We won Double Platinum and a Diamond at LearnXLIve! 2021.

For our other awards, look here.

Best learning and development project  LearnX Awards diamond

BEST LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

Police Credit Union adopted our Salt® technology to build, deploy, maintain, and report on their Code of Ethics training

Police Credit Union wanted to differentiate training on policies in areas affecting business culture – ethics, drug and alcohol policy, and the like – from other more procedural policies. They also wanted a different look and feel – in particular, they wanted their training to not come across as “just a piece of paper.”

The Brief

Over the years, the L&D team at Police Credit Union had formed the view that the standard way of disseminating polices – rolling them out annually as documents on an LMS – had become an inefficient way of managing the policies that applied to the lived environment of the workplace, such as the business’ Code of Ethics.

Police Credit Union is a long-standing, significant client of GRC Solutions, and in 2021, their L&D team approached us for assistance in developing a project to realise these goals. “GRC Solutions’ e-learning solutions are sexier.” (We take that to be metaphorical.)

Although they have been a subscriber of our own published e-learning projects, this time they were looking for a solution beyond an off-the-shelf e-learning product on ethics, or bespoke course development. Police Credit Union were looking for our support and expertise in developing a solution that would allow end-to-end management in-house of their own policy training development, distribution, and monitoring, with the scope for rapid – as quick as same-day – policy deployment, should the need arise.

Police credit union logo
PCU Logo

Strategy

GRC Solutions offered our Salt e-learning applications, comprising Salt Adaptive, a simple yet flexible content authoring application, with unparalleled deep data reporting capacities, and the Salt Compliance Learning Management System.

Police Credit Union adopted the solution with the intention of creating an initial course to promulgate the business’ Code of Ethics. The Code is an eight-page policy document, but the L&D team wanted to focus the training on the key concepts and provide real examples to empower staff to live the Code and to develop a powerful ethical culture across the business.

The Salt Adaptive application is simple to use and quick to learn, with additional enhanced features that can be mastered with limited training. GRC Solutions provided Police Credit Union with a number of virtual sessions. The L&D manager was impressed by the way our trainers used the sessions to co-create examples of training, so that the team was able to learn by doing. In the view of the L&D manager, her staff achieved mastery of the system within around two weeks.

“GRC Solutions were exceptional in supporting our learning.”

“If ever we strike challenges, we call the GRC Solutions support staff and they talk us through it.”

Using the application, Police Credit Union was able to create an e-learning solution for the Code of Ethics training that takes learners 15-20 minutes to complete. In writing the training, they focussed on the key features of the ethics policy and used illustrations and case scenarios to suggest ways of approaching decision-making in real life situations. The process of building the course involved the senior members of the Culture Team storyboarding the training and passing it to the design staff to publish. The storyboarding process was enhanced by their understanding of the flexibility and capacity of the Salt Adaptive application – in particular, the ability to quickly incorporate images, scenarios and in-module summative questions.

Using Salt, they were able to quickly apply scenarios and formative and summative assessments to illustrate key concepts and reinforce comprehension.

course image
Code of Ethics Training page

Roll-out

In June 2021, Police Credit Union rolled the training out to around 136 staff members at all levels of the business, from senior management to front-line staff.

The Police Credit Union L&D team reported that staff uptake of the training was excellent. “We got really good feedback.” The training, using Salt Adaptive’s features was “much more palatable and engaging.”

The most important result of the project was that the training “got discussed by staff across the whole business.”

That is precisely the result that is needed to positively transform and influence the culture of the business. Regulators around the world are currently focussing on culture as the driver of effective compliance, and where a training system engenders discussion, it is clear that culture is being enhanced.

In addition, the Police Credit Union L&D team were able to apply the Salt Compliance LMS reporting features to monitor learner engagement. Detailed analytics such as the amount of time learners individually or in general spend on a particular section of the training provides the L&D team with evidence as to whether learners are engaging with the material or simply ticking and flicking; or alternatively, whether certain parts of the training present challenges that may need to be addressed either by re-authoring of the material or by supplemental face-to-face training by line managers.

