Conflict of interest compliance quizzes

Good C&E training generally makes use of questions.  Sometimes these are learning questions found in the body of the training.  Sometimes they come in the form of a test at the end of a course.  Both ways, questions can help cement the C&E information from training while they are fresh in employees’ minds.

But, not all companies have a chance to deploy COI training on a regular basis.  And for those that don’t, the possibility of using training techniques in other communications should be considered.

For instance, companies with C&E newsletters could publish a COI issue in which they:

– Describe the importance of appropriate handling of actual or apparent COIs to the company (e.g., how this matters in preserving the trust of shareholders, suppliers, etc.)

– Provide an overview of the company’s COI policies and processes.

– Pose several hypothetical situations to test employees’  knowledge.

Two practice pointers on test questions:

– Consider asking employees to answer not only whether there is (or may be) a COI in a given scenario, but also if they can articulate why.  So, for instance, employees get one point for answering the first question right about a scenario and two if they can also get the second.

– Print the answers upside down in the newsletter, as that should make readers more eager to test their knowledge.

I think this approach should be helpful not only as a way of reinforcing knowledge but also by conveying – given the difficulty that many employees will have in answering the “why” – that maintaining C&E standards (COI and other)  is not as easy as is often assumed to be the case.  And that, in turn, underscores the importance of getting help from the company’s C&E office when COI issues arise.