Compliance Training in 2025: What HR Leaders Need to Know

Compliance is no longer just about avoiding penalties. It’s a strategic imperative that touches everything—from hiring and retention to company culture and employer brand.

In 2025, HR is at the center of it all.

New state mandates, stricter harassment laws, evolving data privacy regulations, and AI oversight are rewriting the rules. 

The risk is not just penalties—but lawsuits, bad press, and lost talent.

Yet, with the right strategy, compliance can become your competitive edge.

In this article, I’ll cut through the noise and show you:

• The must-know legal changes for 2025
• What they mean for HR leaders
• How you can build a compliance program that drives culture, not just checkboxes

2025 Compliance Shifts That Demand HR’s Attention

1. Sexual Harassment Prevention Training

As of 2025, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, and New York continue to mandate that employers provide harassment training to employees and supervisors. The frequency and content of the training vary across states.

What’s new: 

• California now also allows individuals up to 10 years to file a sexual harassment claim, further emphasizing the need for proper training and documentation. 
• Additionally, the EEOC issued updated guidance in April 2024 clarifying what constitutes unlawful harassment, reinforcing the importance of ongoing compliance.

Even in states where it’s not a legal requirement, many others strongly encourage this training as part of a proactive workplace culture.

HR Takeaway: 

• Check sexual harassment training requirements for your state. 
• Include harassment prevention training in your onboarding process, internal communications, and regular compliance reviews.

👉 Explore ready-to-use, fully compliant & customizable anti-harassment courses

2. Pay Transparency Mandates

Starting in 2025, Illinois, Minnesota, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Jersey will require employers to disclose salary ranges and benefits in job postings. This aims to ensure fair pay and transparency for job seekers. Learn more here.

What’s new:

• Illinois (Jan 1, 2025): Companies with 15+ employees must include salary and benefits in job postings and inform current employees about promotion opportunities.
• Minnesota (Jan 1, 2025): Employers with 30+ employees must list a fixed salary or pay range in job postings.
• New Jersey (June 1, 2025): Companies with 10+ employees must disclose pay for new jobs and promotions.
• Vermont (July 1, 2025): Employers with 5+ employees must include salary details in job postings.
• Massachusetts (Oct 29, 2025): Companies with 25+ employees must provide pay ranges for job postings and promotions.

HR Takeaway: Review your compensation disclosure policies and job posting templates now. Internal parity audits should follow.

3. Consumer Data Privacy Laws

Businesses must prepare for eight new state privacy laws that will take effect across the U.S. Each law introduces unique compliance requirements, making it critical to update privacy strategies and data protection policies. HR can support these efforts by ensuring employees complete up-to-date data protection and cybersecurity training.

What’s New: 

Here are the major State Privacy Laws Taking Effect in 2025

• New Hampshire SB 255 Privacy Act – January 1, 2025
• Delaware Personal Data Privacy Act – January 1, 2025
• Iowa Consumer Data Protection Act – January 1, 2025
• Nebraska Data Privacy Act – January 1, 2025
• New Jersey SB 332 Data Protection Act – January 15, 2025
• Tennessee Information Protection Act – July 1, 2025
• Minnesota Consumer Data Privacy Act – July 31, 2025
• Maryland Online Data Privacy Act – October 1, 2025

HR Takeaway: Include data privacy and security training for your people. Update the right people in your org to update the data consent processes, privacy policies, and system access protocols.

👉 Explore ready-to-use data protection & cyber security training courses

4. Workplace Violence Prevention Laws

Oregon and Massachusetts have rolled out new workplace violence prevention laws, especially for healthcare.

What’s New: In Oregon:

• HB 2552 & SB 537 require healthcare employers to set up safety committees, conduct regular safety checks, provide annual training, and report incidents. A grant program will also support prevention efforts.

What’s New: In Massachusetts:

• H.2655 mandates annual risk assessments, written prevention plans, and paid leave for assaulted workers.
• H.2364 focuses on home healthcare, requiring annual safety training and prevention programs.

HR Takeaway: Implement stricter workplace violence prevention measures, especially in healthcare, including safety training, risk assessments, and incident reporting.

👉 Ready-to-use Online Workplace Violence Prevention Training Course

5. OSHA Safety Standards

OSHA is rolling out major safety updates in 2025, and construction companies must act now to stay compliant. These changes focus on three key areas: properly fitting PPE, heat illness prevention, and stricter lead exposure limits.

What’s New:

• PPE Must Fit Properly (Effective Jan 13, 2025)

Workers—especially women and those with diverse body types—have long struggled with ill-fitting PPE. OSHA now requires construction PPE to fit every worker properly.

• Heat Illness Prevention (Final Rule Expected Soon)

OSHA will likely mandate water, rest breaks, and shade for workers in extreme heat. Employers may also need a Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Plan (HIIPP).

• Stricter Lead Exposure Limits (Effective Jan 1, 2025, in CA)

California is slashing the permissible lead exposure limit from 50 to 10 µg/m³ and the action level from 30 to 2 µg/m³ to protect workers in renovation, demolition, and steel welding.

HR Takeaway: Partner with operations or facilities to align training content with on-the-ground risk.

👉 Ready-to-use OSHA Training Courses

6. AI and Bias in Hiring Algorithms

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more integrated into hiring processes, several U.S. states have enacted or are planning laws to ensure these technologies promote fairness and transparency. Notably, some of these regulations are set to take effect from 2025 onwards.

What’s New

• Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act (HB 1709) – Effective September 2025, this law introduces regulations for the responsible use of AI within Texas, ensuring transparency, fairness, and accountability in AI systems.
• Colorado and Illinois AI Notification Laws – Effective 2026, these laws require businesses to notify individuals when AI is being used to interact with them, enhancing transparency and consumer rights in both states.