Learners also benefited from the customisable and graphically appealing user interface with the Salt Compliance LMS, which in 2021 received a ground-up redesign.

course image
Code of Ethics Training page

Into the future

The Police Credit Union reports that the Code of Ethics project was delivered within the required time and budget, thanks to the functionality of the Salt e-learning applications.

Consequently, they have moved ahead to create a similar training piece on the business’ drug and alcohol policy. This training was created over a short timeframe in order to be rolled out in advance of their annual staff awards event in late September. It, too, was well received, and it, too, engendered discussion among staff across the business.

The L&D team are now considering the application of more interactive and visually engaging features which are available when designers are sufficiently trained in the authoring tool. They also plan to continue using the Salt applications in delivering training on business-specific, culture-focussed policies.

It is not their intention to move e-learning design and publication in-house but rather to be able to take ownership of the rapid delivery of short, palatable and effective training on issues specific to their institution.

Salt Learning parent company, GRC Solutions, has been included in the top employee health, safety and wellness training companies for 2021!

Training Industry selected the Top 20 companies on the following criteria:

• Breadth and quality of programs/services and audiences served.
• Ability to deliver training in various modalities.
• Industry visibility, innovation and impact.
• Strength of clients and geographic reach.
• Company size and growth potential.

We are delighted to have been selected as a Top Training company 2 years in a row, after being selected as a Top 20 Health and Safety/Compliance training company in 2020.

Training Industry is a highly regarded source of information on the business of learning. The Top Health and Safety/Compliance Training list is based on a thorough analysis of the capabilities, experience and expertise of the training providers. View the full list here.

GRC Solutions is much more than a learning development company. We live and breathe legal compliance and our team is comprised of lawyers and subject matter experts in addition to highly experienced elearning designers.

We want our clients to overachieve on their goals. We listen to them and work with them to deliver their desired outcomes.

We are proud to work with a range of fantastic clients. The team provides outstanding customer service, and all our clients receive ongoing support and regular legal and technical updates. We are always ready to answer your questions.

Start your journey with us today! Get in touch

Salt Learning parent company, GRC Solutions, has been included in the Training Industry Top 20 health and safety/compliance training companies for 2020!

Training Industry selected the Top 20 companies on the following criteria:

• Breadth and diversity of health and safety/compliance training offerings.
• Ability to deliver training in preferred modalities.
• Company size and growth potential.
• Geographic and vertical reach.
• Quality of clients.

Training Industry is a highly regarded source of information on the business of learning. The Top Health and Safety/Compliance Training list is based on a thorough analysis of the capabilities, experience and expertise of the training providers. View the full list here.

GRC Solutions is much more than a learning development company. We live and breathe legal compliance and our team is comprised of lawyers and subject matter experts in addition to highly experienced elearning designers.

We want our clients to overachieve on their goals. We listen to them and work with them to deliver their desired outcomes.

We are proud to work with a range of fantastic clients. The team provides outstanding customer service, and all our clients receive ongoing support and regular legal and technical updates. We are always ready to answer your questions.

Start your journey with us today! Get in touch

Salt Learning won the award for working with 27 Mutual Banks to transition them to our Salt Platform

The Brief

  1. To transition 27 mutual banks onto an automated online compliance training platform/system to meet reporting and monitoring obligations. Some of the mutual banks involved were Community First Credit Union, Unity Bank, Southern Cross Credit Union, Orange Credit Union and First Option Bank.
  2. To update the format of their existing online compliance training courses to minimise time spent on training yet improve each learner’s level of competency to minimise the risk of breaches and organisational penalties.

The project was launched in 2018 and was to be completed by the end of 2019.  

The Challenge

Over 4 million Australians bank with a mutual (or customer-owned) financial institution. These include mutual banks, credit unions and building societies.

While many mutual banks employ best practice staff training regimes, and cutting-edge technology, a substantial number still had manual or outdated e-learning and LMS facilities. The consequences of this were: 

  • Management of mandatory compliance training across their business was labour-intensive and subject to error
  • Access to the latest and best compliance training products was limited
  • Updating of training products to maintain currency in an environment of rapid regulatory change was subject to error and omission

Several impediments existed to any projects to address this problem, including budgetary limitations, sector and industry conservatism, and limited recognition of the benefits that would flow from addressing the issue. 

