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Data security is one of those issues that “takes a village” to address—and HR professionals are part of that village. HR can play an important role in helping to ensure that employees have the knowledge, resources, and desire to take an active role in helping to protect company data and systems.
Here are seven tips for launching a security awareness training program that can help HR leaders play an active and strategic role in minimizing cybersecurity risks.
1. Make Training a Process, Not an Event
While onboarding represents the first opportunity to ensure that employees understand the important role they play in protecting organizational data, it’s not enough. Security awareness isn’t a single event (or shouldn’t be). It’s a process that needs to be ongoing so that employees understand their shared accountability.
Ongoing training and communication can take a variety of forms and use a range of delivery methods to ensure the message is received and understood. This can range from training events and activities, to email updates, one-on-ones, group discussions, online chats, and more.
2. Focus on Behavior Change
Awareness of security risks is a starting point, but creating a strong security culture must be your focus. You can achieve this through practical exercises, like phishing simulations designed to test employees’ responses to potential email and social engineering scams in real-world settings.
These exercises can help employees identify fraud when it appears. Exercises can also actively contribute to security efforts and teach staff how their individual actions (or inactions) can lead to breaches.
3. Engage Employees through Compelling Communications
It shouldn’t be surprising that the typical dry and jargon-laden messages put out by IT and security staff fail to delight and engage employees. They mean well and they know their stuff but, face it, they’re not communications experts.
HR professionals can be and, when teaming up with their marketing and corporate communications colleagues, they can help cut through the tech-speak to get to the point in ways that can resonate and influence behavior change.
Think of security awareness as a marketing campaign; craft messages that are both visually appealing and easy to digest and understand, and you’ll do a better job of getting the message out—and understood.
4. Personalize Communications
Not all employees will have the same level of cybersecurity maturity or potential for impact when it comes to data and system security. A member of the IT department, for instance, will likely be more aware of cybersecurity issues and better able to understand the jargon. Members of the customer service department, on the other hand, may not—but they will have the potential to impact the security of customer data. Take the time to tailor communications materials instead of attempting to take a one-size-fits-all approach.
A variety of formats and channels—both on-demand and real time, using varied formats like FAQs, podcasts, webinars, short videos, etc., can help address individual preferences. Adjusting tone and content can also help ensure messages resonate with individuals, rather than trying to appeal to the masses.
5. Get the Timing Right
Employees are most likely to learn best when information arrives when it’s most needed—or when they have easy, self-serve access to what they need at their fingertips.
For instance, tips on best practices for using password managers can be sent along with scheduled reminders to change passwords. Or displaying banners or pop-ups when employees open certain company applications, or when a confidential file is delivered. Another great time to make an impact is after a security incident has occurred or been averted. These can be powerful learning moments.
Ensuring that the information you offer is well-timed and related to employee needs and interests can boost the odds that they’ll be attentive and that the information will successfully help to drive behavior change.
6. Take a Multi-Channel Marketing Approach
We’ve already talked about the value that your marketing colleagues can provide. You can also take a page from their multi-channel marketing playbook—the use of a combination of communication channels to convey security awareness messages. This might include gamification, contests, rewards, group lunches, chats, printed materials, and more.
In the world of marketing communications, repetition is a good thing. In the world of security awareness training, it should be too.
7. Monitor and Measure Results
Determining the effectiveness of your security awareness communication efforts starts with putting a stake in the ground in terms of the quantitative success or results you want to achieve. Set a baseline, identify the metrics you’ll use to track progress and monitor and evaluate performance regularly.
But don’t just keep that information to yourself. Share it with employees so they can see how far they’ve come in their knowledge of security risks and how they help minimize them—and how far they may still have to go.
Use the data you gather to identify areas of opportunity for improvement to drive new, or modified, communication strategies and tactics.
Wrapping Up
Security awareness and employee compliance are critical for all organizations today. By following these seven tips for launching a security awareness training program, you can help make a measurable impact in preparing employees for their important role in protecting company systems and data.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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