Regulatory Remedy

Building the case for change

Outdated compliance training was hurting the Learning & Development team's reputation. Colleagues saw it as a box-ticking exercise, and the feedback data backed that up – average ratings sat at 3.8 out of 5 across a programme that touched 10,000 people. Nobody wants to do a bad job, but nobody was being given a reason to care.

I started by making the problem visible. I built an interactive dashboard to surface learner feedback and used it to build the case for change – first with my leadership team, then with each of the 12 compliance topic owners. The pitch was simple: I have the skills and vision to rebuild this programme into something we can be proud of. Something that feels modern and impactful, that delivers value for the business and our people. All I need is your trust and expertise.

The most important design decision was reorienting the entire programme away from what people need to know toward what people need to do. Compliance learning became about recognising triggers and choosing the right response – action rather than theory, decision-making rather than information transfer.

Programme outcomes

The impact showed up in the numbers. Over three years, I increased average learner ratings from 3.8 to a sustained 4.7 out of 5 – across more than 380,000 individual reviews. By bringing all design and development in-house, I removed the dependency on external suppliers, saving £45,000 a year and £135,000 across the life of the programme.

The programme's reputation shifted too. Stakeholders who had never considered digital learning as a serious channel began approaching the team. New topics were added to the curriculum – Data Ethics and Artificial Intelligence, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Anti-Bullying and Harassment, Economic Crime & Corporate Transparency – each an endorsement of a model that was now trusted.

But the most significant door it opened was into a population that had never engaged with digital learning at all.

Beyond compliance: changing how people learn

Our organisation's network of 23 auto repair centres needed to adopt digital learning for the first time. The odds were against us. Previous attempts had failed. The workforce was hands-on, time-poor, and deeply sceptical of anything that looked like corporate training on a screen.

I started small on purpose. Rather than rolling out at scale, I designed a pilot at a single site. We worked closely with people there to understand their actual workflow – when they had breaks, where they could access a device, what would feel manageable between jobs. The learning was built around those constraints: short, practical, and designed for the moments that genuinely suited their day.

The pilot changed the conversation. Mechanics told us the experience was far more accessible than they'd expected. Completion rates were in the high nineties – well beyond what anyone had anticipated for this population. That gave us the mandate to expand across all 23 sites.

But the real question was whether the change would stick. Over the following six quarters, voluntary digital learning activity grew by up to 200% on baseline – and the business began creating its own content without central involvement.