One and done compliance training doesn’t cut the mustard

Do you ever feel like compliance training is constantly on your mind? If you answered yes, you may actually be doing it wrong.

We all know how important training is to a sustainable and successful compliance effort. Yet, without a strategic training plan, all that time spent shopping, arranging and traveling for here-and-there sessions eats up time and leaves you with a less-than-satisfactory result.

Strategic training plans are more than a calendar of online courses. A truly effective plan takes into account the full picture and asks:

• What kind of training do we need?
• Which staff members require the training?
• Which methods are best for presenting the information?
• How often does it need to happen?

Take teller staff. These professionals require a very different kind of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) training than mortgage lenders, for example. The same online BSA course for all employees isn’t going to provide the specific, job-related information that individual staff need to meet BSA requirements. Of course, it’s critical training be provided to all employees. It’s just that the training has be relevant to their responsibilities to be truly effective. A generic overview of regulatory requirements won’t cut the mustard.

It’s also important to remember a one-and-done approach to training doesn’t work. For instance, tellers must balance strict responsibilities with outstanding member service, which can put regulatory requirements on the back burner. Regular and periodic BSA training for them, as well as other employees, is helpful to keeping compliance right where it should be – at the front of their minds.

When tackling the “when” of your strategic plan, consider how your credit union handles training for new employees. Do you assign them a slew of online courses and call it good, or do you take the opportunity to provide them with valuable training that not only covers the rules, but also provides them with critical information specific to your credit union and to their duties?

Put yourself in the shoes of the employees charged with completing compliance-driven duties. Imagine you are starting a new job. Your supervisor hands you a list of regulations governing how you should do your job and stops there. He doesn’t instruct you how to do your job so you are in compliance with those regulations. Surprisingly, the “how to” is often overlooked in training sessions. Think of your mortgage lenders. These folks have faced arguably the largest regulatory upheaval in their day-to-day duties in recent years. Training that not only covers the regulatory requirements, but also includes the specific processes your credit union has implemented to comply with those requirements, is likely very welcome.

After you’ve mapped out what specific types of training the employees in each area of your credit union need, think about how often the training should be provided. When regulations change is an easy one. Most all credit unions conduct training around important updates. But, what about the regulations that aren’t getting all the attention? Are you remembering to include those in the training plan?

Again, we often rely on online courses to meet training requirements, but a review should be conducted regularly to determine whether those courses really do provide the level of training your employees need and deserve to perform the requirements of their jobs.

All of this can sound a bit daunting. Fortunately, credit unions have many resources, ranging from free webinars to compliance consultants, to help them set up, manage and even conduct training for staff. If you continue to be overwhelmed even after finding help, get that chin up by thinking about this quote from Peter F. Drucker: “No one learns so much about a subject as one who is forced to teach it.”