The Salt Adaptive eLearning authoring tool revolutionises the way organisations conduct compliance training. With the pandemic-induced shift towards remote work, tools like Adaptive have become more relevant than ever before.

Creating effective compliance training programs requires more than just using a standard eLearning authoring tool. To ensure the training is effective, it needs to be customised to the organisation’s industry and environment, adapted to the learners’ needs, and recognises their previous knowledge.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is the process of identifying, assessing, and recognising an individual’s prior learning. This process involves identifying the skills and knowledge a learner has already gained through formal or informal learning experiences. It is essential in designing an effective compliance training program as it helps tailor the training to the learners’ existing knowledge and reduces push back from staff who have completed mandatory training year on year.

The Salt Adaptive eLearning authoring tool supports RPL by allowing learners to skip training modules that cover skills and knowledge they have already acquired. For example, if a learner has completed a similar compliance training course before, by first proving competence through testing in the system, they can skip modules that cover the same material, saving time and making the training more engaging. This may reduce the time taken by up to 50% or more which, when multiplied across a large number of staff, can be a considerable time saving for the organisation and reduce learner fatigue.

Multilingual content is another critical component of compliance training. With businesses operating in an increasingly globalised world, it is essential to provide training in multiple languages to reach a broader audience and ensure comprehension. The Salt Adaptive eLearning authoring tool has native features to allow learners to choose the language they would prefer. The analytics provided in the system give training managers visibility into the effectiveness of training across different languages.

Another core aspect of Salt Adaptive is centralised cloud-based content management. Compliance training is subject to continually changing legislation and case law. By having content centralised, updates can be pushed out as soon as the changes are ready, ensuring that there are no more out-of-date versions of courses on your Learning Management System (LMS).

The system also allows for collaborative content creation with multiple authors able to design and update the same course. The “light edit” feature is perfect for subject matter experts and proofreaders to do a final review and make minor changes.  All changes are recorded in the audit log, which also allows authors to roll back to previous versions. Content changes are time and date stamped.

The Salt Adaptive eLearning authoring tool has become essential in creating effective compliance training programs. Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), inline multilingual content, and course development and maintenance collaboration are all critical components of modern mandatory training programs. By using the Salt Adaptive eLearning authoring tool, organisations can tailor their training programs to the learners’ needs, save time, and provide high-quality training that staff are happy to receive.

*Guest Post from Money101

Tuesday, 8 March 2022 marks International Women’s Day. The occasion asks us to imagine a world of true gender equality, free of bias and discrimination; one where difference is valued and celebrated.

This year’s International Women’s Day theme is #BreakTheBias. We’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions. Individuals can make a difference in breaking gender bias in our communities and workplaces.

Conscious and unconscious bias and discrimination in hiring and pay decisions have been cited as one of the drivers of the gender pay gap in Australia and New Zealand. Ingrained cultural biases, including assumptions about the kind of work women or men are capable of undertaking, disadvantage women and contribute to this pay gap.

According to the Australian Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s latest scorecard, the gender pay gap currently sits at 22.8 percent. Although some strides have been made – 4 in 10 employers have been found to narrow their pay gap in the last year, 3 in 5 employers now offer paid parental leave, and over half of the employers now offer paid domestic violence leave (compared to 12 percent in 2015-16) – it is nevertheless clear there is still a long way to go to achieve true gender equity.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency describes gender bias as “pervasive in Australian workplaces”. The Agency outlines that gender bias creates inequalities at every stage of the employment cycle. These include stereotypes that persist around employee roles, salary negotiations, managerial feedback, and career development opportunities. These factors have a compounding effect across women’s careers, leading to sustained inequality.

Retirement savings are the culmination of a lifetime of contributions; therefore, the gender gap also persists into retirement. In the years approaching retirement, the gender pay gap in Australia can be anywhere between 22 percent and 35 percent[1]. The median superannuation balance for men aged 60-64 years is $204,107, whereas for women in the same age group it is $146,900, a gap of around 28 percent[2].

In New Zealand, KiwiSaver balances for women aged 55-64 are already almost a quarter lower than those of men, even though the scheme only started in 2007[3].

