You've probably heard the saying, "There's no one-size-fits-all solution." Well, that certainly applies to security awareness training. It's not enough to simply send all employees the same type of training and hope for the best. That's why personalization is so important in security awareness initiatives. When employees receive training relevant to them, they are more likely to take it seriously and actually apply what they learn. In this blog post, we'll discuss the importance of personalization in security awareness training and provide some tips on how to achieve it.
What happens when security awareness training is boring?
In a word: boredom. When employees find security awareness training to be dull and uninteresting, they're likely to tune out or even worse, ignore it altogether. This not only hurts your ability to train effectively, but it puts your company at a higher level of risk. Not only have you failed to equip your employees with the knowledge and good habits they need to face cyber threats, but you've "checked the box" of training and feel no need to train further.
Ineffective training leads to a higher level of risk and more breaches. Simple as that.
How can you improve the effectiveness of security awareness training?
Personalization is one of the key ways to improve the effectiveness of security awareness training. By making it more relevant to employees, you can increase their engagement and motivation. There are a few things you can do to personalize your training:
- Use case studies that are specific to your company or industry
- Target different employee roles within your company
- Tailor the training content to your employees' level of knowledge and experience
- Make use of interactive activities and games
- Use multimedia elements, such as videos and infographics
When it comes to personalizing security awareness training, the sky's the limit. Be creative and find ways to make the training relevant to your employees.
What should you include in your personalized security awareness training program?
That depends on a variety of factors, including your company's size, culture, and cybersecurity goals and objectives. However, there are some general things that should be included in any security awareness training program. Here are a few examples:
- The types of cyber threats that pose the biggest risk to your company
- How to identify phishing and other social engineering attacks
- Best practices for protecting sensitive data
- Guidelines for safe online behavior, including when using public Wi-Fi networks
- What to do if you suspect you've been the victim of a cyberattack
It's important to keep in mind that the content of your training program should be tailored to your employees' level of knowledge and experience. Don't overload them with information they're not ready to handle; instead, gradually introduce new topics over time.
How Hook Security Solves The One-Size-Fits-All Training Problem
At Hook Security, we are setting a new standard in security awareness training by focusing on:
- An entertaining, memorable training experience
- Ease of use for admins to deliver training
- Personalization of training to increase effectiveness
Let's dive deeper into the 3rd goal: personalization. Like I mentioned before, personalization is key to an effective training program. Employees are more likely to be interested and engaged when they see that the training is relevant to them.
Hook Security's platform allows for complete personalization of each employee's training experience. This includes tailoring content to their level of knowledge and experience, as well as delivering different training modules depending on their role within the company. Admins can also create custom phishing tests to get a better understanding of each employee's knowledge gaps.
To create personalized training experiences, there are a few levers we pull to attain this with both our training program and phishing simulations:
- The style of the training (corporate, casual, comedy)
- The length of the training
- The topics covered
- How often training is delivered
Our flagship series, PsySec Training, consists of two programs: PsySec Essentials, an annual training module, and PsySec Deep Dives, a series of individual courses that cover specific topics. These are meant to be used in tandem (Monthly + Annual) in order to create a well-rounded program.
Now with the release of our Hook+ Training Library, you can enroll users in different course programs based on their preferred learning style.
For phishing testing, you can create custom phishing tests by segmenting your company by department, seniority, manager, or by past phishing test performance.
Conclusion
Personalized security awareness training is key to ensuring that employees are engaged and interested in the material. By tailoring the content to employees' level of knowledge and experience, and delivering different training modules depending on their role within the company, administrators can create a more effective security awareness program. At Hook Security, we specialize in providing personalized security awareness training that is both entertaining and engaging. Get a demo today to learn more about how we can help you improve your organization's cybersecurity posture.