GRCSolutions provides platform solutions that address these problems. Because we have a special relationship with the sector, we decided to undertake a project to bring our clients onboard with these products.

Throughout this project we were required to transition and introduce each mutual bank and a total of 1613 employees to a new automated system to meet ASIC and APRA requirements when being audited.

Strategy

The solution we proposed was to activate our Salt Compliance platform for these clients. It provides the facility to manage the full life-cycle of training – a cloud-based platform that enables staff to access training any time, anywhere. It has built-in reporting specifically designed for compliance, to allow management to monitor staff progress and check company-wide compliance activities. Salt Compliance helps clients to track training and policies, apply learning paths for different levels of staff, monitor and track performance and keep staff up to date with inbuilt, automated email notifications.

Salt is an online compliance training and reporting solution that is easy to implement and effectively manage training obligations. The system enables clients to perform the following key functions.

  • Easily add and manage new users, and allow for client-side administration
  • Quickly assign training on an individual or at a group or business unit level and provide automatic reminders if training is not completed within an assigned period
  • Monitor when users should re-take the training
  • Benefit from a comprehensive reporting suite that allows clients to monitor the success of the program and its learning outcomes, as well as attest to the accuracy of the training content for auditing and compliance purposes

GRC Solutions’ Client Services team and our Mutual Banks Account Manager had a clear and structured process for transitioning clients to the SALT platform. The process involved understanding client requirements in delivering training, who their users were, what training each group of employees needed, when the training needed to be completed, frequency of completion and associated reminders and reporting.

More detail on our Salt learning platforms here

Content

GRC Solutions maintains a suite of compliance training courses specifically for the customer-owned banking sector and similar banks. This comprehensive suite of courses are written to address all levels of banking staff and include tailored examples, scenarios and case studies. The training is written, designed and reviewed here in Australia by our team of experts, including our legal and regulatory banking team, who collectively have over 80 years’ experience in the Australian Financial Services sector.

Our team regularly checks the status of impending legal reforms that could affect our courses and our clients’ customised courses. We update the e-learning and publish a regular schedule of regulatory reform for our subscribers.

More detail on our suite of Financial Services courses here

Outcomes

All 27 of these clients were successfully transitioned over to the new online platform by the end of 2019 as expected:

  • Total number of users (employees): 1613
  • Average number of courses used by each mutual bank: 15
  • Average increase in course subscription post implementation: 26% (Approx. 4 courses per client)

This project has reduced the time spent on monitoring and reporting by over 45% for all these banks and enhanced their ability to create effective, dynamic, scalable and reportable training to meet their compliance obligations.

Transitioning to the new Salt platform has enabled the mutual banks’ managers, compliance teams and senior leadership teams to quickly extract substantive real-time progress reports, summary reports, completion reports and pass rates for each employee and division.

The future

The future of learning within the banking sector will continue to become more and more complex due to the pace of regulatory changes and rigorous reporting obligations. This transformation project has enabled these banks to become more responsive by automating routine reporting and monitoring tasks.

With the increasing number of investigations and penalties due to breaches within the financial services sector, it is essential the revised format for compliance training for mutual banks has not been approached as a ‘tick and flick’ exercise. The Adaptive format adopted empowers and increases each learner’s level of competence, avoids repetition where appropriate and respects their workload.

Feedback

Community First transitioned to the Salt platform from a manual system back in January 2019. The system has provided a good base to help with managing our training to ensure compliance.

The ease of the system from the point of view of both management and staff, has been very positive and rewarding as they no longer are required to provide proof of training and sign verifications as this can now be managed by using the reporting system. The most positive review is that the training is now predominantly found in one place and they can easily see what training is to be completed. 

From an administration point of view, it did take us time to adapt to the way the system worked but we were able to make some changes based on our needs, with the help from the support team. 

The reporting system provides numerous reports which makes it easier to manage staff training and the email reporting system is a great tool for notification of release of new training and management of training coming due.

The Policy Builder is also another great tool to manage policy attestations. Again, the email reports can be used to manage notification and reminders.

