Better Security Training Starts with Engagement

Your organization’s network security is dictated in part by your security solutions, but your employees also play a large role in maintaining it. If you want to make sure that your employees are not inadvertently putting your organization at risk, you need to ensure they are getting the proper security training. Here are a couple of ways you can make security training less like pulling teeth and more engaging for your employees.

Keep It Interesting

The more interesting the training is, the easier it will be for your team to both absorb information and muscle their way through the content. If the training is boring or repetitive, the employee will grow disengaged, and nobody will learn anything under these circumstances.

One way you can do this is by paying attention to the focus and the format. Shaking things up once in a while by adding some variety to your training can be a great way to make the training easier to manage and understand, particularly for those who learn in different ways. You can also try to use different tools and approaches to keep your team focused on the subject matter.

Keep It Personal

Content tends to resonate with people when it can be applied personally to them. Employees who fulfill different roles across your organization will have different perceptions of network security. Therefore, this one-size-fits-all approach to network security training will likely fall on deaf ears and be counterproductive to your goals.

The best way to make sure that network security training sticks are to consider each of your employees’ roles within your organization and tailor the training to suit the most common threats for those positions. If employees get training according to the threats they are most likely to encounter, they will be more likely to pay attention and get something out of the training.

Keep It Short

Mandated training can often seem endless for employees, especially those who would rather be focusing on their actual job rather than the training. Some might look forward to a change in pace, but after a couple of hours of training, they will be sure to change their minds. It makes sense to keep things shorter and more succinct if possible.

If you can condense the lessons you want to impart to your employees into simple takeaways, you can help your team focus on those rather than when the next break from training is. You can also give your team actionable instructions to follow or let them learn asynchronously on their own. If you can make this a well-rounded training experience with plenty of variety, you can’t go wrong.

Horne & Benik can help your business ensure that your team gets the training it needs. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 499-4400.