engagement.
• Knowledge retention suffers, and behavior doesn’t change.
• Critical messages are diluted or forgotten.
• Admins start chasing completions instead of tracking progress.
• Technically, your organization may comply, but miss the mark from a practical standpoint.

Whether a corporate employee is blindly clicking through required modules or a franchise staff member is doing the bare minimum, the result is the same. Compliance training is treated like a dull task to survive, rather than a chance to align on common ground.

This missed opportunity comes at a hefty price. Non-compliance costs organizations an estimated average of $14.8 million a year. That’s nearly 3x the typical compliance investment of about $5.5 million.

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Reframing Compliance: “This Is How We Work Together”

Every required course you deliver communicates more than just organizational rules. Whether it’s about safety, ethics, harassment prevention, or cybersecurity, it reinforces how your people show up for one another, how they support and protect your customers, and how your operations stay safe and productive.

For organizations with extended networks, these courses also set expectations for how partners, franchisees, and contractors represent your brand. Compliance isn’t just internal. It’s an outward reflection of business consistency, quality, and trust.

Mandatory compliance courses are one of the guaranteed times each year when everyone hears and internalizes the same message. That’s a powerful cultural touchpoint. And it can make a real difference.

For example, consider this: 84% of people who rate their compliance training as excellent are highly confident they know where to report concerns about unethical behavior. On the other hand, those who say training is mediocre report much lower confidence.

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4 Ways to Make Compliance Meaningful

Making compliance matter to your workforce requires intention. When you approach compliance training this way, it becomes a chance to:

• Clarify the “why” behind what you’re asking employees to do.
• Build shared understanding around values and expectations.
• Reinforce repeatable behaviors that ensure consistency across teams.
• Connect regulatory requirements to real-world risks and responsibilities.

To guide this shift from obligation to opportunity, rely on these 4 principles:

1. Lead With the “Why”

Start every course with context. By emphasizing the practical relevance of compliance, you encourage participants to engage more fully.

Why does this topic matter to our organization? What is at stake? How does it protect our people, support our customers, or prevent disruptions?

Want to educate people about how a safety protocol prevents downtime or reduces injuries? Directly connect the “why” to individual responsibilities and impact. This transforms training from delivering basic policy information to demonstrating how compliance aligns in meaningful ways with your broader mission and purpose.

2. Tailor for Relevance

Avoid one-size-fits-all modules that speak to no one. Customize content by role, responsibilities, department, or environment.

For example, a manufacturing production line worker, a retail franchise cashier, and an independent contractor face very different risks. Each will learn more effectively from specific examples that fit into their world.

The more closely your training reflects real-life experiences, the more likely participants are to relate, remember, and apply what they learn.

3. Make It Active

Active learning doesn’t necessarily mean gamifying everything. It means asking people to engage through decision-based scenarios, short reflections, or team conversations after they complete a course.

Even simple questions like, “How does this apply to your day-to-day work?” help people internalize training more deeply than 50 slides of policy text.

4. Build Cultural Accountability

Training completion isn’t the finish line for compliance. It’s only the start of an ongoing process.

Encourage leaders to model desired behaviors. Equip managers and team leaders to reinforce training messages in day-to-day conversations. And provide an environment that is open to feedback and continuous improvement.

For franchise owners or channel managers, this means reinforcing compliance not only as a mandatory task, but also as an important reflection of the brand you represent.

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Compliance Training Transformation Benefits Everyone

When you reframe compliance as a shared responsibility — rather than a top-down requirement — the results are compelling. For instance, it leads to deeper learner engagement, stronger post-training feedback, and more consistent follow-through behaviors among team members.

Keep in mind that this shift doesn’t always require additional content. Often, changing only framing, tone, and manager reinforcement can drive stronger cultural traction.

Regardless, when compliance training is grounded in culture and operational relevance, its benefits ripple across the organization:

• Employees engage more fully because they connect with its purpose.
• Administrators track real progress, not just completions.
• Managers reinforce expectations with greater clarity and confidence.
• Leadership gains a reliable channel for reinforcing values at scale.
• Customers and operations teams see results in safety, service, and consistency.

In combination, these outcomes underscore the value of meaningful training. And it’s not surprising that learning cultures are up to 4x more likely to innovate and see productivity gains.

A Final Word on Embedding Compliance With Culture

Compliance training will always be mandatory. That’s the reality. But whether it is considered a nuisance or an opportunity for organizational alignment is a conscious leadership decision.

By rooting compliance in cultural values and operational relevance, you can shift training from a “must-do” task to a mission-critical responsibility for all. And by including contractors and partners in this process, you can broadly extend the business benefits of compliance, even as you reduce organizational risk.

So, the next time you review your compliance strategy, ask yourself this clarifying question:

“Are we just checking the box? Or are we reinforcing what matters most across all those who represent us?”

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