HR and business leaders believe policies and procedures are essential to business success, but getting workers to comply is a 'major headache'
Non-complaint employees can cost businesses millions of dollars per year with the most common causes of policy breaches being employees either not knowing or not understanding company rules, finds a survey of 400 HR and business leaders across the UK and the US by CYPHER Learning. Yet, despite the high cost of non-compliance, it seems educating staff remains a comparative afterthought.
The True Cost of Rule Breakers in Workplace Compliance shows nearly nine in 10 (88 percent) business leaders agree that greater employee accountability would mitigate business risks. However, 71 percent believe staff don't “get” the importance of policies and procedures, so engagement is an ongoing battle – with 68 percent saying getting workers to comply with policies is a major headache.
“People may genuinely not know they are breaking the rules, or have simply forgotten, due to poor communication,” says Graham Glass, chief executive officer of CYPHER Learning. “Others know they are rule-breaking but think they can play dumb. Holding employees to account, and reducing the risk of accidental non-compliance, all comes down to education, awareness, and culture.”
The survey reveals that almost three-quarters (71 percent) of respondents think staff are likely breaking rules, but often don't know until something goes wrong – with policies relating to HR, data sharing, and health and safety being the areas employees are most likely to cut corners. Most HR leaders believe employees would be more likely to understand and comply with policies and procedures if training was more engaging. However, 87 percent say barriers such as a lack of time, funding, and urgency prevent them from making training more engaging.
No policies can cause damage, injury, and legal action
It's a growing problem, says Glass. “From shifting regulations to the introduction of new technologies, new threats, and evolving societal norms, what was acceptable or trusted one year may not be the next. It's hard to keep up. But lack of policy compliance – or failure to have a policy in place – can quickly result in reputational damage, injury, fines, revenue loss, reduced productivity, or even legal action. These costs are just the tip of the iceberg. Policy breaches can manifest in several ways that fly under the radar and chip away at revenues.”
The research reveals there is a lack of investment and focus on making training around policies and procedures more engaging. Less than half (44 percent) of budgets assigned to policies and procedures is spent on employee education – equating to just $105,000 per year on average. Meanwhile, 66 percent of respondents admit employee education is often an afterthought, with 62 percent complaining that training in this area is "one of the most boring things" they have to do.
“Reducing risk and increasing employee engagement go hand in hand,” says Glass. He adds that making learning more interactive and engaging has been proven to increase information retention and engagement. Yet HR leaders say finding time and resources to think creatively about policies and procedures is a challenge. “This is where AI can lighten the load, helping teams create timely, relevant, and engaging courses – while making individual learning at scale a reality. By bridging skills and resources gaps, AI can give teams more time, more resources, and more freedom – with remarkable efficiency and economy.”
Policies and procedures provide clarity over what is acceptable
The report says policies and procedures provide guardrails and clarity over what is and isn’t acceptable. Good policies shape and uphold organizational culture, define shared values, and offer a blueprint of the business. This creates order and consistency and improves the chances of everyone working in a safe, secure, efficient, and harmonious way.
However, and importantly, policies are not enough to insulate from business risk. Workforce compliance is also essential, says Glass. Without employee compliance, policies are not effective, which exposes businesses to risk.
“Too often policies and procedures are treated as a tick box exercise. It’s easy to lose sight of their purpose – to drive and influence behaviour. The only way to do that is by engaging people – they need to understand the purpose and the benefit.
“It’s time we get creative and think of new ways to reach people by telling stories that are timely, relevant, and interesting.”
The report offers five tips for engaging the workforce:
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Make training relevant and personalized
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Tell a story
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Bring the story to life
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Test, track, and measure
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Repeat, repeat, repeat
Glass says with AI, the cost and complexity of designing a course is drastically reduced. AI technology can assume 80 percent of coursework-designing effort. As a result, organizations can expend less human effort creating training materials that drive greater engagement and information retention.
