In the pharma and life sciences field, training and compliance play a crucial role in ensuring the safety, efficacy, and quality of patient care. Maintaining compliance with regulations while simultaneously upskilling the workforce is essential for sustainable growth.
Striking the right balance between compliance and upskilling will help organizations stay competitive, ensure the delivery of safe and effective health care products, and enable professionals to adapt to emerging trends and innovations. Upskilling the salesforce requires time, resources, and commitment. At the same time, compliance holds significant importance, especially with audit compliance. However, it is not merely about completing compliance training; it’s about the ability to apply and measure that knowledge in practice.
Break Down Silos
Many companies have separate verticals to handle compliance and upskilling which can result in an imbalance as well as a lack of assimilation on the job. Instead, compliance should not be a standalone objective, but an outcome of effective training at all levels of the organization. The key to achieving this is tailoring the training to the target audience. Instead of overloading employees with unnecessary information, focus precise content directly related to their job.
Serious Doesn’t Mean Boring
First, the training must align with job requirements and organizational goals. Creating interactive training programs with case studies and audience participation can enhance learning outcomes and make the training more engaging and effective. A blended learning approach can address different learning styles and increase learner engagement. While compliance is a serious matter, adopt an “edutainment’ approach by experimenting with gamification, microlearning, contests, and social learning to enhance the experience and better knowledge retention.
Practice is Key
Classroom or online training that is followed by on-the-job training is an effective method to help facilitate application of the learning. Although this approach requires additional time and effort, it is more effective than simple knowledge-based training. Examples of methods to enable employees to apply what they learned include roleplay scenarios, job aids, and coaching guides for supervisors.
Measure the Impact
Measuring training effectiveness is one way to determine the assimilation of training content. Using a variety of methods to monitor training can help pinpoint types of compliance errors and additional training needs. Examples of monitoring training outcomes include test scores, course completion rates, job certification, and observation of performance on the job.
Since the goal of compliance is to avoid infractions, it is difficult to calculate a traditional Return on Investment (ROI). Instead of solely relying on financial metrics, quantifiable impacts on the organization should be used. For example, Return Through Impact (RTI) or Return on Expectations (ROE) can better characterize the value of learning. For example, the impact of whether adverse events reporting compliance training leads to an increase in reported adverse events by representatives.
Each training initiative should set metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) at the project’s outset.
The Role of Technology
The influx of technology has expanded the reach and accessibility of learning resources. Companies are more effective at addressing larger audiences in a more tailored fashion for mandatory as well as voluntary training.
Learning Management Systems (LMS) enables tracking completion rates for audit purposes as well as linking learning outcomes with employee performance and recognition programs.
AI programs are emerging to serve as on-demand self-coaching tools employee access to learning resources.
Create a Compliance Culture
While the “culture of compliance” concept has been around for more than a decade, compliance ethics and scandals continue to demonstrate such cultures are still lacking in many organizations. Without organizational commitment to compliance, policies and procedures are merely files in a folder.
A healthy corporate culture integrates company goals, compliance, and upskilling. To build a foundation for a culture of compliance, add the following to the training curriculum:
- Leadership Commitment. Leaders at all levels should visibly demonstrate and communicate ways they are committed to compliance
- Create a Dashboard. Align compliance with enterprise risk management to address risks in each strategic area
- Incentivize Ethical Behavior. Incorporate compliance into performance reviews and tie it to compensation to encourage adherence in everyday duties
- Standardize Actions for Compliance Mistakes. Mistakes can, and will, happen. Analyze the incident to help others avoid the same mistake, determine if there are contradictions in the work environment if workflows need to be modified. As much as possible, determine in advance how disciplinary actions will be handled for those who violate company policy
- Track Incidents. Compliance technology solutions can enable a program that is consistent, reliable, and scalable
The pharma and life sciences industry continues to encounter evolving and strict compliance requirements. To succeed, companies must adopt an employee-centric approach with compliance blended with upskilling efforts and engrained in the company’s culture. Technology can enable customization of learning by role, track outcomes, and scale the learning ecosystem. By embracing these principles, companies can shape a future-ready workforce.