In the years following the Dodd-Frank Act, compliance training for the financial services industry increased approximately 40%, making it a significant financial and time-related investment for mortgage companies.
On average, employees spend 50-plus hours annually to complete a mandatory regulatory training series.
As the industry looks at ongoing regulatory requirements in 2018, mortgage leaders need to address the fast-paced changes in the mortgage compliance requirements through effective training programs that make the best use of staff time.
Post-recession, compliance training drastically increased in length and often was not completely applicable to the varying roles within the mortgage industry. Because of this, companies continually found that their employees became less interested in completing the required training, often feeling that it was an inefficient use of time.
To improve the overall employee experience and course impact, compliance training should provide targeted information that employees need to be successful in their roles, and provide it in a way so that it enhances retention of the information.
Historically, interactive scenarios incorporated into regulatory training have been highly effective, especially when applicable to the participants’ primary responsibilities.
Offering interactive opportunities can enable retention rates and overall understanding of the subject matter to significantly improve. Key takeaways and being able to enhance retention can also be reinforced by allowing learners to self-test on the material after each session. Having more efficient and engaging courses increases learner ROI, reduces time spent training and adds additional value through increased employee engagement.
Another effective way to boost learner ROI is by taking advantage of role-based curricula. These types of courses are tailored toward specific job functions and teach only the relevant information appropriate for that individual’s role.
By focusing the content to the needs of a learner, information and scenarios that do not apply to the specific role can be eliminated. It also delivers relevant information to that role’s responsibilities with each changing regulation.
When a training course is focused on a specific role within the organization, it can help save users up to 30% in training time. Role-based training, combined with regulation-specific courseware, can provide a holistic, efficient educational program for the organization.
Prioritizing training requires an investment in staff time. When implemented correctly, it should enable mortgage leaders to build a culture of compliance and responsibility that is dynamic, engaged and effectively manages regulatory risk.
Combining role-based training with focused and interactive regulation-based courseware enables employees to experience training that is more efficient and effective.
Mortgage leaders understand the value of the time spent training staff about the latest regulations, and when the courseware is highly impactful, it justifies the time and resources. As regulations for the mortgage industry continue to evolve and change at a rapid rate, leaders should carefully determine and invest in the most meaningful training courses to prepare their staff to serve their customers most effectively.
Karl Dahlgren is managing director of BAI, a nonprofit independent organization that delivers actionable insights to the financial services industry.