We have also integrated our own internal training courses using Salt Adaptive into our Salt system which has also been a positive outcome. 

The GRC Solutions support team are always available to help with any problems or issue that arise and to date, the response has usually been within 2-4 hours and any system issues that have arisen are quickly resolved.

Overall we have been happy with the system and the way it has helped us manage our training needs.

Our client, OFX, chose our Salt Adaptive online compliance training platform to address some very specific compliance training needs

The Brief

OFX is an online foreign exchange and payments business that provides money transfer services. It operates in a highly regulated environment, involving strict laws, policies and procedures. As a dynamic online business, it needed to provide staff with practical workplace learning on several key compliance topics such as anti-money laundering, workplace behaviour, cyber security and fraud awareness.  

Multiple Jurisdictions

With over 400 staff operating in multiple jurisdictions, including Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada, OFX needed this suite of training to be consistent from office to office while also accounting for variations in terminology, practice and requirements in each jurisdiction. It needed to accommodate the ever-changing landscape of compliance and the burgeoning set of regulatory obligations that financial services organisations now face in the wake of the Banking and Finance Royal Commission and heightened money laundering risk and fraud risk. The training also needed to cater to its staff’s different job roles and levels of familiarity with the topics, noting that some staff had undertaken training previously, while others had never encountered some of these topics. OFX was also keen to respect its people’s busy workloads and recognise everyone’s restricted availability to undertake training; in other words, the training needed to be short, succinct and, wherever possible, relevant to people’s job roles. OFX also needed to track training completion rates.

Customisable

Above all, OFX sought training that could be easily customised, utilising its own subject matter experts’ deep knowledge of the obligations facing their business operations, in a fast and efficient manner. OFX had previously engaged other vendors who had struggled to customise content quickly and on brief. OFX found that while other vendors could customise content, this was an arduous, time-consuming process. This led to the creation of training that was long, rigid and poorly equipped to meet the diverse and expanding obligations pertaining to OFX’s growing operations.  

To help OFX meet its training requirements, GRC Solutions offered a core base of customisable training courses – Anti-Money LaunderingDiversity & EqualityCyber Security and Fraud Awareness – through the Salt Adaptive learning content management system. The training courses featured engaging designs and rigorously researched content developed by GRC Solutions’ own content development team.  

OFX used the Salt Adaptive platform as a one-stop shop to customise, deliver and report on training. GRC Solutions provided author training so that OFX’s own subject matter experts could customise the off-the-shelf training content to suit the business’s own needs. The customisations catered to different job roles and jurisdictions, as well as changing regulatory requirements and reforms. The updates appeared instantly and could be tracked through the version control publishing history in Salt Adaptive. Any update can be withdrawn or amended at any time to revert to a prior version.  

Responsive Design

All training was designed responsively, so that it could be accessed on desktop, tablet or mobile phone. Salt Adaptive can monitor completion rates and generate rich analytics and visualisations for OFX to review. Crucially, the training content was pre-test adaptive enabled. This meant that learners were given a series of upfront questions on the topic at hand. The Salt Adaptive system was able to identify learners’ knowledge gaps and tailor the learning experience to the individual by focusing on what the individual did not yet know, bypassing any content in which they had already demonstrated proficiency.

Timeframes

OFX was able to customise the content as soon as they received access to Salt Adaptive and author training.They could update content instantly or take time to write and edit material through their own review processes.

Resources, technologies and innovation

OFX used Salt Adaptive to edit existing Salt compliance courses to make them OFX-specific. Using Salt Adaptive a client can do this quickly and seamlessly. With little change control required from a technology perspective, any edits that are made post-publication are updated automatically and seamlessly using the unique SCORM wrapper technology in Salt Adaptive.

When courses are built within Salt Adaptive they are also hosted there. Using its unique SCORM wrapper capability, any content requests are viewed seamlessly.  

Outcomes

This project has enabled OFX to train its global workforce in streamlined, customised training that captures the large-scale compliance policies, principles and obligations facing the organisation as well as the subtleties and nuances that apply to its separate jurisdictions and job roles. It continuously trains staff without taking up too much of their valuable time.