You can roll out compliance training to a small team in one to two weeks if the courses are online awareness training and you sort out the admin before anyone logs in. Most rollouts stall not on the course but on everything around it: working out who needs what, getting everyone started, chasing the stragglers and proving completion afterwards. Plan roles, deadlines and records up front and the training itself is the easy part. Practical certifications such as first aid at work, practical manual handling and forklift or plant training take longer, because they need booked sessions with a trainer.
At a glance: Nexis CPD sells CPD-accredited online courses at £9 each, with any three for £18; teams of 5 or more pay £6 a course place, with a portal to assign courses and track completion.
This guide is for owners and managers of UK businesses with roughly 2 to 50 staff who need everyone trained at once: a new requirement, an inspection, a new contract or a batch of new starters. It covers running the rollout. For what training the law requires, see our checklist of small business training requirements. For what it costs and the free options, see how to train staff on a budget.
How long does it take to roll out training to a whole team?
For online awareness courses, ten working days is a realistic target for a team of up to about 50, provided the planning is done in the first two or three days. What stretches a rollout is rarely the courses: it is shift patterns, existing certificates, staff who need support and records pulled together at the end. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) leaflet Health and safety training: A brief guide (INDG345) warns that special arrangements may be needed for part-timers and shift workers, so plan their training slots first.
Practical training is slower. HSE’s guidance on selecting a first-aid training provider (GEIS3) says a first aid at work course should involve at least 18 hours of training and assessment over at least three days, and emergency first aid at work at least six hours over one day. Dates depend on trainer availability. So run two tracks: online courses that finish in two weeks, and practical sessions booked in week one and delivered when dates allow.
How do you work out which training each role needs?
Step 1 is a grid, not a shopping list. Start with every person by name and role, including part-timers, weekend and night staff, apprentices and yourself. Then decide what each role needs from your risk assessments. Our small business training guide walks through building that plan; this step turns it into something you can assign from.
Collect any certificates people already hold before you buy. A recent one from a previous job may cover the knowledge part of a topic; decide whether it meets your risk assessment and record that decision. It never replaces your site induction.
Here is how the grid might look for a 10-person café:
| Role | People | Online awareness courses | In person or in-house |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner-manager | 1 | Introduction to Health and Safety; Fire Safety Awareness; Data Protection and GDPR Awareness; Food Safety and Hygiene (Catering) Level 2 | Reviews the risk assessments and first-aid needs assessment; runs inductions |
| Supervisor | 1 | The same four, plus Fire Warden Fire Marshal | Walk-round of escape routes and the assembly point; emergency first aid at work if the needs assessment calls for a trained first-aider |
| Cooks | 2 | Introduction to Health and Safety; Fire Safety Awareness; Food Safety and Hygiene (Catering) Level 2 | Instruction on kitchen equipment and your food safety procedures |
| Kitchen porter | 1 | Introduction to Health and Safety; Fire Safety Awareness; COSHH Awareness | Instruction on your cleaning chemicals from the COSHH assessment; a safe lifting demonstration |
| Front of house | 5 | Introduction to Health and Safety; Fire Safety Awareness; Data Protection and GDPR Awareness; Food Safety and Hygiene (Catering) Level 2 | Till and card-handling procedure; your allergen procedure |
That is 38 course places, not the 60 you would buy by putting all ten people on all six courses. Food handlers are on food hygiene because food hygiene law requires them to be supervised and instructed and/or trained in line with their work. Anyone handling customer or staff details is on data protection.
A care team’s grid is longer: in England, new care workers usually work towards the Care Certificate standards, moving and handling of people needs practical training, and regulation 18 of the Regulated Activities Regulations 2014 requires providers to give staff the training their duties need.
Which training should staff do first, and what has to be done in person?
Step 2 is deciding the order and the method. INDG345’s priorities are training the law requires, topics where a lack of training could cause serious harm, topics that benefit the most staff, new recruits, and people changing jobs or using new equipment. That gives a running order:
- Site basics on day one for anyone who has not had them: fire routine, escape routes, first aid arrangements and your hazards.
