What is Required Training? A Guide for Compliance and L&D Teams

The short answer: Required training is training your organization must deliver because of a law, regulation, contract, or policy, and must be able to prove. Common examples are workplace safety, harassment prevention, data privacy, and ethics. Getting it right means the right topics, for the right people, in the right language, kept up to date.

Most L&D and compliance teams know what is required, but fewer can show their training is the right training. This guide explains what counts, what is at stake, and how to check your own program.

What counts as required training?

Training becomes required when someone has the authority to demand it. These are the four main sources:

Requirements vary by location and industry. Six states mandate harassment prevention training: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, and New York. The frequency of taking the training also varies by location and industry. But even where training isn’t required, it still matters. The EEOC and courts treat it as part of an employer’s reasonable-care defense.

Check every location where you have employees. Start with your state’s labor or civil rights agency, then confirm with your legal team.

Why does getting required training right matter?

The numbers show the cost of getting it wrong:

• Safety fines: OSHA can fine up to $16,550 for a serious violation and $165,514 for a willful or repeat one. Failure to abate can add $16,550 per day (OSHA).
• Workplace injuries: The US recorded 5,070 fatal work injuries in 2024. Private employers also reported about 2.5 million nonfatal injury and illness cases (BLS).
• Privacy fines: GDPR fines have reached €7.1 billion since 2018, including about €1.2 billion in 2025 (DLA Piper).
• Discrimination claims: The EEOC secured nearly $660 million for 17,680 victims of employment discrimination in fiscal year 2025 (EEOC).
• Data breaches: The average breach now costs $4.99 million worldwide and $11.5 million in the US (IBM).

Training does not prevent every incident, but it is still the control that regulators and auditors check first.

What makes required training the right training?

When federal prosecutors review a compliance program, their guidance asks whether training is risk-based and tailored to high-risk employees and supervisors. It also asks whether it is offered in a form and language that suits the audience, and whether the company measured its effectiveness.

Apply the same five checks to your program:

1. Right topic: Each course maps to a specific obligation.
2. Right people: Assignments reflect role, location and risk, not one course for everyone.
3. Right language and format: Employees can understand it and complete it on their shift.
4. Right timing: Courses are current and refreshed when rules change.
5. Right proof: You can pull completion records quickly for an auditor.

Where do required training programs go wrong?

Watch for these common gaps:

• Outdated courses. A regulation changed, but the course did not.
• One-size-fits-all content. A manager and a new hire get the same training.
• Wrong jurisdiction. A US course is assigned to a team in Germany.
• Click-through completion. People finish without absorbing the material.
• Scattered records. Proof lives across several vendors and spreadsheets.

How do you build a required training program?

1. Map your obligations. List the laws, standards, contracts and policies that apply, by location and role.
2. Assign by risk. Match each requirement to the people it covers, with extra depth for high-risk roles and supervisors.
3. Choose current content. Pick courses that reflect today’s rules and your employees’ languages.
4. Deliver and track. Use your LMS to assign, remind and record completions.
5. Review on a schedule. Check compliance courses at least quarterly or when a regulation changes. Retire what no longer fits.

How does OpenSesame help with required training?

OpenSesame helps with steps 3 through 5:

• Current content: Curation specialists keep a catalog of 3,500+ compliance courses up to date as rules change.
• Right language: Courses are available in 70+ languages.
• Delivery: Courses sync to your existing LMS through 100+ integrations, so records stay in one place.
• Your own policies: Simon lets your experts build custom courses on your policies in under an hour.
• Practice: AI Coach lets employees rehearse difficult conversations, such as reporting a concern, before they face one. 
• Safety: The catalog includes OSHA 10 courses, and OpenSesame partners with EHS Insight to bring safety training into EHS workflows.

Frequently asked questions

What is required training?
It is training an organization must provide because of a law, regulation, contract or internal policy. It needs proof of completion.

Is required training the same as compliance training?
Mostly. Compliance training covers laws and regulations. Required training also includes contract and internal policy requirements.

Who decides what training is required?
Governments, regulators, industry bodies, customers, and your own leadership. Requirements often differ by state, country, and job role.

How often should required training be refreshed?
It depends on the rule. Some laws set the frequency, such as annual harassment training in New York and Illinois. Where no rule applies, review compliance courses at least quarterly and refresh content when regulations change.

How do you prove required training was completed?
Keep completion records in your LMS with dates, course versions, and learner details. Make sure you can pull them by person, team, and location.

Ready to make sure your required training is the right training?

Pick the next step that fits where you are:

• See it with your own stack: Book a demo to see how OpenSesame fits your compliance program.
• Want to learn first: Explore compliance training courses to see how L&D teams manage required training across regions.