How can we help tackle gender bias and ultimately gender inequality? The organisers of International Women’s Day organisers say we should[4]:

  • maintain a gender equal mindset;
  • challenge gender stereotypes, discrimination and bias;
  • call out gendered actions or assumptions;
  • celebrate women’s achievements; and
  • do our part to help forge gender equality.

[1] https://home.kpmg/au/en/home/insights/2021/08/gender-superannuation-gap.html
[2] https://home.kpmg/au/en/home/insights/2021/08/gender-superannuation-gap.html
[3] https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/458102/bad-then-worse-now-how-covid-19-will-hurt-retired-women
[4] https://www.internationalwomensday.com/SelfieCards

Personalised, adaptive and mobile: What will L&D look like in 2022?

We are looking at a new era of how companies train their employees globally.

The past two pandemic years have proved challenging, difficult, but have fundamentally changed the way that organisations are looking at many areas of operation, not least Learning and Development.

With remote working becoming the norm, even a shift back into offices is unlikely to stop the wave of technology that is allowing employees to learn virtually whether at home or at their desk.

In Australia the rapid adoption of microlearning for Covid provides a window into how all manner of immediate response training will be used into the future. It is on demand, easily adapted to cover fast changing rules, regulations and social issues and targeted to specific employees.

What this means is that virtual learning is no longer an option, it is essential and increasingly into 2022 will be the norm. So what does this mean?

Employees are out the classroom

The days of many bored employees trapped in the same 4 hour training session in the office are slowly disappearing. Longform workshops will be unlikely to come back in the same vital way they operated before. This type of learning was efficient and seen to be easy to organise but did not always deliver results. 

Instead, employers will be looking for new ways of learning and development that can be better targeted to individuals with tangible results that can be tracked.

“Organizations are starting to pursue learning in new forms, and certainly at a new pace, where it’s much more frequent learning opportunities,” says Tracey Malcolm, global future of work leader at the consulting firm Willis Towers Watson told the Wall Street Journal

“The formal training itself is certainly bite-sized, so that it can be consumed more quickly, [and] the pace of learning is increased.”

However, some learning that requires a more immersive experience, such as leadership or team development, is likely to remain as a focus in person.

Results driven training

As tech-led L&D is more firmly entrenched, the ability to analyse and improve training based on results will be essential.

In crucial areas like compliance, it is essential to understand where employees do and do not understand material, and adapt learning to cover any potential risks.

This approach will begin to affect all areas of L&D with employers gaining a true understanding of staff knowledge and understanding in real-time. As a by-product, the level of analytics will also lead towards a more adaptive approach, with more productive training and fewer training hours.

Tuning into regular microlearning 

The idea that essential training is boring is over. Instead of lengthy dull training sessions, employees are now being delivered shorter courses that they are able to do when suits them at more regular intervals.

In 2022 the emphasis on this type of learning will continue creating bite-sized, relevant training that will improve employee engagement. 

To connect with its staff and improve engagement, global online foreign exchange and payments business OFX delivers a video from its CEO which is the first thing people see when they enter the compliance training.

 It tells them why it is important and why it matters to the company. 

The decision to roll out shorter training on a regular basis has gone a long way towards creating a stronger compliance culture for OFX, instilling in staff an habitual awareness of how regulatory obligations and ethical considerations apply to their workplaces and practices. 

No one-size approach

With a digital-first approach, in 2022 personalised learning will be an essential tool for organisations to embrace. 

With people used to personalised service in almost every aspect of their lives through new tech platforms like Uber, Amazon or Netflix, grabbing employee attention through training must cater to their individual needs. 

That means content that is relevant to job, skill set and knowledge base. Adaptive learning is designed to recognise prior learning, trim down the training hours and give learners training that is more relevant to them. It aims to emulate the most effective teaching method of 1:1 instruction and improve cognitive engagement with the training.

We find by being challenged with content not seen before there is improved cognitive engagement with material. 

And for compliance training managers, there is reduced push-back from learners who have been through the training before. 

2022 and beyond

We believe that organisations around the world will not turn back from the digital-first approach that has seen them successfully navigate through the pandemic.

In fact, greater access to analytics and understanding of employee knowledge will continue to transform learning and development as we work towards a new normal with a far more adaptable set of tools at our disposal.