- Legal-duty topics for everyone, such as health and safety and fire safety.
- Role-specific topics, such as food hygiene for food handlers, COSHH for people using hazardous chemicals, and data protection for anyone handling personal data (see where data protection training fits).
- Development topics come later, so they do not slow the rollout.
Then split online from practical. Online awareness courses suit knowledge: the law, the risks, what to do. They cannot teach hands-on skills, and an online first aid awareness course does not make anyone a first-aider. Where your first-aid needs assessment says you need first-aiders, HSE expects them to be trained by a competent provider. Practical manual handling (especially people handling), forklift and plant operation, and face-fit testing for tight-fitting masks also need in-person training or testing. Book those in week one, because they are the part you do not control. And pair every online course with local instruction: no course knows where your assembly point is.
How do you buy and assign training for a whole team?
Step 3 is buying and assigning. Team training is usually sold as course places bought in bulk, as a per-user subscription, or by quote and invoice. Before you pay, ask: do unused places expire? Can you see who has started and finished? Is the certificate included, and can an inspector check it? Can you add new starters later on the same terms?
Give one person ownership of the rollout. Set up every account in one sitting, straight from the role grid, and decide how staff without a work email will log in before the briefing, not during it.
With Nexis CPD, teams of 5 or more choose how many people and how many courses each, pay once by card and then assign courses in their own portal. Staff get a certificate as soon as they pass. The courses are CPD-accredited awareness training, independently accredited by Assured CPD; they are not regulated qualifications and do not replace practical certification.
Training a team? From 5 staff, Nexis CPD course places cost £6 each, however many you buy. Places last 12 months. Pay once by card with no quote needed, then use your own portal to add staff, choose their courses and track who has finished. Under 5 staff, every course is £9 in the shop, and any 3 cost £18. See team pricing and work out your total.
How do you tell staff about mandatory training and set a deadline?
Step 4 starts with a short face-to-face briefing. INDG345 says to show your commitment so people see the training matters, and to consult employees on how it is organised. Ten minutes covers:
- Why now: the inspection, contract, requirement or new starters.
- What: each person’s courses; different roles have different lists.
- By when: a fixed deadline, with a midpoint check.
- When: the paid slots on the rota.
- How: logging in, which device, and who to ask for help.
Follow up with a short written message repeating the courses, the deadline and the contact. A fixed date works better than “when you get a chance”.
Check your paperwork too. Under section 1(4) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the written statement of employment particulars must include training the employer requires the worker to complete, including any the employer will not pay for (Acas explains). If yours do not, update them.
Do staff have to do mandatory training during working hours?
For health and safety training, yes. Regulation 13(3)(c) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 says the training an employer must give on recruitment, and when people face new or increased risks, shall “take place during working hours”. Article 21(2)(e) of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 says the same for fire safety training in England and Wales. INDG345 adds that training must not be at the expense of your employees. GOV.UK guidance also counts time spent training as working time for minimum wage purposes, so required training done at home still has to be paid.
So put the training on the rota. Block out quieter periods, offer a quiet space and a device, and schedule night, weekend and part-time staff within their own shifts. If someone prefers to train at home, agree it in advance and pay the time.
How do you make training accessible for staff with a disability or limited English?
Plan for it before the rollout, not after someone struggles. Under the Equality Act 2010, an employer must not discriminate in giving employees access to training, and must make reasonable adjustments for disabled staff. Section 20 says reasonable steps include providing information in an accessible format, and you cannot charge the disabled person for adjustments. Acas’s examples of adjustments include more time for written tests, documents in an accessible format and one-to-one support.
In a rollout that might mean extra time, a quiet room, shorter sessions, a screen reader, or help with the technology (not with the assessment). Invite people to raise needs privately when you announce the training.
Language and literacy need the same care. INDG345 says to meet the training needs of your whole workforce, including workers without good English, people with poor literacy and those with sight or hearing impairments. HSE’s guidance on help with language issues says information does not have to be in writing, or even in English, as long as instructions, risks, safety measures and emergency procedures are clearly communicated. It suggests an interpreting colleague or professional interpreter, translation tools, a buddy system and simple, clear English. HSE also says workers whose first language is not English may need more supervision.
