How to take advantage of drills in policy changes

December is here. The days are getting darker and the end of the year is closing in on us. This is usually paired with busy times. Personally, with visiting family and making sure that presents are wrapped in time. But also business-wise. Activities will be finalized, contracts need to be closed or renewed, and you look back on this years’ performances. Also, new budgets are made, targets are set and maybe you will revise your overall business strategy. It’s also a time for new policies and rules & regulations. They can be imposed by the government so you need to make alterations to your own policy to stay compliant. Or they are developed by your own company, usually by the compliance department. After all, the beginning of a new year is a good time to do things differently. But how will you implement these changes? And how do you notify your employees that there are new rules to follow?

When change needs changing

What usually happens is that companies send out bulletins, mailings or post a message on the intranet. This basically means that the new rules are written down and sent to all employees. And that’s it. At Drillster, we propose a more effective approach to implement change.
The Drillster app is created for learning, reinforcing, retaining and anchoring knowledge. Our assessment-based and adaptive learning methodology makes people apply their knowledge immediately. The unique algorithm ensures that users brush up in time, just before knowledge tends to decline. It is also a way to convey new information and making changes known, either by creating new drills or updating your existing ones. This way, employees are not only notified of the change but also need to actively process and remember the new information.

Want to know about the science behind Drillster? Download this whitepaper about our learning methodology!

This is how you can use drills to make sure that new rules are adopted fast:

• You don’t have to create completely new learning materials. You can easily adjust the contents of your drills. Make new questions, or simply update your existing ones with the changes that will be applied. 
• You can prepare the content in advance and release it at a set date and time in the future when new rules are applied. This can save you a lot of last-minute work. When released, send users a push notification that there is a new drill or that their existing drills contain brand new information.
• The new drill content will make proficiency levels drop because new content has been added and employees are not entirely up to date anymore (see image below). That means brush-up time! New questions will be shown first. But the app also checks if users still remember the other information. Subjects that people found hard in the past, will be repeated. When they answer the questions right, their proficiency will go up and users are yet again up to date. This is how you really anchor new knowledge.

Use the following tips to make your drills even more effective and time-saving:

• Add context to your changes with a story. Why are the changes made? Why are they important? What are the consequences if people don’t follow new rules? Maybe add a video from the compliance officer or even the CEO to tell the story.
• Add cases to your drills and adjust this for every target group in your organization. New rules affect all departments differently. For instance, new privacy regulations have different implications for the customer service department than for finance, and so on. The learning effect is the strongest when situations are recognizable, realistic and knowledge is applicable to the one who has to learn them. Read more about this effect here.

This way, Drillster ensures that users not only read about the change but that they memorize the new information, change their behavior and apply it on the job. Now and at any given moment in the future. That is a good way to start the new year!

We aim to make learning faster and more effective because we believe learning makes your world a better place. What’s your new year’s resolution?