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Calvin London (calvin@thecomplianceconcierge.com) is the former head of Business Operations and Integrity for Celgene Pty Ltd. in Australia and New Zealand.
Who would have thought that something I did for fun when I was studying at university would become a concept for training and education in compliance?
When I was at university, I played in a band. We didn’t do too badly and, for a while, had a regular gig at one of the local hotels. Alas that big recording contract never came, so I ended up in compliance. We did, however, get to experience recording when we cut a demo tape. During this process when you take a break and you come back, you do what is called a “Sound Byte” (adapted spelling!). This is a short run through a couple of riffs in a song to test the different sound levels and get balanced.
When I was reminiscing about this a couple of years ago, it set me off on a theme to come up with a series of short, sharp in-the-moment training scenarios, which we now call Sound Bytes, “Training Shots,” and “Memory Joggers.”
Change the attitude and the rest will follow
Few employees like compliance training. A large percentage of employees would agree with this statement. Yet it is one of the essential components of any compliance program. What I am finding, however, is that in our company at least, people are changing their views on this statement. Why?
Because we are changing our attitudes in relation to training and listening to people’s complaints—that they get too much training that is not focused.
I have written previously about the potential saturation of employees with mandatory read-and-understand training and how this has the potential to lead to noncompliance.[1] With a little bit of lateral thinking and innovation, it is possible to impart the same message and principles as reading through a policy or process, but in a more relaxed and condensed fashion that is also more acceptable to employees.
