Compliance Training Not Working? 5 Challenges You Can Fix

Identifying common compliance training challenges

Compliance training is one of the most critical responsibilities learning teams take on—but it’s rarely the easiest. The topics are complex. The stakes are high. And too often, the training is met with low engagement, limited retention, and logistical hurdles that slow everything down.

Thankfully, these challenges aren’t unique, nor are they unsolvable. This piece explores five common compliance training program problems and how actual organizations are addressing them.

What makes an effective compliance training program?

Corporate compliance training programs cover topics like cybersecurity awareness training, data privacy, occupational safety, ethics, harassment prevention, and more. Some types of compliance training are universal; others depend on industry, location, or role.

No matter the topic, however, good compliance training helps employees understand company policies, follow safety protocols, and apply knowledge in real-world situations. It reinforces expectations and supports a respectful and inclusive workplace that aligns with organizational values and legal requirements.

The most effective programs are practical, accessible, and designed to engage employees—helping them retain content and use it when it matters. That’s true whether they’re completing diversity training, workplace safety instruction, or any other specialized course.

Still, building a program that truly delivers isn’t easy. Even with the best intentions, many teams run into familiar obstacles—issues with engagement, retention, or scalability. The five challenges below explore what gets in the way of effective compliance training, and how organizations are solving for it through more thoughtful, regular compliance training that sticks.

 

Challenge 1: Covering too much at once overwhelms learners

Compliance training often includes dense content—policies, procedures, and regulatory details that take time to absorb. When it’s delivered all at once, especially via live sessions, learners can easily fall behind or tune out. Instructors may move on too quickly, and key concepts don’t always stick.

The fix: Break complex material into self-paced pre-work

Avoid overwhelming learners by moving core concepts into e-learning modules they can complete before live sessions. These might include policy overviews, definition breakdowns, or interactive scenarios that give learners time to process content independently.

This approach builds a foundation without overloading learners, helping them better prepare to engage, ask questions, and apply concepts in practical situations.

Who’s doing this well?

The San Diego Eye Bank rethought its training approach after recognizing how ineffective dense policy documents and lengthy in-person sessions had become. Learners struggled to retain the material, and trainers were regularly pulled away from other work to accommodate the in-depth sessions.

Now, programs start with interactive digital courses that introduce content ahead of live instruction. Learners arrive more engaged, ask better questions, and complete in-person sign-offs more efficiently. Read their story here.

Challenge 2: It’s easy for learners to tune out

Compliance training can’t do its job if learners aren’t paying attention. When courses rely on passive formats—like long slide decks, autoplay videos, or unrelatable content—it’s easy for learners to zone out.

Employees may technically complete compliance training, but leave without remembering or applying much of it. This creates a quiet but costly risk: your team fulfills the compliance requirement but fails to adopt the essential behaviors and knowledge.

The fix: Add lightweight interactions to keep learners engaged

Keep learners focused with simple, low-effort interactions throughout the course. These might include a quick knowledge check after a policy explanation, a click-to-reveal activity that defines key terms, or a short visual comparison to reinforce dos and don’ts.

For example, this Phishing 101 course introduces cybersecurity content in a way that feels active—learners engage with the material as they go, making them more invested and alert to risks like data breaches.

Who’s doing this well?

After realizing learners were completing sessions without much engagement, Boise State University redesigned its compliance training program. They replaced generic third-party courses with custom lessons built around realistic scenarios, appealing visuals, and interactive moments.

For example, they used click-to-reveal interactions for sensitive topics like reportable crimes to slow the learner’s pace and encourage reflection. The result is a respectful, effective learning experience. Read their story here.

Challenge 3: High-stakes topics need more than surface-level training

When the risks are serious—like legal violations, ethical breaches, or loss of public trust—compliance training has to go beyond simply presenting the rules. Employees must learn how to think through complex situations and act when answers aren’t always obvious.

If the training doesn’t reflect that complexity, employees may leave without the critical-thinking skills they need to navigate gray areas or make confident decisions.

The fix: Use realistic scenarios to help learners apply judgment

Give learners opportunities to apply policies in context. You might start with a brief case study that mirrors a situation learners might encounter at work, and ask what they would do next. Then share the reasoning behind each option to illustrate how a thoughtful decision gets made.

For more nuanced topics, consider using branching scenarios—choose-your-own-outcome activities where each decision leads to a different outcome. Scenarios offer a safe way to explore judgment and watch how different choices play out, without the real-world consequences.

Who’s doing this well?

At Aptive, a fast-growing government contractor, the stakes around ethics training are exceptionally high, and generic solutions don’t suffice. The team creates custom courses based on real-world scenarios drawn from government contracting challenges to meet this need.

One course, for example, is divided into common and complex concerns, helping learners explore both foundational expectations and more nuanced decisions. The course is widely recognized for its success with helping employees  apply ethical thinking in practical ways. Read their story here.

Challenge 4: Training doesn’t always fit into people’s workdays

Compliance training often assumes learners are sitting at a desk with time to spare. But that’s rarely the reality. If the course only works on a desktop or requires long, uninterrupted sessions, learners may delay or rush through without retaining much. This creates a barrier to completion and increases the risk of important content getting overlooked.

The fix: Make training easy to access anytime, on any device

Build multi-device, mobile-friendly training that fits into the rhythm of real workdays. Break content into short segments that load quickly, display well on small screens, and save progress automatically so that learners can easily resume where they left off.

Who’s doing this well?

BJC HealthCare delivers compliance training to over 35,000 learners—including employees, physicians, volunteers, and contractors. The team moved from static PDFs and slide decks to mobile-ready courses that work across devices to better meet people where they are. The shift made training easier to access and complete, without pulling learners away from their day-to-day responsibilities. Read their story here.

Challenge 5: Global teams need consistent, localized training

Compliance training can get complicated for organizations that operate across countries or regions. What’s required in one location may not apply in another, and a one-size-fits-all course often fails to resonate. If the training doesn’t reflect local context, critical messages can be misunderstood or missed entirely.

The fix: Design training that’s easy to localize and scale

Start with content that’s easy to adapt for different regions or audiences. Focus on clear, culturally appropriate language, flexible formats, and a platform that supports translation and asynchronous access. For additional guidance, this e-book on multilingual workforce training offers more practical details.

This approach ensures that every learner, no matter where they are, gets a consistent, relevant experience without requiring teams to rebuild materials from scratch for each region.

Who’s doing this well?

JindalX trains a global workforce on both technical and compliance topics. Their team designs modular, multilingual content that can be easily adapted and reused across different regions.

This helps them deliver consistent compliance training while still accounting for local regulations, languages, and cultural norms, without starting from scratch every time. Read their story here.

Meeting compliance requirements and making them stick

There’s no single fix for compliance training—but as these examples show, common problems can be addressed with thoughtful, practical changes. Minor improvements can lead to meaningful results, whether your challenge is content overload, low engagement, or scaling across teams.

If you’re ready to go deeper, explore our free e-book, The Truth About Bad Compliance Training. It breaks down the root causes of ineffective training and shares how to build programs that stick, without sacrificing quality, relevance, or clarity.