How to Make Compliance Training Fun: Engage Learners for Good

Transform compliance training to maximize engagement

Most workplace training topics promise to add something to an employee’s toolbox. It could be learning a new technical skill, enhancing soft skills, getting to know a new product’s features, or learning new sales techniques. There’s some tangible takeaway for the learner that promises higher productivity, increased workflow efficiency, or professional growth.

But when it comes to compliance training, the concepts tend to feel dense, irrelevant, and built to bore the learner rather than engage them. Because of this, employees often click through compliance training just as fast as a single non-compliance event can take down a whole organization.

In the digital-first, skills-driven workplace of 2025, learners expect interactivity, storytelling, and personalization to make the content stick. Compliance training often misses the mark when presented as static modules taken once a year with completion rate as the only goal. Instead, it must be implemented with engagement, knowledge retention, and a continuous learning culture in mind.

In this post, we’ll cover five ways to make workplace compliance training more engaging, each with actionable real-world examples you can implement today.

5 compliance training strategies to implement today

1. Use fun storytelling and real scenarios

Human-centered narratives

It’s easy to throw cold, hard statistics at your learners to get their attention. But the truth is that we’re human, and we love human stories. You can tell me that the average cost of a data breach in the U.S. is $10M dollars, and my eyes may get wide for a second, but then I’ll move on. Just like when I see some tragedy on the news, I’ll think, “that won’t happen to me.”

On the other hand, if you tell me a quick story about Dan, a junior-level content writer who loses his company-provided phone at the airport on the way to his first national conference—just a few months after getting hired at his dream job—you have my attention. Alarm bells start going off in my head and the questions start rolling: Did Dan set up a pin code on his phone? Is there client data on there? Will he lose his job? What will this cost the company?

Involving fictional, but relatable characters in real-life situations engages learner empathy quicker than any number or statistic can.

Relatable scenarios and role-play

Your learners are much more likely to engage with content when it covers real-life scenarios that they’ll experience on the job. Scenario-based learning gives learners the chance to navigate these experiences in a low-risk, virtual environment. While some may be satisfied with a simple recall quiz after a passive reading assignment, scenario-based learning builds quick decision-making skills and forces learners to deal with the consequences of their choices.

In-person role-play can be effective as well, putting employees in real-life ethical dilemmas and testing their ability to navigate them cleanly. This encourages further discussion, surprise at unexpected scenarios, and a shared interest in making the right choice.

Case study–based learning

Case studies offer real-life examples of successful compliance stories or damaging non-compliance events to help learners grasp how it impacts organizations, employees, and customers. They tend to be shorter, contextual learning modules that present a compliance scenario, the challenges the company faced, and the solutions they implemented to avoid hefty penalties and fines.

2. Embrace gamification and engagement

Game mechanics: Points, badges, and leaderboards

Embedding game mechanics like points, badges, leaderboards, and time constraints boosts competition, motivation, and engagement. Not everyone is competitive by nature, but when friendly competition is introduced between teams or departments, it’s hard to say no to.

Did you notice Gerry from IT—who still hasn’t responded to your tech ticket from last Monday—is on top of the compliance training leaderboard this month? Get yourself on top of that leaderboard, and then send a kindly-worded reminder! Or, imagine getting a notification that your best work buddy earned the “Ethics Explorer” badge. You’ve got a half an hour before you meet them for lunch, so why not earn that badge now?

Virtual rewards and progress indicators

Gamification combines our natural intrinsic motivation to enjoy our daily life with extrinsic rewards to catalog our achievements. While a gamified learning module that drops the learner onto a cartoon minefield of ethical dilemmas can be fun on its own, the real reason some of us play is for the rewards.

A simple progress bar is enough to motivate most learners. In the same way it’s difficult to see a nail sticking out of the wall and not hammer it back in, it’s difficult to stare at a 75% progress bar and not do everything you can to fill it.

Success stories and practical examples

When I was a high school teacher, continuous learning initiatives rolled out by administration often felt like an insult. I was teaching and learning all day, and now you want me to spend my planning time proving something I already know? Let’s just say my attitude shifted as soon as they offered gift cards to local restaurants for completing training courses. A virtual badge is one thing, but free food? Sign me up!

Similarly, a law firm in Australia created their own internal currency attached to compliance training completion that lawyers could spend on gift cards or donate to charity. Companies can learn from these success stories and practical examples, adopting and adapting their ideas to align with organizational goals.

3. Keep content bite-sized and multimedia-rich

Chunking and microlearning

All too often, the most important information to learn is presented in a dense, overwhelming format. To prevent cognitive overload, it’s best to deliver compliance training in bite-sized, digestible chunks. Microlearning modules are the simple solution to managing cognitive load, supporting a variety of formats including short videos, podcasts, infographics, and more.

