I need help in the biggest way!!! My training sessions are putting my employees to sleep. I had a loan training session yesterday on Reg Z & RESPA and even I almost went to sleep. I also have trouble getting the most important points across to my people.

Can someone offer any suggestions???
Signed
Boring Compliance Officer

I try short, simple and to the point. It's a totally boring subject and hard to get people to focus. What seemed to help last time was our CEO was in the training session. I also just sent out a loan compliance quiz to all of the lenders to use as a training tool. Tomorrow I'm going to send the answers.

Last year on a couple of training sessions, I walked in with a handfull of dollar bills. Started the session by asking general questions about the topic. First person to answer correctly received a dollar. Did the same thing at the end of the session. Seemed to generate a little more excitement that the usual testing.

In a perverse way, the way-too-short timeframe I have for training sessions helps me by forcing me to distill, distill, distill, until I've got the material down to the very essence. Talking in verbal bullet points, giving one or two highly pertinent examples (especially negative ones), short visual aids (longer ones assist the sleeping process) - all have gotten me some favorable comments on my presentation of some really tedious material. Or maybe it's just because I've just taken over training & the novelty of hearing a different droning voice hasn't worn off, yet.

If it doesn't go against your mandated training method, you may want to try something I do with my Call Center. My problem is that #1, they always need to be on the phone so it is impossible to get all of them in a training session, and #2, since they answer questions about everything in the bank, including taking loan apps, there is a neverending amount of information I need to make sure they are aware of, let alone compliance related issues. What I do, for about 1 month at a time, is send them a daily e-mail and call it QOTD (question of the day). It includes a training question and the right answer. 1 issue a day, that's all. I have one of my call center agents compile an FAQ section on our Intranet, organized by topic, so that they can refer back to important topics. Seems to work fairly well, although that certainly does not guarantee success.

Ooh! I like that one. It could be something that has come up that was 'different'.

I recommend you don't over-do the session. That is, don't make it to long and teach what the audience needs to know. Break it into parts if needed, covering the more troublesome areas first.

If you are using PowerPoint, add some audio and video clips that help emphasize the subject matter. Use scanned images of forms that were wrong, and explain why, but without pointing fingers.

Tell them of real examples in your bank and others, driving home your point with discussion of penalties, poor service, time spent on corrective actions, etc.

And don't speak like Ferris Bueler's teacher, Ben Stein. Change your inflection, throw out some humor once in awhile and grab their interest, as best you can.

After the session, distribute a form asking them what could have made it better, constructive criticism only.

Superb idea, CubDave! That would work for other busy folks like lobby retail or tellers. Organizing and placing the Q's & A's on an intranet or network gives them a great resource for quick answers.

There are many great seminars out that would be great for you to learn about how to be a better trainer. www.keyproductivity.com has a great seminar called 'How to be a better trainer.' I took it when I was a trainer and it was very beneficial. One of the best things to do while training is to give them things to occupy their hands. Have pipe cleaners, slinkys, kush balls (sp?),silly putty, candy (a big must have). This helps them concentrate and keeps it interesting.
One thing to keep in mind:
*Adults learn in 20 minute incraments* So try to keep topics 20 minutes long or do something different every 20 minutes to keep their attention.