How do you track who has completed their training?
Step 5 is tracking and chasing. A useful completion report shows, for each person: name and role, the courses assigned, status (not started, in progress or completed), the completion date, the certificate ID and the renewal or review date. Add a line for any practical sessions: booked date and attended or not.
Check it every two or three days, not just at the deadline, and escalate in steps:
- Midpoint: a personal word with anyone who has not started.
- Find the blocker: rota time, login, device, reading or nerves. Fix it.
- Protected slot: a booked time, with support if needed.
- Manager one-to-one: a new date, in writing.
- Formal route: only if there is no good reason (see below).
Regulation 13(1) requires you to take people’s capabilities into account when giving them tasks, so someone without COSHH training should not be decanting chemicals meanwhile. After the deadline, do HSE’s final check: are people working the way they were trained?
What should you do if an employee won’t complete mandatory training?
Start with a private, informal conversation to find out why. Acas guidance on the first steps of a disciplinary procedure says employers should first see whether a problem can be resolved informally. Many refusals turn out to be a practical blocker or an unmet need for an adjustment. If there is no good reason, employees have a legal duty under section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to co-operate with their employer’s health and safety duties. Acas lists insubordination, such as refusing to do work, as misconduct, and serious insubordination, such as refusing reasonable orders from a supervisor, as possible gross misconduct. Formal action should follow the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures: investigate, explain the problem, hold a meeting where they can be accompanied, and allow an appeal.
What training records should you keep after a rollout?
Step 6 is keeping the evidence and planning refreshers. For each person and topic, keep who was trained, on what, when, how it was assessed, the certificate ID and the review date. For inductions and toolbox talks, keep the date, topic, presenter and attendees. Our health and safety guide covers whether employers have to keep training records, and INDG345 recommends keeping them even for in-house training. Store certificates centrally, not only in staff members’ personal inboxes.
Every Nexis CPD certificate carries a unique ID and a QR code, and anyone can verify a certificate online, which helps when an inspector or client asks.
The law sets few fixed refresher intervals. Regulation 13(3)(a) says training shall “be repeated periodically where appropriate”. Nexis CPD certificates show a recommended renewal date: typically every year for Fire Safety Awareness and Data Protection and GDPR Awareness, and every three years for Introduction to Health and Safety. Put them in your training matrix the day the rollout closes. Our HR guide explains building a training matrix that survives scrutiny. For staff in regulated professions, keep mandatory training separate from personal CPD; our guide to CPD hours by profession explains the difference.
How do you add new starters and agency staff to the same system?
Use the same grid. Regulation 13(2)(a) requires training when someone is recruited, and INDG345 says new recruits need basic induction training on how to work safely, including first aid, fire and evacuation arrangements. So give the induction on day one, assign courses that day from their role’s row on the grid, and set a deadline within their first few weeks.
Fixed-term staff are your employees, so regulation 13 applies to them in full. For agency workers, regulation 15 requires you to tell the agency and the worker about any qualifications or skills needed to work safely. Regulation 12(3) requires appropriate instructions and comprehensible information on the risks. HSE says day-to-day responsibility lies with the business directing the work, so agency workers get your induction too.
What does a two-week training rollout timeline look like?
| Working day | What happens | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | List everyone by role; collect existing certificates; build the role grid | Manager |
| Day 2 | Set the order of topics; book practical sessions; fix the deadline date | Manager |
| Day 3 | Buy places; add staff and assign courses; block training slots on the rota | Manager, rota lead |
| Day 4 | Team briefing and written follow-up; invite private requests for adjustments | Manager |
| Days 4 to 9 | Staff complete courses in rostered time; site-specific briefings and fire walk-round | Staff, supervisor |
| Day 6 | Midpoint check of the completion report; personal word with anyone not started | Supervisor |
| Day 8 | Second check; protected slots and support for anyone behind | Supervisor |
| Day 10 | Deadline; one-to-ones with anyone outstanding; certificates filed and renewal dates entered | Manager |
| Later | Practical sessions as booked; check people are working as trained | Manager, trainer |
What mistakes slow down a training rollout?
