Industry Case Study: Compliance Training Strategy and Implementation
Tracey Cunningham, Director, Compliance, Regeneron Kim Cerbone, Associate Director, Compliance, Regeneron
The advancement of compliance training systems has been a key focus in the pharmaceutical industry, with companies implementing new methods to streamline and improve the learner experience.
Tracey Cunningham, Director of Compliance, and Kim Cerbone, Associate Director of Compliance, at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, discussed the evolution of training programs, case studies, and the effect of global expansion at the Pharmaceutical Compliance Congress in April in Virginia.
Evolution of Compliance Training Programs
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has evolved from a U.S. company to a global business. Cunningham said the organization started as a small start-up in the U.S. and has experienced exponential growth in recent years. The expansion led to a 14% increase in the workforce, with employees in about 11 countries in addition to the U.S. While Cunningham believes this is an exciting opportunity for growth, she acknowledged the associated challenges.
For example, the company’s growth resulted in the development of a new training strategy, which focuses on increasing learner retention. Cunningham said it was a priority to move away from checking boxes to making sure there’s shorter, impactful learning. In turn, this can be used to identify any learning gaps and ensure training teams are supplementing these topic areas.
With global expansion, there are additional risks in different countries. Both speakers highlighted the need to work with country leaders and local compliance teams to ensure they are developing appropriate training strategies to account for the differences. A blanket approach to training can no longer be used, according to Cunnigham. Compliance teams must ensure that their workforce understands company policies and can apply them to their day-to-day responsibilities. To accommodate for this, different types of training were introduced at Regeneron for new hires, annual company-wide, manager training, and more.
Case Study: Audience Training Analysis
Cerbone introduced Regeneron’s “audience analysis deep dive,” which provided an insight into compliance training and the learner experience. Both Cunningham and Cerbone were responsible for reviewing every compliance asset training audience to determine if any business unit was missing or should be removed. At Regeneron there are five departments: commercial, R&D, IOPS, global development, and general administration. After this analysis, compliance teams reached out to department heads and deciphered which training was required, and audience criteria was modified as needed.
Implementation of New Strategies
At Regeneron, a variety of training mediums have been introduced to improve learning retention and engagement, such as podcasts, gamification, and scenario-based learning. Bite-sized content is important as it’s easier to make global employees understand different principles. Cunnigham highlighted the importance of individualized learning experiences, letting consumers direct their training course and tailor it to their strengths and weaknesses.
To further advance compliance, Cerbone discussed collaborating with internal stakeholders, such as the IT department, to advance their reporting capabilities. Prior to this, the learning management system was complicated and slow due to large spreadsheets of data and a lack of metrics.
There are now user-friendly metrics and visuals, following the implementation of data analytic tools. This allows compliance teams and leadership to always see a bigger picture and accurately track training completion, according to Cerbone.
It is important that compliance teams constantly review strategies and solutions, with a focus on the alignment of global and local training.