An administrative assistant finds a tasteless joke about blondes in her e-mail. One of the sales team is attending a trade convention and is surrounded by competitors. You know the purchasing manager often deals with barely concealed bribes from vendors.

Around every corner, there are potential legal and ethical issues for employees to contend with. Some are small while others are significant enough to threaten the future of a company. Companies like Enron, Andersen and Worldcom prove the point. Even if employees know how to make sound and ethical decisions, that's not quite enough any more. They need to do the right thing. And even at that, being seen to do the right thing is often just as important.

You and your colleagues may not know all rules and legal restrictions, but the good news is you don't need to! Compliance training is not about learning the regulations; it's about how to do what the regulations require. The need for compliance training is as constant as it is urgent. Some of the following statistics may help you see how urgent:

• Workplace violence is the foremost concern of corporate security directors at Fortune 1000 companies. Other top concerns include employee selection and screening concerns, fraud and white-collar crime, theft, drugs and alcohol in the workplace, and unethical business practices. Pinkerton, Top Security Threats, Year 2000 Survey
• On-the-job violence costs employers $36 billion each year. Workplace Violence Research Institute
• It costs $7,000 to replace a salaried employee, $10,000 to replace a mid-level employee, and $40,000 to replace a senior executive. Recruiting Times
• Perhaps most astonishing of all, there are studies to indicate that one in six workers has a drug problem.

However, training resources are often in short supply. New hires, promotions, newly created positions, and new processes and products all result in a demand for training. These changes also require compliance training. On top of that, refresher compliance training is needed too as knowledge fades with time and the world moves on. New issues arise and changes in legislation occur. In the world of compliance, ignorance is hardly bliss.

How to approach compliance training is probably a tougher question - everybody's got to do it, but someone has to keep the company running no matter how important training is. We at PrimeLearning can help on both counts!

Our newly designed PrimeCompliance series, codeveloped with WeComply Inc., ensures that employees receive the compliance training they need when they are free to do it, and at their own pace too!

The first product in the series is PrimeCompliance™ Code of Conduct, an 'umbrella' product providing awareness training across the areas of Discrimination and Harassment, EEO, Violence, Safety and Health, Environmental Safety, Political Activities, Quality Communications,. Crisis Management, Honesty and Fairness, Anti-Competitive Conduct, Insider Trading, Conflicts of Interest, Sanctions and Trade Embargoes, Bribery, Trade Secrets, E-mail and Internet Use, Consumer Data Privacy and Record Retention.

For organizations that want to dig a little deeper, a more detailed treatment is available through a set of high quality supporting products: PrimeCompliance™ Workplace, PrimeCompliance™ Workplace (M), PrimeCompliance™ Safety, PrimeCompliance™ Business Ethics, and PrimeCompliance™ Data Security.

PrimeCompliance™ Workplace

This set of courses deals first with the importance of equal employment opportunities in the workplace. It goes on to teach employees to recognize discrimination and harassment when it arises. Violence in the workplace is treated here also, as well as methods of coping with it and, of course, avoiding it. This curriculum also covers political activity and some guidelines for successful communication and crisis management. In short, this curriculum briefs employees on the attitudes and behaviors expected of them in the workplace both as employees and as citizens.

PrimeCompliance™ Workplace (M)

As well as containing all information available to employees as part of the PrimeCompliance™ Workplace curriculum, this curriculum contains information on appropriate managerial responses to discrimination and harassment.

PrimeCompliance™ Safety

This curriculum deals primarily with the welfare and safety of all company employees, including the regulations that must be complied with. Guidelines on recognizing and dealing with alcohol and drug abuse are also taught in this light. Hazardous waste forms a part of this curriculum too - how to handle and store it, and the legislation employees need to be aware of in treating hazardous waste.

PrimeCompliance™ Business Ethics

Our business ethics curriculum is possibly the most topical in the series. It teaches the learner about the importance of fair play in business and the ethical standards that govern honest and fair business conduct. The learner is also schooled in the recognition and avoidance of anti-competitive conduct, insider trading and conflicts of interest. Sanctions and trade embargoes form an important part of this curriculum too.

PrimeCompliance™ Data Security

This curriculum brings learners through the several areas affected by data security. Learners find out the importance of keeping and protecting trade secrets. They learn too of the restrictions on Internet and e-mail use, and how a privacy policy and record retention policy can affect their work, the company, and its customers.

We at PrimeLearning recognize that not all organizations have exactly the same needs and priorities when it comes to specific compliance focus areas. If your company needs something just a little different, we'll be happy to tailor these products to suit your own unique requirements.

The eLearning System includes a Preassessment (or PrimePath™) feature that allows learners to conduct an initial assessment of their knowledge in a given area, and which then constructs a personalized learning plan based on competencies demonstrated in the assessment. In the eLearning System, the results are reflected in the learner's personalized learning page.

In these special, stand-alone versions of the Preassessment, we offer you the chance to try them out for free. At the end of the test, we have added a simple 'Print' page that shows how you did in each course!

To try out the Preassessments, click on the product name below:

Do you have a date by which all employees have to complete their training? Add this date to the system and have our automated Mentoring prompt your learners to completion.

Do you want to run reports to see who has started or completed their training? We'll set your learners up in groups and allow manager(s) to run these and other reports any time.

Do you need special database extracts to interface with your HR Management systems? We can do this too!

Are your employees distributed over various sites? Training is entirely over the Internet, with no Instructor-Led Training (ILT) requirement. If you would like to introduce an element of blended training (mix of ILT and eLearning), we can advise on how you might do this using the traditional approach, and also through the use of our Virtual Class technology!

eLearning can be an extremely cost-effective way of addressing the training requirements of your company. For a custom quote, and to arrange access to the eLearning System™ to review our training products, please contact us at pricing@primelearning.com