- No deadline. “Sometime this month” becomes next quarter.
- Everyone on everything. It wastes time and places, and staff switch off. Train by role.
- No records. Certificates in personal inboxes prove nothing. File them as they arrive.
- Practical topics assigned online only. An awareness course is not a first aid certificate or a forklift licence.
- Training in unpaid time. Health and safety training belongs in working hours.
- Forgetting the edges of the rota: part-timers, night and weekend staff, and agency workers.
- No owner. A rollout everyone owns is one nobody chases.
What should be on a manager’s training rollout checklist?
- Everyone listed by role, including part-time, night, agency and new starters
- Existing certificates checked
- Legal-duty and high-risk topics first
- Practical sessions booked separately
- Courses assigned from the role grid
- Paid slots on the rota
- Briefing held; deadline in writing
- Adjustments and language support offered
- Completion report checked every few days
- Certificates filed; renewal dates in the matrix
Which courses suit a whole-team compliance rollout?
These three £9 courses form a common core that applies to most roles in most small workplaces, each with an instant, verifiable certificate:
- Introduction to Health and Safety: health and safety law, hazard and risk, risk assessment, and controlling risk. It is designed for new starters and induction.
- Fire Safety Awareness: fire safety law, how fire starts and spreads, preventing fire, means of escape and emergency procedures.
- Data Protection and GDPR Awareness: the UK GDPR principles, lawful processing, people’s rights over their data, security and what to do after a breach.
For one person, any three courses cost £18 with the pay-for-2-get-3 offer; add them to the cart and the discount applies automatically. For five or more staff, team places are simpler. These are CPD-accredited awareness courses, not regulated qualifications or practical training.
How can you start rolling out training this week?
Build the role grid, book anything practical and give the team a fixed date. Once the admin is done, the courses are the quick part.
£9 per course. CPD accredited, 100% online, verifiable e-certificate. Pay for 2, get 3 — any 3 courses for £18. Training 5 or more staff? Team pricing starts at £6 a course place, with a portal to assign courses and track who has finished.
Frequently asked questions
How quickly can a small team complete compliance training?
For online awareness courses, ten working days is realistic if you map roles, assign courses and set a deadline in the first few days. Practical training takes longer: sessions must be booked with a trainer, and a first aid at work course runs over at least three days.
Can I make staff do mandatory training in their own time?
Not for health and safety training. Regulation 13 of the Management Regulations says it must take place during working hours, and the Fire Safety Order says the same for fire safety training. Time spent on required training also counts as working time for minimum wage purposes.
What should a training completion record include?
The person’s name and role, the course or topic, the completion date, how it was assessed, the certificate ID and the review or renewal date. For in-house sessions, record the date, the topic, who delivered it and who attended.
Can an employee refuse mandatory training?
Employees must co-operate with their employer’s health and safety duties under section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Start informally and find out why, as many refusals are practical problems. If there is no good reason, follow the Acas Code of Practice.
Do agency workers need to do my company’s training?
They need your site induction and clear information about the risks. The Management Regulations require you to tell the agency and the worker what skills are needed to work safely, and HSE says day-to-day health and safety responsibility lies with the business directing the work.
How does Nexis CPD team training work?
From 5 staff, you pay once by card for course places: £6 each, however many you buy. Places last 12 months. You then add staff, choose their courses and track who has finished in your own portal.
This article is general information about rolling out staff training in UK workplaces and is not legal advice; check with Acas or HSE for your situation. The health and safety law described applies in Great Britain, the Fire Safety Order applies in England and Wales, and the Equality Act 2010 applies in England, Scotland and Wales; Northern Ireland has its own legislation. Prices are those published on nexiscpd.co.uk in October 2026. Nexis CPD courses are CPD-accredited awareness training, not regulated qualifications, and do not replace practical certification such as first aid at work, practical manual handling, face-fit testing or forklift and plant training.