HR Takeaway: Prepare for upcoming state laws requiring transparency and fairness in AI-driven hiring, with compliance deadlines starting as early as 2025.

Here is a comprehensive overview of these regulations:

7. Data Security Standards in Finance

Financial institutions face mounting pressure to upgrade ATMs and self-service networks as new security and compliance standards occur. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) mandates key updates starting in 2025.

What’s New:

• January 2025 – PCI mandates TR-31 key blocks for secure cryptographic key management.
• March 2025 – PCI DSS best practices become mandatory, reinforcing cardholder data security.
• April 2026 – Expiry of PCI PTS 5 hardware standard, requiring PCI 6-compliant ATMs.
• October 2026 – End of Windows 10 LTSC 2016 support, forcing OS upgrades.
• April 2027 – Mastercard begins phasing out magnetic stripes in favor of EMV/contactless solutions.

HR Takeaway:  Align with IT and compliance teams to prepare staff for upcoming PCI DSS security standards to ensure workforce readiness for major tech and infrastructure upgrades.

Are You Ready to Lead the Charge?

2025 is calling for bold, proactive HR leadership—and you’re in the driver’s seat.

New laws demand more than annual check-the-box training. They require a cultural shift. A mindset change. And a readiness to act fast.

Whether it’s anti-harassment, pay transparency, AI fairness, or data protection, you need training programs that are:

• ✅ Legally up-to-date
• 🎯 Easy to roll out
• 📊 Trackable in real-time
• 👩‍💼 Tailored for every role and risk

Here’s How to Launch Compliance Training in 3 Simple Steps

Step 1. Pick a course from the ProProfs Library

Search from our ready-to-use, fully customizable, expert-taught compliance courses that match your needs (e.g., sexual harassment prevention, workplace safety, data privacy). 

Start with the most pressing one – Sexual Harassment Training in the Workplace.

Here are the exact steps you can follow to launch this training instantly.

Watch this 3-minute video that walks you through how to set up your training program.

ProProfs courses are fully editable, so you can tweak the content to match your internal policies or region-specific regulations (optional).

You can also create your own training content using ProProfs’ built-in AI course creator—just input your details, and it’ll generate a training module in minutes. Watch this quick video tutorial on how you can create a course with AI in minutes.

Step 2. Assign it by employee role, department, or location

Once you’ve chosen the course, add your instructors who create and manage training in the future, add your learners, and create groups based on job roles, teams, or office branches. You can also create user groups in a virtual classroom to make future assignments easier. 

I’ve created a video tutorial for you. It teaches how to do all the above:

Step 3. Track completions, automate reminders & prep for audits

Go to the Reports dashboard to view who all have taken your course and who are yet to. You can also view group or department reports and recent activities. 

Turn on auto-reminders to follow up with your teams who haven’t started or finished the training. All data stays saved in one place, so you’re always audit-ready—no scrambling for documentation later.

Here’s a video guide that explains all the different types of training reports:

And that’s how you can create a compliance training course in just a few minutes. 

Explore More Ready-to-Use Compliance Training

Here is a list of more expert-curated compliance training courses for your reference:

Cybersecurity Training

Cybersecurity training educates employees on how to recognize and respond to cyber threats like phishing, ransomware, and data breaches. It encourages safe online practices and helps protect sensitive organizational data from unauthorized access.

👉 Check out the Cybersecurity Awareness Training Course

Diversity Training

Diversity training increases awareness of cultural sensitivity, unconscious bias, and inclusive behavior in the workplace. It helps create an environment where employees from all backgrounds feel valued and respected.

👉 Check out Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Training Course

Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) Training

OSHA training ensures employees understand workplace hazards, injury prevention, and safety procedures. It helps meet legal compliance standards and builds a safety-first mindset across the organization.

👉 Check out OSHA Compliance Training Course

Data Protection and Privacy Training

This course educates staff on how to securely handle personal and company data in accordance with data privacy regulations like GDPR or HIPAA. It reduces risk and builds customer trust.

👉 Check out Data Protection Training Course

Anti-Bribery and Corruption

This training teaches employees how to recognize, avoid, and report bribery, kickbacks, and other corrupt practices. It helps protect organizational integrity and aligns with global anti-corruption laws.

👉 Check out Anti-Bribery and Corruption Training Course 

Ethics Training

Ethics training promotes moral responsibility by guiding employees in making honest and fair decisions. It covers topics like conflicts of interest, whistleblower protection, and ethical leadership.

👉 Check out Workplace Ethics Training Course

Healthcare Training

Healthcare compliance courses focus on patient privacy (HIPAA), infection control, and clinical best practices. It helps healthcare professionals meet regulatory standards and provide safer care.

👉 Check out the HIPAA Compliance Training Course

Workplace Violence

This training prepares employees to identify early warning signs of violence, respond effectively to threats, and create a safe work atmosphere. It’s essential for both prevention and emergency readiness.

👉 Check out the Handling Workplace Violence Training Course

Create a Future-Ready Workforce through Compliance Training

2025 compliance isn’t just a legal mandate; it’s your HR playbook for building a resilient, ethical, and future-proof workforce. As an HR leader, you’re responsible for rolling out training modules and shaping behaviors, influencing culture, and strengthening the foundation of organizational trust.

The future of compliance is proactive, personalized, and deeply human. It touches every part of the employee experience—from onboarding to leadership development. When done right, it will reduce risk, elevate performance, safeguard reputation, and attract top talent.