Organisations will also enhance development programs with content that adds value to their employees wellbeing, offering education on financial literacy, health and more. 

Ahead of the Christmas spending season, Money101 is partnering with Salt Learning to launch a new financial wellbeing package into our high quality content library to help employees thrive into the new year.

Designed to empower employees to make better financial decisions, and delivered through Salt Learning, Money101’s industry leading financial wellbeing package of more than 20 titles will provide important financial education around budget, superannuation, investments and debt.

Money 101 logo

Salt Learning founder Julian Fenwick says access to easy to understand financial education tools are becoming a valuable addition to corporate education to provide a holistic approach to wellbeing.

“We are pleased to partner with Money101 and add this suite of financial literacy education to our premium library of compliance and workplace health and safety training to give employers the additional benefit of looking after staff wellbeing, particularly through the festive season, by ensuring they have the tools to understand basic personal finances,” Mr. Fenwick says.

SALT LEARNING

We create beautiful eLearning and you can too!

Money101 CEO and founding director Catherine Birchall says she would continue to push Money101 into new innovative areas at the forefront of technology, while delivering financial wellness content that is contemporary, vibrant and fun.

“I am delighted that Money101 is partnering with Salt Learning, an award-winning leader in online e-learning and compliance training. Like Money101, GRC Solutions provides innovative alternatives to typical education and training,” Ms. Birchall says.

“Our partnership will leverage GRC Solutions’ well-established expertise to help deliver Money101’s financial education content to even more people who can benefit from it.”

Money101 microlearning modules are available for purchase now, and can be accessed on demand, with content including the full scope of personal finance from saving and budgeting tips, understanding credit history, tax tips, insurance, investing and superannuation basics to retirement planning.

Download a Brochure

See what other courses we are offering in conjunction with Salt®

GRC Solutions is very excited to be recognised in the 2021 HRM Asia Readers’ Choice Awards. 

HRM Asia is a leading media and events company. The role they play in facilitating thought leadership and promoting the development of cutting-edge HR technology in the Asia Pacific region is extremely valuable. 
 

Our Salt Learning technology combines content creation and customisation, and learning management in the one package. 

The Salt technology allows our clients to create, deploy, maintain, and report on their corporate learning. Our advanced reporting function provides unparalleled deep data analytics. Our technology is truly multi-lingual, with learners empowered to choose and switch between up to 22 languages on the fly – a feature highly valued by our clients with staff located in multiple jurisdictions.  
 
Our Singapore office has built close relationships with customers in financial services, energy, construction, technology, and other industries across the region; It’s a great honour to be nominated by our clients, and we are proud to have received the Silver Award for HR Tech – Learning Management System.  

More information on our HRM Asia award here 

As part of the launch of its Salt Learning platform, GRC Solutions is excited to introduce a library of practical OH&S, climate change and cultural awareness training in a new partnership with AlertForce.

Alertforce

As infrastructure spending continues to increase as a result of pandemic stimulus measures, ongoing training will be essential for new major projects with an emphasis on high quality online learning.

Companies will be able to use our Salt technology to access the full range of AlertForce’s market leading training to build and maintain practical skills in and compliance with workplace health and safety.

The combination of GRC’s leading technology which delivers an adaptive eLearning platform with unique data insights and AlertForce’s training will deliver an unparalleled training service in the industry.

SALT LEARNING

We create beautiful eLearning and you can too!

“We are excited to combine the expertise behind our content, with the leading technology from GRC which allows companies not only to see the results from the training, but uses the power of data analytics to help businesses understand where risks and issues are emerging,” Brendan Torazzi, CEO AlertForce says.

“We’re proud to add AlertForce’s respected and high quality content to our current library of premium compliance training underpinned by our market leading elearning technology,” GRC CEO Julian Fenwick says.

“As we see more major projects emerging out of the pandemic, for example building an airport in Western Sydney, you will also need better and more adaptive training that is relevant to each individual on site and their changing circumstances.

“For businesses, training and education aren’t just a requirement, but should be an opportunity to see where compliance and knowledge blind spots are before they pose a true risk, which is why we have developed our platform to go beyond results and analyse the test outcomes.”

Download a Brochure

See what other courses we are offering in conjunction with Salt®

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.