Welcome to a new edition of “Dear Connie the Compliance Training Specialist,” where we answer questions about life science compliance training concepts and discuss new ideas for making that training more effective.

This week: create a campaign to make it stick!

Dear Connie,

I am a compliance training manager for a mid-sized life sciences company in Pennsylvania and I am worried about our training on interactions with HCPs. We rolled out a new policy last year, and in January I launched comprehensive training on that policy. But based on our monitoring and data from our hotline, employees are still forgetting the key concepts and principles from their training. Connie, where do I go from here?

Signed,

Perplexed in Perkiomen

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Dear Perplexed,

Your challenge is a common one, but there are steps you can take to make the training more memorable. Just this month, at the 3^rd Annual Life Science Compliance Training Conference, a number of your peers talked about how they use a campaign approach to make training more effective and make it stick with their learners.

Create a Brand

Develop a brand for the training campaign. Branding works for your company’s products, and it will work for your compliance training. Every time employees interact with your compliance training “brand” they form associations. The images you select reinforce those associations. Make sure your brand communicates the importance of integrity, clearly and consistently. Carry that branding throughout the training and on all communication.

Less is More

I suggest smaller training delivered throughout the year, rather than a longer more cumbersome course once or twice a year. When you take a “less is more” philosophy and keep seat times to no more than 15 minutes per module, you’re likely to see an uptick in retention. Don’t forget to keep the training flowing continuously, and build in follow up assessments, microlearning and contests to reset the forgetting curve that inevitably occurs after they complete the initial module or workshop.

Build the Messaging

The communication plan is critical too. Clear and concise messaging about the importance of the training, needs to be delivered in all three stages: pre-launch, launch, and post-launch. You should seek help from the stakeholders to deliver the messaging (one presenter at the conference said her company refers to these people as “compliance connectors”). The district managers are important in the process. They are the ones talking to the sales representatives on a regular basis, so you need to get them on board and funnel the messaging through them. Remember, communication is an ongoing process, you should constantly refine, adjust, and expand communications as you monitor the results of the training.

I could talk for hours about the need for a campaign approach to life sciences compliance training. I haven’t even touched on the need to solicit and evaluate learner feedback. Fortunately, my friends at PharmaCertify (that’s the life sciences compliance training division of NXLevel Solutions) have years of experience building training plans, and they’d be happy to share more ideas with you. Email my buddy Dan O’Connor at doconnor@nxlevelsolutions.com to see what they’ve done for other life sciences compliance clients.

Thanks for the great question and good luck!

Signed,

Connie the Compliance Training Specialist