Beyond the tick-box: Compliance training as a cornerstone of culture in Australian hospitality

By Allara Global, Official Training Partner of Food & Beverage Media

This year, the Australian hospitality industry has seen a renewed focus on the importance of compliance training and employee well-being.

In response to a rapidly changing landscape, evolving legislation, and increasing awareness of workplace challenges, businesses are recognising the critical need to create environments where employees feel safe, supported, and valued. This means fostering a culture where team members can confidently speak up, share ideas, and raise concerns.

Why ticking the box isn’t enough

Traditional, tick-box compliance training often falls short. It can be dry and easily forgotten. Employees may complete the training simply to fulfil a requirement, without truly grasping the importance of the content or internalising the values it seeks to promote. Staff are not tested on their understanding of the training, and this approach leads to a superficial understanding of complex issues, leaving employees ill-equipped to navigate real-life situations.

For example, sexual harassment training might define the concept but fail to address the nuances of power dynamics, bystander intervention, or the specific challenges faced in a fast-paced hospitality environment.

This is why choosing the right training solution is so important, and where leadership and company culture come into play.

Leading the way: top-down advocacy for compliance

When senior management actively champions compliance training, it sends a powerful message, demonstrating that ethical conduct and respect for employees is a top priority. This commitment needs to be visible, consistent, and reinforced at all levels of the organisation to truly influence the culture.

Effective compliance culture requires a two-tiered training approach:

Core training: Managers should participate in the same foundational training as their staff, demonstrating that compliance standards apply equally across all levels. This shared experience helps managers understand exactly what their teams are learning and creates common ground for discussions.

Management-specific training: However, managers require additional specialised training to effectively:

• Handle sensitive conversations and complaints
• Recognise early warning signs of potential issues
• Apply proper escalation procedures
• Document incidents appropriately
• Support team members through challenging situations
• Lead difficult conversations about compliance breaches
• Create psychologically safe environments for reporting concerns

When managers are equipped with both shared understanding and enhanced leadership skills, they can better model desired behaviours, be truly approachable, respond effectively to concerns, and proactively address potential violations.

This comprehensive approach creates a culture of accountability where everyone understands their specific role in maintaining a compliant workplace.

Creating a culture of compliance

A strong compliance culture requires ongoing effort. It’s about:

• Regular and continuous learning: Providing engaging, memorable and relevant training that keeps pace with evolving legislation and industry best practices. This could involve interactive workshops to role-play scenarios, alongside easily accessible online bite-sized courses with quizzes to test understanding, to ensure knowledge is retained and applied.

Organisations like Raising the Bar Foundation offer valuable in-person training programs, such as Healthier Hospitality, that “help staff recognise signs of mental illness, manage stress, and communicate better about mental health issues. By addressing these challenges head-on, they not only improve the wellbeing of employees but also improve overall workplace productivity and culture”.

Pairing this style of short in-person training with an online training provider like Allara Global, offering access to compliance courses via a mobile app, accessible 24/7, gives employees the best chance to retain knowledge by using a blended learning approach.

• Open communication: Fostering an environment where employees feel safe speaking up about concerns, without fear of retribution. This means establishing a clear reporting mechanism, providing access to confidential support resources, and actively listening to employee feedback.

• Track and measure: A crucial aspect of fostering a culture of compliance involves tracking and measuring the effectiveness of training programs. This means going beyond simply recording completion rates and delving deeper into understanding how well employees are absorbing and applying the information. Implementing robust reporting mechanisms, like those used by Solotel, a renowned hospitality group in Sydney, allows organisations to monitor training progress across different venues and departments, identify areas for improvement, and demonstrate a tangible return on investment. By integrating training data into management KPIs and performance reviews, companies can ensure that compliance remains a top priority at all levels of the organisation. This data-driven approach not only helps to improve training outcomes but also reinforces the message that compliance is an integral part of the company’s culture and success.

• Accountability: Ensuring that all employees, regardless of their position, are held accountable for their actions. This includes having clear consequences for breaches of policy and a fair and transparent disciplinary process.

The importance of effective training

As highlighted in a recent Fair Work Commission decision, effective training is crucial for communicating workplace policies and preventing unfair dismissal claims. Investing in comprehensive programs that clearly outline expectations and provide practical guidance is not only essential for compliance, but also for building a positive and productive workplace.

Effective training empowers employees to make informed decisions, understand their rights and responsibilities, and contribute to a safe and inclusive workplace. It also helps to mitigate legal risks by demonstrating a commitment to compliance and providing evidence of efforts to educate staff and reinforce the learning.

For a deeper dive into the importance of effective training in policy implementation, check out our blog post: The importance of effective training in policy implementation

By moving beyond the tick-box mentality and embracing a proactive, culture-driven approach to compliance, the Australian hospitality industry can begin to rebuild trust, protect its workers, and create a more sustainable and equitable future for all.