Our workforce at KnowBe4 not too long ago received collectively to speak about planning for annual safety and compliance coaching.
You could be pondering, “Aren’t you a bit of late in planning for the yr? It’s March already…”
We are literally speaking about 2025.
Not everybody trains thousands and thousands of learners all world wide like we do, so your planning for compliance and safety coaching could be on a special timescale. However in the event you don’t begin interested by how you’ll plan for subsequent yr quickly, it could possibly actually sneak up on you.
That being mentioned, I labored with our superb workforce of Safety and Compliance Content material Specialists, who’re speaking to organizations on daily basis and serving to them plan, to give you this record. You probably have not linked with one in every of them, attain out by way of your KnowBe4 consultant, and they’ll provide help to plan your program that mixes compliance and cybersecurity coaching. Let’s get into our record:
10 Ideas for a a Yr-Lengthy Safety and Compliance Coaching Program
- Whether or not you’re utilizing simply KnowBe4 to fulfill your compliance and safety coaching wants or a mix of content material suppliers, aligning these efforts is a large tip. Our groups internally at KnowBe4 created a mixed coaching plan that concerned Authorized, Compliance, Cybersecurity and HR. They had been in a position to work on a plan that enhances one another’s coaching and be certain that it’s unfold out sufficient in order to not overwhelm the workforce. We regularly hear that is performed by way of “custom” the place, for example, the primary quarter is at all times for HR coaching, and Authorized compliance is finished within the fourth quarter. Traditions may be onerous to interrupt however a extra built-in program that has content material from all areas all year long can have numerous advantages for all divisions in a corporation.
- Break it up into smaller, extra frequent modules. My boss, Stu, had an important weblog submit about The Forgetting Curve that explains the science behind the necessity for extra frequent cybersecurity coaching. The identical applies to compliance coaching. All of us who’ve carried out compliance coaching up to now have famous the rise in reporting proper after the annual coaching, a few of which is much past the time when reporting ought to have taken place. If you’re continually reminded about being diligent about reporting issues and the way to do this (whether or not it’s a phishing electronic mail or a potential harassment challenge) you usually tend to report it in a well timed method that may make the distinction for an early intervention to be efficient.
- Take into account mixing content material kinds and kinds to to maintain learners engaged. Entrepreneurs know the science behind altering habits, and it’s not by watching one video or studying one poster or reality sheet. We at all times say, “practice like a marketer” as a result of there are classes to be discovered about easy methods to get the message throughout from that self-discipline. Mixing it up with video games, newsletters, interactive modules and movies is an effective way to maintain issues recent and fascinating. Folks simply disengage after they see the identical previous kind of content material. Don’t be afraid to incorporate a couple of modules (or studying actions) slightly than one massive module. Folks have a tendency to reply higher to a couple issues they’ve to do this are 5-10 minutes than one 20-30 minute module. It will not be potential for each subject however when you may, embody quite a few completely different modules in a coaching occasion and/or marketing campaign.
- Customise your coaching to extend effectiveness. We assist each small organizations and a few of the largest on this planet with their coaching plans, and a great rule of thumb is 80/20. This implies 80% of the content material must be off-the-self from us and 20% must be particular to your group to make it related, align along with your general tradition, and particular sufficient to be actionable. Now we have been including extra options to make this simpler for organizations, together with the flexibility to add our personal video or SCORM compliant quiz to a coaching marketing campaign and the profitable Content material Supervisor so as to add coverage hyperlinks and acknowledgements.
- Assessment your plan quarterly given new assault vectors, business tendencies, regulatory adjustments and present points. Simply since you plan a yr forward, doesn’t imply you may’t make content material changes. It’s vital to be sure you are getting suggestions from the enterprise leaders in addition to the stakeholders who’ve a vested curiosity in safety and compliance coaching. An awesome instance of this final yr was the proliferation of AI chatbots. In fact, many instances these tendencies won’t even have settled laws and even greatest practices, but it surely’s good to be planning whereas that will get sorted out. Having the pliability to handle issues that come up, and even placeholders within the long-term plan, may make the coaching extra related and topical.
- Plan for particular events like holidays and important compliance dates i.e. Worldwide Cyber Safety Consciousness Month in October, Information Privateness Day in January, and World Day In opposition to Corruption in December. That is one other idea that we are able to borrow from entrepreneurs: tying into the vacations or centered instances of the yr could make for a extra impactful message. Everyone knows that cybercriminals assault individuals personally through the holidays so a few of this info may assist workers defend their households.
- Survey your customers’ satisfaction and revise your program accordingly. We talked about flexibility for subjects, however that is one other one we borrowed from a few of the greatest organizations which can be utilizing our platform and content material. The flexibility to adapt to the suggestions they’re receiving in regards to the relevance and format of the content material chosen. Enabling surveying and feedback for the group may be scary, but when we don’t take it personally, we are able to typically glean insights and make little changes that may have an effect.
- Go away room and promote the potential of further non-obligatory studying. I used to be initially skeptical of this function, pondering, “who’s going to be all in favour of taking extra safety or compliance coaching?” However we now have seen A LOT of people who find themselves all in favour of these subjects to study extra themselves. Clearly, not all content material is suited to this, however sequence like “The Inside Man” (our edutainment sequence designed to show cybersecurity consciousness by way of an interesting narrative) or subjects that may be useful for safety of their private lives are good decisions for non-obligatory studying. Getting individuals into the platform to have a look at content material they’re all in favour of, even when it’s a comparatively small variety of customers, will get them speaking about these fascinating sequence with others and is an effective way to drive engagement.
- Preserve the dialogue open along with your e-learning suppliers for present insights. At KnowBe4 we’re continually speaking with our prospects and sharing greatest practices. Use us and your different suppliers as a useful resource that will help you with the planning course of and share what others are doing efficiently in your business. We will additionally share examples that may assist get a few of the adjustments you’ll want to make to management and others throughout the group. We all know that is typically not as simple as I’ve written on this weblog, however we need to companion with you as a result of your success is our success.
- Foster a tradition the place following guidelines and laws is prioritized by selecting a scientific and proactive strategy to safety and compliance coaching. You probably have the perspective that this isn’t helpful to the enterprise, however we’re, “checking the field”, that might be felt by your trainees. A number of the most profitable organizations we work with are actively attempting to have an effect on the tradition. Tradition can be onerous to alter and it takes sustained efforts over time to have the ability to make these kind of adjustments. Preserve planning centered on measurable outcomes and incremental progress. “Tradition beats technique each time.” Whereas technique outlines the trail to attain targets, tradition determines how individuals really behave and work collectively each day. If the tradition is powerful, it could possibly improve the effectiveness of any technique. Conversely, if the tradition is weak or detrimental, even the perfect methods can fail as a result of individuals won’t be motivated or aligned sufficient to implement them successfully. It is like saying that the center and soul of a corporation (its tradition) is what actually drives success, greater than the mind (technique) alone. So deal with fostering a tradition of compliance slightly than simply having a compliance technique.
I hope you discovered a couple of of the following pointers useful as you start your planning course of. You probably have concepts or greatest practices to share with us, please have interaction us. Additionally, if we may help you in your planning course of, please don’t hesitate to succeed in out.