The awards, which are run by Training Magazine Australia, aim to recognise the most effective and innovative products in workplace learning and assessment on the market.

Salt Enterprise is an online compliance training and reporting tool which is used by businesses to train staff about their legal compliance obligations in a range of areas including Trade Practices, privacy, anti money laundering and OH&S. The courses are written and regularly updated by Blake Dawson lawyers and can be tailored to suit a particular industry or business.

Blake Dawson Technology CEO Julian Fenwick said that the idea for Salt Enterprise developed almost ten years ago as a result of requests from clients.

“It was primarily asked for by a couple of clients who had very large numbers of staff that they had to train in particular areas of law,” he said. “When you’ve got lots and lots of people and they’re spread out all across the country, sending a lawyer around to do face to dace sessions for twenty people in impractical and quite expensive.”

Fenwick believes that the program’s ease of use is an important factor that has set it apart and contributed to its success.

“The thing about our program is that it’s very, very easy for the end user. We recognise that compliance training isn’t something that everyone wants to be doing. You’d rather be getting on with your own job, and these things are a bit of a hurdle, so our system is very easy for people to use.”

Another drawcard of the program, Fenwick said, is the use of specific examples in the courses that are relevant to the end user.

“We make sure the information we’re giving them is pitched at the level that is appropriate for their business. So if you’re talking about a legal issue in the construction industry we’ll create a story about that issue that is suitable,” he said. “Even if people are taking the standard, generic course, we use a range of examples of situations that people can imagine themselves in. To be able to give people actual situations rather than just telling them the law makes it more real and brings it home to people.”

Being online, the course also offers a great deal of flexibility, which appeals to businesses and their employees, Fenwick explained.

“It’s very efficient for people to get through,” he said. “Being web-based, they can do it anywhere they want. They can do it in small chunks, do it when they have time and do it from home if they want. We’ve got clients who have their main office here in Australia but have people located around the world, so it’s great for them to be getting the same training that people back home are getting.”

According to Fenwick, there is now interest for the program in other jurisdictions and Blake Dawson technology is in the process of developing it for the South African market.

“To me, it’s fascinating to go over to South Africa and meet people in different businesses and find that they’ve got very similar issues,” he said. “Around the world laws are getting stricter and stricter on how to do business and I think that’s why these sorts of programs become successful. There are so many corporate large failures and people don’t want to get into that state.”