But we all know that training isn’t enough. You have to reinforce the training, and HR says that’s happening. In fact, according to a recent study by Go1, 85 percent of HR leaders say their training is reinforced.

Great. 

Then why 53 percent of those same HR leaders saying that their “organization experienced incidents in the past 12 months that additional training, reinforcement, or earlier intervention may have helped prevent”?

Oh. 

And also, 76 percent of “compliance, legal, and risk leaders say reinforcement happens always or often.”

But the contradictions increase. While everyone is saying, “Oh, yes, we do our compliance training, and then we follow up with it!” they also admit that there are problems.

Only 18% of HR leaders and 13 percent of compliance, legal, and risk leaders say their current compliance approach focuses on reinforcing learning after training. 

If you’re not reinforcing training, you’re not really training.

If you train someone how to run a cash register at a fast food restaurant, the “training” takes one shift, maybe two. It’s not complicated. But that training is then reinforced every single time the new employee comes to work. Every shift, the employee runs a cash register until they are ringing up burgers and fries in their sleep and saying, “Would you like ketchup with that?” to random strangers.

That’s reinforced training.

But with compliance training, most of the tasks aren’t done every day. Some of the training is for tasks that may never actually happen. 

So, it’s difficult for someone to have their training reinforced through daily work. It takes a concentrated effort for managers to train their employees.

Which is why you have to work the training into the day-to-day. 

Managers need support 

Training isn’t just an HR issue or an employee issue. It’s a manager issue. Is continued compliance training a KPI for your managers?

If it’s not, it’s doubtful that your managers will truly focus on training on things that don’t come up all that often. Yes, the daily tasks are fine and well learned, but the other things–the sometimes things–are not learned.

If a manager doesn’t benefit from focusing on training, they are unlikely to reinforce training. And that’s how you end up with errors and problems even after HR has checked the box saying everyone is trained.

Checkbox training is the problem

You can see videos of people “completing” training by fast-forwarding videos, or skipping to the end and answering a quiz that they can pass without thinking.

Passing a quiz is a checkbox, not a reinforcement of principles. 

The true test is real-world compliance. Can your employees put the information to use in real life?

This requires a bit more work on the part of the trainer and the manager. Setting up a scenario in the workday, for instance, can refresh memories and truly test if someone understands. The idea isn’t a “gotcha” where you punish employees for making a mistake, but an opportunity to see if the employee truly knows what to do.

Compliance training is important, and it’s not enough to just get it done. It needs to be reinforced.

Simulations as a solution

This is where Go1’s Immersive Simulations are worth considering. It’s not a quiz that your employees take where they can get the right answer by knowing a bit about logic and reasoning. Go1 focuses on simulations where they have to apply real knowledge.

That matters because compliance problems rarely arrive as neat, obvious quiz questions. They show up as grey areas, awkward conversations, unclear reporting moments, or situations where employees need to decide whether to pause, ask, escalate, or act.

By giving employees a safer way to practice those decisions before the stakes are real, Go1 Immersive Simulations can help organizations see where people are confident, where they are guessing, and where more support is needed.

The post Your Compliance Training Worked. Then Everyone Went Back to Work appeared first on Improve Your HR.

Are you battling employees who feel they should earn more, work less, and do meaningful work instead of submitting expense reports on time? You’re not alone.

The post Is Your Team Burnt Out? Unrealistic Workplace Expectations Might Be to Blame appeared first on Improve Your HR.

Join Vortex Events as they host a free murder mystery for Evil HR Lady followers. It should be more fun than conducting a sexual harassment investigation.

October 6

• 12:00 Eastern,
• 11:00 Central
• 10:00 Mountain
• 9:00 Pacific

Register here: Evil HR Lady Murder Mystery

The post Evil HR Lady 20th Anniversary Celebration: A Murder Mystery appeared first on Improve Your HR.

I shared this amazing picture on Facebook and most people laughed about the Olan Mills style photo. (Side note: what on earth were we thinking in the 1970s/1980s?)

One person gave me a lecture on how I was stealing jobs from real photographers and artists by using ChatGPT to create this photo.

I beg to differ. Never in a million years would I pay a real person to create this in real life.

First of all, I’m wearing black and am not covered in white fur, and that’s not replicable in real life.

Second, even if I had a billion dollars sitting in my bank account, I wouldn’t pay someone to take this photo.

Third, the cat would never tolerate being held like that for a picture.

There are problems with AI for sure, and designers have been hit extra hard. So have content writers.

But life moves forward and we adapt. I used to make 100 percent of my income writing. Now I make 20 percent of my income that way.

Sometimes AI adoption goes poorly. Sometimes it causes more problems than solutions.

And sometimes it creates amazing pictures.

And if you’d like to learn how to use AI in HR effectively, join us for this conference

I’ll be on a panel talking about AI disasters. Register here: AI in HR From Strategy to Execution

The post Just what jobs is AI taking? appeared first on Improve Your HR.

In this case, the message included several specific allegations about how certain managers are treating staff, along with a few examples of incidents, but no names or dates that can be easily verified. The same message was also sent directly to multiple members of senior leadership, which added some urgency and visibility.

There’s no clear way to identify the sender, and it’s unclear whether this reflects a broader issue or a single disgruntled employee. What’s the right way to deal with this?

To keep reading, click here: How Do I Handle an Anonymous Complaint?

The post How Do I Handle an Anonymous Complaint? appeared first on Improve Your HR.

Here’s what we talked about:

• Rachael Harlan brought her bird Suzie and shared how training a wounded bird of prey is really the same as going through an ADA interactive process. If you do it right, everyone is better in the end.

• Giovannina Suluh focused on how attention to detail is the key to success in both people management and pageants. Plus, your ability to answer dumb questions with a smile puts you ahead.

• Rachel Klepadlo pointed out that both HR and competitive sports require patience and long, unglamorous preparation for a single high-stakes moment (an audit vs. a meet). Plus, she’s able to model good boundaries for others at the office.

• Marie Lobbezoo explained how the research and investigative skills used in historical reenactment — sorting out “what’s the real truth” from what’s written or said — mirror workplace investigations. We’re always trying to figure out what really happened.

• Suzanne Lucas explained the “yes, and” principle of improv is also the key to success in HR. You get what you get, and you build on that.

Stay tuned! Tomorrow we will announce the second 20th anniversary event.

The post HR After Hours appeared first on Improve Your HR.

Two things can be true at one: Law firm partners should not be snogging associates, and we should end this “gotcha” culture.

The post The Law Firm Scandal Every Manager Needs to Pay Attention to Right Now appeared first on Improve Your HR.

The post Join us for HR After Hours, Monday August 31 appeared first on Improve Your HR.

Bupa CEO Iñaki Ereño runs a multi-billion-pound company in the U.K. I have no doubt that his success in that and previous roles means he knows how to assemble a team. But years and years of leadership roles haven’t taught him one very important thing: When you sit down with a reporter to talk about how you hire, you probably shouldn’t emphasize that you have a legally sketchy method.

The post This CEO’s Unusual Wine Test Could Land His Company in Hot Water appeared first on Improve Your HR.

Readers get a 25 percent discount with code: EHRL

Register here: Mastering the Art of the Cover Letter  

The post Learn the Secrets of Writing Cover Letters (with Your Own Voice, not AI) appeared first on Improve Your HR.