What Is Compliance Training

Compliance training is workplace training an organisation runs because a law, regulation or industry standard requires it, rather than because it builds job skills. It teaches people the rules that apply to their work, the behaviour expected of them, and how to raise a problem. In Australia it is normally delivered at induction and repeated on a set cycle.

What separates it from ordinary learning and development is where the requirement comes from and the evidence it leaves behind. Skills training is optional and judged on capability. Compliance training is driven by an obligation, and a regulator or a court will ask who completed it, when, and whether the content matched the actual risk in that workplace.

Typical subject areas include:

• work health and safety, hazard reporting and psychosocial risk
• code of conduct and the behaviour expected at work
• responsible use of AI and other emerging workplace risks
• modern slavery and other supply chain obligations

Who receives what depends on the role. Every worker needs the baseline. Managers usually carry extra training because they are the ones expected to act on a complaint or a hazard report. Contractors and volunteers are often in scope as well, which organisations regularly overlook.

The scope also shifts as the law changes. From 1 July 2026 the AML/CTF reforms known as tranche 2 bring lawyers, accountants, real estate professionals, property developers and dealers in precious metals and stones into AUSTRAC’s regime, and staff training sits among the core obligations those businesses now carry. On the employment side, the Fair Work Ombudsman’s best practice guides set out what a well run workplace is expected to do. Requirements differ across states and territories and change over time, so treat this as general information rather than legal advice.

Posts tagged here explain how Australian organisations scope, deliver and evidence that training, and where it commonly falls short. To see what a structured programme looks like, browse Sentrient’s compliance training courses and the compliance management system that tracks completion.