Compliance training has gained a bad rep for being boring.
On one hand, many businesses treat it as nothing more than a requirement and on the other, their employees dread the experience and can’t wait for it to get over.
If you’re reading this blog, it is a probability that you identify with at least one of those situations. The reality, however, is that compliance training is a necessity to ensure the safety of your employees.
The cost of compliance ultimately falls upon the shoulders of the business. For this reason, it is the job of the employer to make their compliance training effective.
While there have been numerous innovations to improve the effectiveness of compliance training, one that has shown extraordinary results is game-based learning.
What Is Game-Based Learning?
As the name suggests, game-based learning is simply learning through games. The approach dictates that specifically designed games can be used to teach (and test) real-life skills to learners. While developing a computer game may sound like a daunting task, it can be easily (and economically) outsourced to professional game-based learning providers.
Another thing worth noting is that game-based learning is often confused with gamification. While both concepts, like their names, share a number of similarities, the scope of gamification is limited to adding game-like features such as leaderboards, to training.
Now that we understand what game-based learning (and gamification) is, let’s look at the benefits that make this training approach so special:
Enhanced enthusiasm
The addition of games to your compliance training is naturally going to make it more “fun” and thus, more desirable for the trainees. Let’s face it, who doesn’t like games?
Employees want their training to resemble games and with improved effectiveness offered by game-based learning, you can provide it to them!
Doing so is naturally going to get at least some of your employees more excited about their compliance training. In fact, if done right, game-based learning can be a selling point to attract top talent to your organization.
Chance to apply the skills learned in theory
Using games, it is possible to recreate possible crisis scenarios that are often a part of compliance training. Doing so has dual benefits:
- Learning with practice will improve retention and as a result, better prepare your employees to work in the field
- By engaging in practical training, your employees will be able to gauge the risk involved in their job and will perhaps take the training more seriously
There are also monetary benefits associated with having a safe, risk-free training environment for your employees.
Immediate Feedback
Unlike most forms of compliance training, games possess the ability to provide the learner with immediate feedback.
This means that when a rookie commits a mistake, they will instantly be notified about it and can apply the knowledge to improve their efficiency on the job.
Better Tracking Of Results
The immediate feedback data is also saved and can be turned into custom reports with serious games. These reports can, in turn, be used to identify gaps in your training process, helping you make data-driven decisions to improve the effectiveness of your compliance training program.
Conclusion
Apart from making your compliance training more interesting and effective, games in training also improve the soft-skills of the trainees. Skills like problem-solving and critical thinking, which were previously very difficult to train for, are automatically trained when a rookie engages with a purpose-driven game.
