You can’t afford to wait until the New Year rolls around to make resolutions, as you won’t be able to implement them thoughtfully in time. You need to know laws and practices to improve your company and keep it in compliance, now.

As Jim Chichanski, President and CEO of Flex HR reminds us, “Human Resources can play a vital role in safeguarding a company’s compliance structure, as not following new laws correctly could lead to legal troubles.”

Organizations must understand and follow the proper documentation processes, for example, to abide by acts and laws related to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), OSHA, Sexual Harassment, discrimination laws, retaliation, age, workers’ compensation, disability, and AAP and OFCCP Compliance.

“Managing wage and hour compliance has become more crucial with rapid changes in the federal FLSA, state, and local laws,” states Jim Cichanski, Founder & CHRO of Flex HR.

Have Fun While Creating Change

Some companies have come up with some fun training ideas to further manager training and development or launched training initiatives to contribute to employee development.

Some companies conduct surveys during November to try to get the ball rolling on change before the New Year arrives. Others have employees contribute their thoughts to development goals for work or compliance strategies.

Since 2005, when the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics created Compliance and Ethics Week in November, many companies have found creative and fun ways to bring their employees up to speed.

As you’re browsing leadership workshop ideas, here are some ways you could spice up compliance training and development:

1. Use Social Media

Use your social media page to conduct fun holiday or seasonal surveys (for example, what’s your favorite hot beverage this time of year?).

Once you get engagement rolling, you can add mindful or funny memes and posts reminding employees of the upcoming company changes.

 

 

 

2. Break the Training and Upcoming Changes into Small Pieces

To avoid overwhelming your employees, break up the training into easily understandable concepts. Then, play simple recall games with the information to make sure they have digested it.

For example, you can hand out slips of paper with pieces of information that must be put in the right order, then have employees work together to assemble it.

Jim Cichanski adds, “with Working-from-Home being more of a norm, a library of small (2-5 minute) training videos is a great resource for training employees who are new, who may not have learned a particular subject, or who need a refresh.”

3. Train the trainers

Managers across the leadership team don’t always make the best coaches. They can lack the soft skills needed for effective teaching. Therefore, your HR department should invest in training your managers by reviewing employee training procedures and expectations, or even outsourcing this function to a company like Flex HR that can provide HR training and development programs.

Efficient trainers successfully motivate new workers to do well and understand how their contributions matter to the organization. A well-trained instructor recognizes how to adjust to different learning styles, control frustration levels, and leverage encouragement and positive reinforcement. Thus, trainees are more likely to feel safe, take risks, and increase their productivity.

3. Give Employees Case Studies

You can have employees work in pairs to read a case study and decide, based on the practices your company will implement in the new year, what the next steps would be.

Case studies are a great way to help employees see some of the circumstances in which new practices might be relevant.

4. Use Engaging Media

Use funny videos, photos, and other media to communicate points in your training.

For example, if you are discussing a new form your company will use, show them the actual form with funny information filled in, or a funny version of the form. Then, show them the real form and how to do it correctly.

No one wants to sit through another boring powerpoint full of text around the holidays!

“These strategies also work well for those working from home. It’s always a good idea to have a group session using a media tool,” says Jim Cichanski.

5. Make it Real

Use real-life stories from the news or your experience to bring home the training and make an impression. For example, if you are implementing new DEI initiatives, you can share stories of situations that arose in other companies and how they dealt with it, giving good and bad examples.

6. Use Gamification

You can make training and development into a game by creating a board with stickers and prizes or by using funny quizzes and brain teasers via social media or email. Using fun strategies can help your employees get up to speed and retain the information so that they don’t forget it all over the holidays.

However you implement change, FlexHR can help! We are creative people experts who would love to assist you in creating a plan for the new year or how to make your employee training more engaging.