Distance learning attendance: how to prove real follow-through
Three elements establish a learner's attendance in distance training. Which ones, what a platform keeps, and the mistakes to avoid.
Read the articleIt is 5.40 pm on a Friday. You run a company of 40 people, and three issues have just landed: an employee clicked on a fake delivery email, a team is using an AI tool with no clear rule, and the site safety instructions need going over again.
Getting everyone in a room three times a year, nobody has the time. Doing nothing is not an option either.
What the employer owes, in two sentences
In France, Article L6321-1 of the Labour Code sets the framework. The employer ensures employees are adapted to their workstation, and sees that they keep their ability to hold a job, having regard in particular to changes in jobs, technologies and organisations. The text does not say which training, or in what form. It leaves that to the company.
That is good news for a small business. A short online path, targeted at a job, meets this obligation in a concrete way, provided you keep a record of what was done.
Step 1: start from the jobs, not from the catalogue
Many managers open a catalogue and pick whatever sounds good. Do the opposite. Take a sheet of paper, list your five or six jobs, and for each, note one thing that has changed recently: a new tool, a rule, a risk.
This work takes an hour. It gives you the real list of needs, and it spares you training that nobody would have applied.
Step 2: choose two or three topics, not ten
A small business that launches ten learning paths at once finishes none of them. Choose few, and say why.
| Topic | For whom | An example situation to work on |
|---|---|---|
| AI at work | All office jobs | Which data never to paste into an AI tool |
| Cybersecurity | Everyone | Spotting a booby-trapped email, managing passwords |
| Prevention and safety | Workshop, warehouse, site | The right actions, the site instructions |
| CSR | Management, purchasing | Answering a client who asks about your commitments |
My view: start with cybersecurity. It affects every job, the situations are easy to stage, and the result shows quickly. The other topics follow, one a quarter.
Step 3: make people practise, not just read
A presentation read in five minutes is forgotten in five days. What stays is what the employee had to do themselves: answer a quiz, settle a situation, explain their decision.
Split each topic into modules of 10 to 15 minutes, followed by a few questions. Finish with a case study drawn from your daily work: "Here is an email received by accounts. What do you do?" On this point, our article on assignments and case studies details how to write a clear brief, and the one on quizzes how to ask questions that make people think.
Step 4: track, follow up, keep the records
Training without tracking is like sending letters without an acknowledgement. Three indicators are enough: each person's progress, the results on the questions, and the people who have not resumed in a week.
For each indicator, decide the action in advance. An employee who is behind receives a reminder. A question missed by half the group becomes a refresher point at the team meeting. These records also serve at the appraisal or when talking to a funder.
How to organise without a training department
In a small business, training often falls to the manager or the HR lead, between other subjects. Keep one simple rule: one topic, one person in charge, one end date. That person does not need to be an expert; they send reminders and look at the tracking board.
A platform like Kognisia saves you from improvising. You build a learning path or take a module from the course catalogue, assign employees, and progress tracking shows where each one stands. Employees follow from the mobile app, with notifications so they do not forget.
The licence is annual, by tier of active learners. It therefore follows the number of people who are really training, which suits a small business whose headcount varies. The detail is on the solutions for companies page.
And outside France?
Article L6321-1 of the Labour Code and the OPCO are specific to France. For you in Great Britain, the legal basis we have verified for compulsory training is health and safety law; we have not verified a general duty comparable to Article L6321-1. Northern Ireland has its own regime, which we have not verified. The AI Act and the NIS2 directive are European, and the UK is no longer in the EU: the EU rows concern you only if you also operate there, and NIS2 applies through each country's laws.
| Country | Equivalent or rule | Reference | Key takeaway |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (Great Britain) | Health and safety: information, instruction, training and supervision; training on recruitment and when risks change | Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, s. 2; Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, reg. 13 | The employer must provide the information, instruction, training and supervision needed so far as reasonably practicable (s. 2(1) and 2(2)(c)). Reg. 13: adequate health and safety training on recruitment and when people face new or increased risks (change of role, new equipment, new technology, new work system); repeated periodically where appropriate and delivered during working hours |
| European Union (AI) | AI literacy of staff | Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, art. 4, reworded by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 | Applicable since 2 February 2025, reworded on 27 July 2026: support measures, with no certification or level imposed. High-risk rules for training postponed to 2 December 2027 |
| European Union (NIS2) | Management training | Directive (EU) 2022/2555, art. 20, through national laws | Germany: § 38 BSIG, in force 6 December 2025. Italy: D.Lgs. 138/2024, art. 23. CJEU referral on 8 July 2026 against Spain, France, Ireland and the Netherlands |
| Germany | Safety instruction | § 12 ArbSchG; § 87 and §§ 96 to 98 BetrVG | Adapted to the job, during working time. With a Betriebsrat, in-company training is co-determined; for monitoring tools, usual reading to be confirmed |
| Italy | Safety, regulated e-learning | D.Lgs. 81/2008, art. 37; Accordo Stato-Regioni of 17 April 2025 | LMS tracing every activity; no e-learning for "preposti". Transition expired in May 2026 (date to be settled), employers' courses before May 2027 |
These rules change: have your case validated by local advice.
Frequently asked questions
Should all employees be trained at the same time?
No. Start with a group of eight to ten people, see where they get stuck, correct, then open it to the rest of the company. You avoid redoing the path for everyone.
Is online training enough to meet the duty to adapt?
The text does not set a form. What matters is that the training is linked to the post and that you can show what was done. If you are unsure on a specific point, speak to your OPCO (a skills operator, a French body) or take legal advice.
What about employees who do not like digital tools?
Keep modules short, the language simple, and allow the phone. A ten-minute path on a break goes down better than an hour-long session in front of a screen, and a colleague acting as reference can help the first few times.
How much time should each employee spend?
A quarter of an hour a week for a few weeks is enough for one topic. What matters is regularity, not the length of a session.
In summary
For a small business, training online comes down to four actions: start from the jobs, choose few topics, make people practise, then track and follow up. The legal framework asks you to adapt your employees to their post, and a tracked path is the evidence. Next step: this week, note one recent change per job, and choose the first topic.
Sources
- Centre Inffo: Sheet 27-2, duty to adapt the employee to their workstation, accessed 13 October 2026.
- Centre Inffo: Sheet 27-3, duty to maintain the employee's ability to hold a job, accessed 13 October 2026.
- Labour Code, article L6321-1 (text reproduced on travail-industrie.com), accessed 13 October 2026.
- United Kingdom: Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, section 2 and Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 13, accessed 13 October 2026.
- European Union: Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, AI timeline, NIS2 directive and NIS2 monitoring, accessed 13 October 2026.
- Germany: ArbSchG § 12, BetrVG § 87 and BSIG § 38, accessed 13 October 2026.
- Italy: D.Lgs. 81/2008, art. 37 and Accordo Stato-Regioni, accessed 13 October 2026.
The Kognisia team
Kognisia designs a SaaS learning platform, with a training catalogue and white label as options.
Kognisia designs a SaaS learning platform, with a training catalogue and white label as options.