Global Blended Learning

IMPACT and the Uniform Global Compliance Standard

Dr. Alexander von RedenMunich (GER), Dezember 2016 – Dr. Alexander von Reden has been responsible for Compliance Management at BSH Home Appliances Ltd since 2015. It is his task to ensure that all the employees in both the company’s numerous factories in Germany and abroad and its global sales and service network are trained in compliance issues in accordance with their responsibilities. In the process, a uniform global standard for compliance training is to be adhered to. Dr. von Reden will speak about his approach to the solution: "IMPACT - International Management Program for Compliance Trainings" at the LEARNTEC congress.

Because IMPACT is an international portal application for managers, why isn’t online training adequate? Why have you decided on blended learning?

Dr. Alexander von Reden: IMPACT is a tool that enables managers to match the existing compliance requirements to the relevant target groups among their employees in accordance with their workplace description and position. The specific content of the training is the responsibility of the compliance organization, which decides, within the scope of the overall training program, which components are more suitable for WBT and those better dealt with in face-to-face training.

The foundations can frequently be imparted as WBT. However, in certain cases, it is necessary to present current training content in a more practical form in the classroom, in order to be able to better deal with the specific requirements of a particular subtopic.

IMPACT also makes it possible for managers to identify employees who do not have access to the BSH Academy or do not have a computer at their disposal and therefore have to participate in face-to-face training.

How can an international portal adequately present national and intercultural differences? How does IMPACT address this problem?

Dr. Alexander von Reden: IMPACT enables executives to make target-group assignments within the individual national organizations. It is the responsibility of local managers and is overseen by the regional and local compliance officers in the countries, so intercultural differences can be dealt with individually, without need for centralized supervision. The email communication sent to employees varies from country to country and takes international and intercultural differences into account.

Do you feel that compliance issues are especially well suited for blended-learning scenarios?

Dr. Alexander von Reden: Compliance topics are generally suitable for presentation in blended-learning scenarios. Basic topics such as core compliance risks are usually taught via WBTs, but it is important to take the varying national legal regulations into account. Topics that require intensive training due to their complexity or difficulty and involve high risk for the company (e.g. antitrust law) are usually delivered in supplemental face-to-face programs.

IMPACT consists of three components: target-group management, compliance training, and compliance-training reporting. What is the importance of reporting function in the management realm for the company?

Dr. Alexander von Reden: Reporting is the monitoring mechanism for the company’s compliance organization to verify whether managers are fulfilling their responsibility in identifying the target groups and whether the employees are actually completing the required compliance training. Through status displays, IMPACT provides managers with a direct read-out of their employees’ learning levels. And based on the reporting, employees receive reminder emails, copies of which are also sent to their managers and the compliance officers in three escalation steps. In this respect, reporting is the basis for monitoring the performance of the required compliance-training programs.

"IMPACT (International Management Program for Compliance Trainings) - Worldwide Implementation of an International Portal Application for Supervisors to Manage Compliance Training", Auditorium, 24 Jan 2017, 17:30-18:00