Training challenges in regulated industries: making it work

Trainers and organisations in heavily regulated industries face a number of training-related HR challenges. The purpose of this paper is to examine barriers and propose solutions in such circumstances.

The paper briefly outlines the results of a case study involving multi-method data collection (interview, survey, focus groups, etc.) to explore barriers to training effectiveness in a pharmaceutical company in Germany.

The case study suggests that the company in question experienced several time and resource pressures to accommodate internally and externally required training needs. Other issues pertained to negative effects of these circumstances on employee motivation, engagement and relevance of training.

Based on the case study and existing work, a number of general practical recommendations are outlined for trainers working in regulated industries. These include suggestions such as the need for situation awareness in the design of the training strategy, co-creation in training, the benefit of linking training to reward systems, training accreditation and the benefit of reviewing existing training approaches in the regulated industry.

The paper provides one starting point for those leading and managing training activities in regulated industry settings to manage the internal and external training challenges.