A Customer’s Perspective on Workforce Compliance

A Balanced Compliance Program Is a Closed Loop

According to Rob, a balanced compliance program begins with an assessment of risk and includes a workflow of activities, documentation and attestations to address that risk in a certain period of time.

“It always starts with a role,” he says. “Let’s say it’s business manager. They need to understand certain practices about fair lending. There are certain things that we need to make sure all of our business managers know.”

Once the compliance program has identified which roles are responsible for which risks, it’s time to assign activities. A business manager may need to review and attest to specific policies.

“Maybe there’s a quiz or a test that needs to happen at a certain point in time to assure that all of our business managers have a certain level of knowledge,” says Rob. “And then there’s reporting. We need to make sure that the general manger of that dealership sees that report and then attests that that report has been reviewed. You package that all together, so if there should be any kind of issue that needs to be proven, you’re able to say, ‘We have a plan, and it is executed and here’s evidence of its execution.’

A Balanced Compliance Program is Flexible Enough to Accommodate New Technology

A balanced compliance program needs in conjunction with and at the speed of new technology. During the webinar, Patrick told a story about establishing a compliance program and soon discovering that compliance activities would need to significantly change due the adoption of a new tech product:

“Our program was all set up, and then, about 14 months ago, management decided to use a new product called docuPAD, which is a desktop video screen where the entire closing for finance and insurance is now done no longer on paper, but electronically. Our entire activity-based compliance plans changed; everything changed.”

Technology is evolving at a faster rate than ever before, and it isn’t just the auto industry that needs to keep up. As Patrick advises, “it doesn’t matter if you’re in automotive or construction or manufacturing—there’s always change that is activity-based with regard to the business.” Credibly proving compliance, he says, hinges on “your ability to be able to wrap a compliance program around it that is flexible enough.”

Employees Demonstrate Learning in a Balanced Compliance Program

Although a compliance management system is fundamentally more extensive than a learning management system, every company needs to ensure its workforce is truly grasping the organization’s compliance policies and training modules. To improve knowledge acquisition, you need the right controls at either end of the learning process.

“Everybody learns differently,” says Patrick. “So, when you’re looking at this kind of system, you need to think about how do you make it work so that you can make certain that everybody is getting it? That’s where reporting comes in.”

Optimal training length is another key component to learning acquisition, according to Rob. Our CEO recommends that companies consider their compliance training as “an ongoing communication—or better yet—a conversation with an employee.”

“That would entail that you break it down into smaller, snackable bits,” he says. “If we’re talking about a conversation to change behavior, you need to break it into smaller, more digestible elements.” This tactic is especially effective for millennials and younger generations of employees who are accustomed to short bursts of content and brief forms of communication, such as text messages, which they can access from their phones.