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Home » Miscellaneous » How to Stop Chasing Employees to Complete Training

May 13, 2025

How to Stop Chasing Employees to Complete Training

Latest posts by Atlantic Research Team (see all)

The “reminder loop” is costing you more than just time.

Chasing employees to complete training isn’t just annoying; it’s a massive productivity drain. You’re wasting hours that could be spent improving processes, analyzing trends, or, you know, doing the job you were hired to do.

Plus, here’s what no one tells you: when you’re constantly nagging people, training loses its authority. It becomes background noise. A chore. Something to avoid until you send your fourth Slack message.

Let’s flip the script. Let’s make training automatic, expected, and impossible to ignore without you lifting a finger.

If your job title includes “professional nag,” we need to talk. You’re not a babysitter. You’re not a hallway stalker with a clipboard. You’re a safety leader, and yet,  somehow,  you’ve spent three hours this week sending, “Hey, can you finish that training?” for the third time to the same employee.

Sound familiar? Then it’s time to retire the reminder emails and take your life back. The solution? Automation, delegation, and a system that does the chasing for you.

Automate your reminders so you never have to ask twice.

The moment training requires manual follow-up, it’s already a mess. You need a system that sends nudges, tracks completions, and escalates if needed,  all behind the scenes.

With the right platform (cough like our WAVE Compliance Suite cough), here’s what you can automate:

  • Initial training assignments with due dates.
  • Weekly reminder emails (customized by department or role).
  • Notify supervisors if deadlines are missed.
  • Completion confirmation emails to employees and their managers.
  • Dashboards that track who’s done and who’s ghosting.

That means no more spreadsheets, no more copy-paste emails, and no more “Hey, just circling back…” ever again.

Make supervisors do the nudging, not you.

Let’s say it louder for the folks in the back: Training accountability doesn’t belong to safety alone.

If you’re the only one pushing completions, the system’s already broken. Training should be enforced by direct supervisors,  the people who manage schedules, performance, and day-to-day work.

Here’s how to shift that responsibility:

  • Set expectations in leadership meetings that training completion is part of team management.
  • Build weekly reports that go to department heads, showing completion rates.
  • Reward or publicly recognize teams that hit 100% on time.

Use deadlines like a boss (not a suggestion).

“Finish when you can” is not a deadline. It’s a polite way of saying, “Feel free to ignore this forever.”

Training needs hard due dates and consequences when they’re missed. Think of it as compliance homework. If it’s not graded, it’s not getting done.

Better yet, align deadlines with:

  • New hire onboarding checklists.
  • Certification renewal timelines.
  • Quarterly performance reviews.

Then, automate calendar reminders, sync them with team meetings, or even better,  embed training into your actual workflow. Which leads us to…

Put training where they already are.

Let’s be honest,  your team isn’t logging into the LMS “just for fun.” If training lives in some buried link three systems deep, no wonder nobody’s finishing it.

Instead, bring training to them:

  • Embed microlearning in their HR portal or daily dashboard.
  • Include QR codes in break rooms that link to 2-minute refreshers.
  • Kick off team huddles with a 5-minute safety lesson.

The easier it is to access, the harder it is to ignore.

Use completion data to light a fire and tell a story.

Want people to care? Show them the scoreboard. Most employees don’t realize their delay is being tracked. But if you surface real data, real results, and real consequences, everything changes.

Try:

  • Department leaderboards showing completion rates.
  • Shoutouts to 100% compliance teams.
  • Side-by-side graphs of training vs. incident rates.
  • Monthly “most improved” team awards.

You’re not just pushing content,  you’re shaping culture. Data turns training into a game, and trust us, nobody wants to be last place.

You don’t need to chase. You need a better system.

At Atlantic Training, we believe your time is better spent on strategy, not sending follow-ups. That’s why every course you assign through our WAVE Compliance Suite comes with built-in reminders, dashboards, and manager reports,  so you can spend less time bugging and more time building a safer workplace.

Want to preview what your new training workflow could look like? Explore our training catalog to find the right content, then automate everything else with us.

We promise no more chasing.

Ready to let the data do the talking? Start by browsing our training catalog, We’ve got more than 1,000 OSHA-ready courses that roll out in minutes, not months.

 

References

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) – Total Worker Health Program 

Office of Personnel Management (OPM) – Training and Development Policy Wiki

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) – Training Resource Compendium

 

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