Bringing the Funny - Finding the Right Use of Comedy in Compliance Training

John Hughes, Director, Corporate Compliance & Ethics, Dragados USA

John Hughes, Director, Corporate Compliance & Ethics, Dragados USA

Compliance training can be excruciating when done wrong. We have all sat through a training session with a trainer who reads the law or policies directly from the slides they are presenting. The training is probably led by an attorney or at least written by one with the goal of checking a box, that everyone was ‘educated’ on the exact same law or policy. The problem is this type of training is neither educational nor effective.

Employees and adults in general learn in many different ways. As the current workforce transitions from a generation that did not grow up with computers in their homes to generations that have always had access to the internet, training needs to transition as well. Employees clamor for training that is shorter and more engaging. Targeted micro learnings have become popular and can be great and helpful as reminders, but compliance training cannot effectively be limited to a five-minute course. So how do we meet the desire of our audience for shorter and engaging training with the need to train employees on a complex subject like compliance? Simple, bring the funny.

Ethics and Compliance is serious, but it doesn’t have to be boring. Using comedy to illustrate a compliance principle can keep the audience attention or help regain it. An example I use while training employees on the risks of accepting gifts from vendors is a slide I call ‘Donuts are the Gateway Drug.’ The slide is simply a picture of a donut, and it almost universally will get multiple laughs as soon as I announce it. Those who don’t laugh is usually because they are scrolling on their phones, will look up to see what they missed. With that I have regained the full attention, but now I have to deliver on the premise and hold their attention. The story (all true) is simply about how an office’s interactions with a vendor started with receiving ‘thank you’ donuts for a contract, but through a series of escalating ‘thank you’ gifts ultimately ended with envelopes of cash and arrests for bribing government officials. With one simple joke I obtained the audience’s attention and through a story about the downfall of others held their attention without the audience realizing I trained them on recognizing red flags and how ethical implications can sneak up on them when dealing with vendors.

"Using those laughs to your advantage by engaging and educating your employees, without cutting out the important content will improve your training’s effectiveness"

That is one example from a list of many that I have available from my industry, there are similar stories and examples which can be used within any industry. Think about the Allstate commercials with the actor playing ‘Mayhem’ or Farmers Insurance commercials with the ‘we covered that’ where the ad takes an extreme example played for laughs and then shows how they help. The trick is not to make the policy or law a joke, but to show how non-compliance can lead to real life bad results. Take an example from within your own industry of good people making a dumb decision and how it affected them or the business in a drastic way will generate some laughs and hold the audience’s attention. Using those laughs to your advantage by engaging and educating your employees, without cutting out the important content will improve your training’s effectiveness.