Dive Brief:
- While 60% of workers say compliance training leads to better behavior at work, nearly half (45%) say the training that exists is “disconnected from real situations employees face,” according to the results of a survey by employee training platform TalentLMS, released Jan. 21.
- Of the 1,000 U.S. workers polled, more than a third say that improving compliance training, such as training focused on realistic scenarios and practical skills, would cut down on misconduct at work.
- “When compliance training reflects real workplace scenarios, it helps people recognize misconduct, understand what steps they can take, and feel more comfortable speaking up. That kind of practical training builds stronger trust across the organization,” Theoni Velkou, compliance manager and data protection officer at Epignosis, the parent company of TalentLMS, said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Despite the advantages workers say they see in training, access is limited, the survey found.
One in 5 workers said they didn’t receive any compliance training in the last year. Similarly, only a third said they received diversity, equity and inclusion training in the past year, and 31% said they feel less protected as their company distances itself from DEI efforts.
A quarter of workers said they witnessed retaliation for speaking up about misconduct at work, and a fifth said they experienced it firsthand.
Yet more than three-quarters of employees said they would think about leaving their job if they didn’t feel protected at work, “directly linking employees’ sense of safety to retention,” the survey found.
The results come on the heels of an August 2025 report from Traliant, an online compliance training company, that found that workplace violence is increasing. Thirty percent of workers said they witnessed workplace violence happening to another employee, an increase from 25% the year before, and 15% said they were the target of workplace violence, up from 12% in 2024.
