The Importance of Compliance Training When Onboarding New Employees

Hiring a new employee can be extremely exciting. In all likelihood, you were one of the individuals who interviewed the candidate. Perhaps you made the ultimate decision. Whatever the case may be, a new hire can signal the beginning of exciting things to come.

As much as you want the new hire to begin their actual work, however, you need to ensure that the employee proceeds through some formalities. While they may seem like overkill, these formalities can save your company from both civil and criminal litigation.

One of those formalities is compliance training. When onboarding new employees, you will want to be absolutely certain that they learn about (and internalize) your company’s compliance procedures. Ultimately, being vigilant about compliance training will save you (and your company) from massive headaches in the future.

The Importance of Compliance Training

Yes, the term is vague. However, you can think of compliance training as educating employees about laws, rules, regulations, and company policies that apply to their day-to-day jobs.

There are two components of that definition. The first component addresses the actual policies that employees should learn. The second component addresses the training itself. Both components are critical in order to maximize compliance with all applicable law.

Let’s start with the policies themselves. You will want to ensure that every employee is aware of laws, rules, and regulations that affect their work. This, admittedly, may somewhat vary depending on a particular employee’s role. For instance, if you have a new hire that is joining a group of employees who often interact with government officials in a foreign country, that employee will undoubtedly need to be familiar with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), a federal law that prohibits bribery of foreign officials. A new hire that joins a group that commonly attends trade shows, for instance, may need to be familiar with federal antitrust laws in order to avoid any allegations of price fixing.

These are just two examples, but the point should be clear. You will want to examine the laws that affect your employees’ day-to-day responsibilities and ensure that new hires comply with those laws. And to reiterate: you must that you are training employees on all applicable law. This includes both federal and state law. It is easy to automatically think of compliance with federal law, but there may be some relevant statutes in your state that need to be followed. Here, it is better to be overinclusive than underinclusive. It will be helpful to speak with your organization’s in-house attorney (or outside counsel, as necessary) to ensure that you are training attorneys on all applicable laws.

With that said, there is another part of compliance training. That component is the training itself. There are several things to keep in mind.

First is the actual format to deliver the training. There are two clear choices here. You can deliver in-person training or electronic training. Electronic training may seem tempting to implement, but your new hire may retain less than if they learned through in-person instruction. In-person training, on the other hand, can be more costly.

If you opt for in-person training, ensure that the individual delivering the training is knowledgeable. This is an obvious requirement, but you want to be sure that there are no ambiguities when delivering the training. Often, some of the best people to deliver the training are legal professionals or HR representatives.

Whatever method you choose, you will want to ensure that your new hire has internalized the training. The best way to accomplish this is to deliver an exam after the training. If the new hire passes, simply proceed and keep the exam for your records. If the new hire doesn’t pass, simply provide more instruction and ensure that they truly understand before proceeding. This may take some time, but this task may save you from stress in the long run.

A Necessary Task

While it may not be the most entertaining task, compliance training is absolutely critical. It can save your organization from legal liability and can ensure that your new hire and your team are operating according to the same playbook.

However you choose to implement the training, make sure that it is complete and accurate. Be certain that the new hire truly internalized the training. By doing this, you are putting your organization in the best position to comply with all applicable laws and regulations.