Now that the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been in effect for some time, it may be worth re-visiting your organizations’ obligations and best strategies for GDPR employee training. The GDPR regulation increases both the responsibility and liability of organizations regarding personal data protection. In fact, significant fines have already been imposed on several high-profile organizations that have failed to meet the stringent GDPR requirements.
What is GDPR?
GDPR provides a new set of rules that are intended to give European Union citizens more control over their personal data. GDPR seeks to simplify regulatory processes for business in order to maximize the benefits of the digital economy for individuals and businesses. GDPR reforms bring laws and obligations that are designed to reflect today’s increasingly digital world. It provides protection around personal data, privacy and consent and impacts all organizations that serve EU citizens, regardless of company location.
The Requirement and Importance of GDPR Employee Training
GDPR regulations and enforcement indicate that staff must be trained on a regular basis. Specifically, it states:
“The GDPR requires you to ensure that anyone acting under your authority with access to personal data does not process that data unless you have instructed them to do so. It is therefore vital that your staff understand the importance of protecting personal data, are familiar with your security policy and put its procedures into practice. You should provide appropriate initial and refresher training.”
‘Refresher training’ refers to additional training activities conducted after staff had their initial GDPR training. As it implies, it refreshes the knowledge employees acquired in their initial training program and determines whether staff have retained that information.
eLearning for GDPR Employee Training
eLearning technologies provide a great opportunity and strategy for GDPR Employee Training. Through eLearning, you can make GDPR employee training fun and engaging while ensuring participation and measuring results.
Some of the specific benefits you can expect from the deployment of an eLearning program for GDPR employee training can include:
Cost-Effectiveness
eLearning provides a cost-effective alternative to in-person, classroom-based training. With eLearning, you are able to eliminate significant costs, such as travel, venue expenses, catering, instructor fees, and more.
Convenience
eLearning provides your employees with the convenience of undertaking their learning activities as time permits and from any location that offers an Internet connection. In fact, many learning activities can even be conducted offline. And with eLearning, the employee can learn at their own pace, rather than the pace set by a classroom instructor.
Time-Sensitive
When working with an eLearning platform, you can build and deploy high quality learning content quickly and easily in response to time-sensitive requirements. This is especially valuable when you have a need to release new training materials in response to policy developments and changes.
Analytics
A good eLearning platform will provide you with powerful data for performance measurement, participation, and other important analytics. This data can be extremely helpful as you evaluate your existing training program and seek to improve it over time.
Developing an Effective GDPR Employee Training Program
As you consider the development of GDPR employee training for your organization and the possibility of leveraging an eLearning platform, there are several things to keep in mind to maximize your chances for success.
Divide and Conquer
The content required for complete and effective GDPR employee training can by quite extensive. With that in mind, it is best to divide your learning materials in a logical way and allow your employees to approach this learning in sections or phases. This approach will make the program less overwhelming for employees and maximize their opportunity for learning and information retention.
Leverage Different Types of Media
With eLearning, you can leverage different types of media to accomplish your teaching goals. Video, text, images, PDFs and other media can all be part of your program, so you will want to choose the media that will most effectively deliver a message, based on the type of content you are presenting in any given section of the course.
Encourage Feedback
The best way to ensure your GDPR training program is being well-received by your employees is to ask for their feedback, either at the end of the course or at intervals you choose within the course. The feedback you collect can be extremely valuable as you seek to improve your training offerings over time.
LMS Portals for GDPR Employee Training
LMS Portals provides a powerful cloud-based platform for building and delivering online learning content. With LMS Portals, you can easily build your own GDPR employee training program and deliver it under your own branding as part of your existing corporate website.
Contact us to get started!
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