Complacent Compliance Versus Modern Compliance: The Best New Year’s Resolution You’ll Ever Make 

Recently on LinkedIn, we shared an actual Reddit thread from an anonymous poster searching for a way to hack their compliance training and skip to the end without their employer knowing.  

Some of the comments advised the user that, honestly, it would probably take the same amount of time, if not longer, to find out how to hack the training than it would to just take it. The original poster responded it would be more fun to spend the time hacking it.  

I get it. I feel a lot of sympathy for our creative miscreant. But as a compliance professional, I feel even more sympathy for the folks who made that training. Luckily, there’s room to grow! Your compliance training doesn’t have to be boring.   

We all know some employees unfortunately dread compliance training. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if employees felt as inspired and motivated by compliance training as we all do?   

This year, I challenge you to do your part to change perspectives on compliance.    

Quote Graphic that reads "Remind yourself that the compliance industry is always evolving – and why you got started in the first place."

Complacent Compliance vs. Modern Compliance – Let’s talk about it 

Let’s be real — it’s not hard to fall into complacency, especially after years of work. I bet that keeping training modern and captivating is one of the biggest challenges at every organization. Here’s the thing: We aren’t doing our jobs if we don’t leave an impact. Unless you actively seek modern compliance, you’ll unfortunately fall into the complacent compliance trap.   

When I left the SCCE’s CEI in October 2022, I was overwhelmed with inspiration and pride in being a part of such a meaningful community. If you’ve been following us for a while, you know I am brand new to the compliance world. With every session I attended, I gained more insight on the power of compliance, and was fortunate to hear from thought leaders from every unique corner of the industry. So how do we bring that energy to our employees?  

Avoid complacency. Your New Year’s resolution is to not allow yourself to fall victim to the word. Remind yourself that the compliance industry is always evolving — and why you got started in the first place. We are all here to ignite change in the world. The harder we work, the better our organizations (big or small) will be.  

I’m willing to bet you have more experience than I do in compliance, and I get it — I’m doing everything for the first time right now, so of course I’m more fired up about it. Come back and join me in your first year in compliance. Yes, you can keep the knowledge — just bring back the excitement and bandwidth to grow.  

Here are some ideas for avoiding complacency and finding your rose-colored glasses again: 

  1. Engage with creatives outside of this space. Find out how other people connect with their peers. Look for inspiration in unexpected places.  
  1. Become an active part of your organization as a whole. Find those course-skippers! Ask them what they want to see and what would make them enjoy their training.  
  1. Try one totally out-of-the-box idea once a year. It’s okay if it crashes, but it could be a huge hit. There’s only one way to find out! 
  1. Participate in industry events! What are your peers doing? Share and collect new ideas.  

With all that being said: Happy New Year! We wish you luck in your endeavors this year. If you are looking for ways to inspire your employees this year, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. You can reach us here on our site, or email us at hello@rethinkcompliance.com. We’d be happy to help.