To Build a Positive Culture, Break the Compliance Cycle
Mandatory compliance training often creates resistance and complacency—the opposite of what respectful workplaces need. The solution? Training that assesses employee attitudes, captures what learners will actually do, and provides insights and tools to overcome barriers to real behavior change.
Stop checking the box. Start changing the culture.
If you're in Learning and Development, you're sitting on one of the most underutilized strategic advantages in your organization: compliance training.
Yes—compliance.
While often dismissed as a box to check, when done right, compliance training can:
- Drive behavioral change
- Reveal cultural blind spots
- Spark real organizational growth
But only if we shift how we see it and how we use it.
From Mandated to Mission-Critical
Here's the problem: once something becomes a "compliance" issue, people tend to forget why it was so important in the first place.
Take sexual harassment prevention. It wasn't always required. It became mandatory because people demanded safer, more equitable workplaces. And, yes, the law helped. But now that it's "mandatory," training becomes a legal safety net instead of a culture-building opportunity. Organizations miss the point.
Once something becomes a "compliance" issue, people tend to forget why it was so important in the first place.
Take sexual harassment prevention. It wasn't always required. It became mandatory because people demanded safer, more equitable workplaces. And, yes, the law helped. But now that it's "mandatory," training becomes a legal safety net instead of a culture-building opportunity. Organizations miss the point.
Once something becomes a "compliance" issue, people tend to forget why it was so important in the first place.
When organizations miss the point, employees and managers do the same. That's when complacency with compliance creeps in, and with it come disengaged learners and missed opportunities.
Creating a More Engaged Learner
When organizations recognize the purpose of the mandate, they go beyond doing the minimum and seek out training that truly connects with employees and yields data confirming a meaningful outcome.
For example: Typical employees don't see themselves as needing sexual harassment training and that can negatively impact their buy-in to sexual harassment prevention. But, training that features highly-relatable workplace scenarios and self-reflection questions designed to assess harassment prevention attitudes and perceptions enables individuals to have a better understanding of the topic and how they can play a key role in creating a harassment-free workplace. The idea that "the training is for others not me" shifts when they see there are things they can do to be active participants in harassment prevention.
And the numbers support this. Atana trend data reveals that, after completing the Once & For All: Stopping Sexual Harassment at Work behavior-based eLearning course, 88% of learners say the training increased their commitment to harassment prevention.
Creating a More Engaged Learner
But when organizations recognize the purpose of the mandate, they go beyond doing the minimum and seek out training that truly connects with employees and yields data confirming a meaningful outcome.
For example: Typical employees don't see themselves as needing sexual harassment training and that can negatively impact their buy-in to sexual harassment prevention. But, training that features highly-relatable workplace scenarios and self-reflection questions designed to assess harassment prevention attitudes and perceptions enables individuals to have a better understanding of the topic and how they can play a key role in creating a harassment-free workplace. The idea that "the training is for others not me" shifts when they see there are things they can do to be active participants in harassment prevention.
And the numbers support this. Atana trend data reveals that, after completing the Once & For All: Stopping Sexual Harassment at Work behavior-based eLearning course, 88% of learners say the training increased their commitment to harassment prevention.
From Mandated Expense to Strategic Value
Organizational leaders can even go one step further. They can learn from their training and gain employee insights not captured through other efforts (such as pulse surveys).
The key is finding a solution that reveals:
- how their learners intend to use the training
- how the training outcomes align with the organization's critical kpis
- where people are willing to apply training (and where they aren't)
- hidden obstacles and objections to applying the training
Reclaim the Purpose. Reignite the Impact.
There is a better way! The goal of compliance training was never just compliance—it was protection. It was equality. It was culture. As an L&D professional, you are in a unique position to help your organization reframe compliance training as a strategic opportunity which has the power to:
- Surface hidden beliefs and behavioral intentions
- Identify gaps between what people know and what they're willing to do
- Spot cultural risks (and in some cases, litigation risks) before they escalate
- Use training as the first step, not the finish line
That’s what happens when organizations stop treating compliance as a task and start using it as a tool.
Make Compliance Training Work for You
With Atana, training isn't where it ends. It's where the insights begin. Our Training + Insights + Action model becomes a diagnostic tool—a way to assess how employees think and feel, and what they're likely to do next. Whether it be for compliance training or overall respectful working initiatives, we help you uncover:
- What employees intend to do with the training
- How training aligns with KPIs like retention, safety, and productivity
- Where employees are ready to act—and where they're stuck
- What support or reinforcement will increase behavior change
This is how compliance becomes culture-shifting. This is how training moves from a cost center to a competitive edge.
The Bottom Line
Compliance training was never just about the law. It was about people. It was about creating workplaces where people can thrive, contribute, and be safe.
Don't let mandates breed mediocrity—break the complacency cycle. Let them be a mandate for change with Atana.
About the Author
Amanda Hagman, Ph.D. | Chief Scientist: Behavioral Data Science
Dr. Hagman is an expert in behavior change and intervention science, adept at turning data into practical solutions that drive meaningful change in workplace behaviors. With a background in program evaluation and learning analytics, she uses predictive insights to foster positive behavioral outcomes on a large scale. As head of research at Atana, Dr. Hagman integrates behavioral change principles into training courses tackling common workplace issues. Her work targeting critical behavioral goals is designed to deliver concrete and lasting improvements for organizations.