Chunking compliance training into single, focused topics—like this “spot the phish” microlearning module—engages learners for just 5–10 minutes at a time. These short, but quick-hitting modules reduce dense and complicated information, keeping the learner engaged for the entire lesson and improving knowledge retention.

Interactive multimedia elements

Effective compliance training initiatives leave passive learning behind in favor of active learning techniques. Keep learners engaged by presenting core compliance concepts through digital flashcards, interactive checklists, and drag-and-drop activities.

Additionally, branching scenarios force learners to make decisions based on real-life situations, lending relevance and urgency to compliance training. Try creating a scenario block in which the learner encounters a colleague not wearing proper protective equipment on the job site, a workplace hazard to clean up, or taking proper accident prevention steps.

Jeopardy-style games and visual aids

Simple visual checks can be a quick way to engage learners. For example, you could compile several pictures of messy construction sites—real or AI-generated—and play a game called “What’s wrong with this picture?” This can be done live to generate discussion or in an e-learning module if you give the learner options to choose from.

As with all training, it’s best to simulate daily workflow as much as possible, like a Jeopardy-style game based on workplace safety. Here’s an example of a Jeopardy-style interaction, where the question and answer are reversed.

Host: These workplace safety incidents are produced by the impact between a person and the source of their injury when the motion producing contact was generated by gravity.

Contestant: What is a fall hazard?

Host: That’s correct!

4. Build a culture—make compliance ongoing and relevant

Align with organizational culture

Much of what compliance training is about is actually creating a positive, safe, and inclusive workplace culture for all employees. Framing compliance training as a way to commit to organizational values can put a positive spin on topics that many see as daunting, uncomfortable, or boring.

Integrate into daily routines

It’s common for employers and employees to see compliance training as a one-and-done activity—whether that’s just once a year or even less. To maximize the impact, it’s important to make compliance part of the daily routine. Embed topics like workplace safety, or sexual harassment and discrimination prevention, into email reminders, social media posts, team meetings, and even occasional fully-fledged training course.

Implement mobile learning courses as well to provide employees with just-in-time learning on any device. Break down any availability barriers and make courses and content available for employees to access at any time.

Use actual employee examples and feedback loops

Just as human narratives are more powerful than passive information, human narratives about people we actually know and associate with are even more powerful. These can be success stories or otherwise—ideally from leaders and peers within the organization—to show that no one is exempt from or immune to compliance policy.

It’s especially important to recognize when company standards are upheld to celebrate those who live organizational values day in and day out. It sounds silly, but it’s similar to when a group of unruly middle school students hears a story about the high school football star they all admire doing something good for the community. Just like that, their perspective on culture shifts towards the positive, all because someone they know was used as a shining example.

5. Infuse humor and creativity thoughtfully

Lightening with tone and humor

As a high school teacher, I infused as much humor into my lessons as was appropriate. Sometimes, it was just for me, but it was more often geared towards my students. Don’t be afraid to do the same with compliance training. While much of it covers serious topics, it’s easy to name a fictional character something that will get a quick laugh, like Freddy Fallhazard or Databreach Debbie.

Go for pop-culture references, too. These can be tricky, as what’s popular and mainstream changes faster than ever and differs from person to person, but you can’t please everyone. I’ll spare you a personal example here, so as not to induce any eye rolls.

Improv and comedy workshops

Effective communication is key in the workplace—responsible for a 25 percent bump in productivity, according to Forbes. So, what do you do when your employees aren’t comfortable talking to one another at work, let alone about serious compliance topics? You bring in an improv comedy troupe to break them out of their comfort zone. Running through unscripted scenarios together can help break the ice for more serious conversations.

Fun visuals in training

Black and white presentation slides won’t do here. Bring out fun, colorful visuals in training, without being too distracting. Use high quality photos and popular gifs—think Homer Simpson retreating into the hedges to accompany a scenario block when the learner makes the wrong choice or Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby raising a martini glass at the end of a module.

Don’t be afraid to add some personal flair, but—as always—keep it professional.

It’s not impossible! Make compliance training fun

Make compliance training memorable by turning it into an engaging, learner-centric experience. Use storytelling, gamification, microlearning, cultural integration, and humor to transform dry lessons into dynamic learning—ultimately improving retention and behavior.

Curious how other organizations maximize the impact of their compliance training initiatives? Check out how GP Strategies’s e-learning helps them deliver unique, compelling compliance content from simulated cockpits to virtual nuclear reactor walkthroughs.

Ready to start building interactive compliance courses today—from scratch or pre-built templates? Start your free trial of the Articulate 360 Platform today!