For anyone who wants to do something about IT security – without boring employees to death
Awareness training in IT security is often misunderstood – it's not about sending out a video and hoping someone watches it. It's about people, timing and context.
Cyber threats are getting more creative. People are getting more distracted. And companies… well, many still think awareness training in IT security is just a matter of sending a video and hoping someone watches it.
Awareness training in IT security doesn't have to be heavy or boring – it's about engaging employees, not scaring them.
Because the reality is:
82% of all security breaches are caused by human error.
Yet only a small fraction of companies test their employees' knowledge on an ongoing basis. It's a bit like handing someone a fire extinguisher and never showing them how it works.
Here are 9 tips that will help you make awareness training actually make sense – both for you and your colleagues.
The 9 tips in short
- Train everyone – not just the IT department.
- Give people what's relevant for their role.
- Weave your own policies into the training.
- Train in a language people understand – at times that work.
- Remember to document – otherwise it doesn't count.
- Drop the spreadsheets – automate everything.
- Test employees' knowledge – also before you start.
- Phishing isn't the only thing – but it's important.
- Microlearning + nudging = better learning.
Awareness training in IT security doesn't have to be boring or just a checklist. In fact, it's one of the most effective ways to reduce the risk of data breaches. Let's take a closer look at the 9 points.
1. Train everyone – not just the IT department
It's not enough to train just techies and IT leads. Most phishing attacks hit ordinary people in HR, finance, sales, etc.
And while NIS2, DUKA, the D-mark and GDPR don't necessarily hit every industry directly, the requirements for documentation and accountability do.
Awareness isn't just about compliance – it's about responsibility and safety. Including for the employee's digital life at home.
Recommendations:
- Make it clear why everyone needs to be trained – and what they get out of it
- Highlight that the training also helps in private life
- Communicate it as a shared task – not a control exercise
2. Give people what's relevant for their role
Imagine getting a course on server room security protocols when you work at the front desk. It's a waste of time – and creates resistance.
Instead: target the training. A finance employee should be able to spot CEO fraud. A marketing specialist should know what they may share – and what they may not.
Recommendations:
- Use the word “roles” – and let it drive the training
- Split employees into groups with different goals
- Use examples from their everyday work
3. Weave your own policies into the training
Most companies have nice PDFs with guidelines – that nobody reads. Or finds. Or understands.
Instead of hiding them away on the intranet, integrate them into the training. When something feels concrete and close, it has a much better chance of actually being remembered.
Recommendations:
- Link directly to your own policies in the course
- Use cases from your own everyday work
- Make sure the material is easy to find afterwards
4. Train in a language people understand – at times that work
Not all employees read English perfectly. Not everyone has time to take a course at 14:12 while the support phone is ringing.
So training should be available when it suits – and in a language that makes sense.
Recommendations:
- Use a platform with language options and subtitles
- Make sure it's mobile-friendly and accessible flexibly
- Allow people to pause and come back
5. Remember to document – otherwise it doesn't count
Did they complete it? Did they understand it? Do you have proof if someone asks?
Without data and documentation, awareness just becomes “something we did once”.
Recommendations:
- Make sure you can see completion per employee
- Use statistics to spot weak points
- Hand out diplomas or badges – it motivates more than you'd think
6. Drop the spreadsheets – automate everything
It quickly becomes messy if you have to manually track who needs to take which courses – especially in larger organizations with many employees and job functions.
But it can be automated. When your training platform talks to your company's systems (e.g. your user management), new employees automatically get the right course assigned – without anyone lifting a finger.
Recommendations:
- Use system integration (e.g. with HR systems or user management)
- Assign training automatically based on the employee's role or department
- Make sure new employees are automatically onboarded to training from day one
7. Test employees' knowledge – also before you start
It doesn't make sense to measure “progress” if you don't know where people started.
Test before and after. Not to point fingers, but to find out where the shoe pinches – and what works.
Recommendations:
- Run simple before-and-after tests
- Use realistic scenarios – not trick questions
- Make it part of the learning, not an exam
8. Phishing isn't the only thing – but it's important
Phishing is still the most common method for gaining access to systems. According to the trend report, almost 9 out of 10 successful attacks happen via social engineering.
But it doesn't stop there. Weak passwords, fake invoices and being misled over the phone are also everyday occurrences.
Recommendations:
- Run broader tests covering multiple types of attack
- Use feedback to improve the training
- Show examples of real attacks – it puts things into perspective
9. Microlearning + nudging = better learning
According to Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve, we forget up to 70% of new knowledge within the first 24 hours if we're not reminded of it on an ongoing basis.
That's why microlearning works: short bites of learning spread out over time. When combined with notifications, diplomas, points and small nudges, the message sticks.
Digital awareness becomes more than just a checklist – it becomes a shared project that creates ownership and engagement.
It shouldn't feel like training imposed on employees by management – it should feel like real development. And that shows, both in the culture and on the bottom line.
Recommendations:
- Break the course into modules – and spread them across the year
- Use automatic reminders and notifications
- Reward engagement with a diploma, badge or score
Show overall progress – so it feels like a shared project.
When awareness training in IT security is tailored to the individual role and the company's risk profile, it starts to work in practice.
Thanks for reading
We know awareness training isn't the hottest topic in the world. But it's pretty important. Not just because it's required by law – but because 82% of all security breaches start with something as simple as human error.
And it's worth pondering that so few companies actually test their employees' knowledge, even though attacks are getting more and more personal and harder to spot. AI and cybercriminals have made it hard, even for the most perceptive judge of character, to tell whether Hans from IT really IS Hans from IT or someone else entirely with bad intentions.
That's why awareness isn't about ticking a box in a spreadsheet. It's about equipping people to act safely – at work and in their private life.
Mindzeed builds awareness training that actually gets completed
With us, you don't just get access to a learning system. You get a solution that's actually used. With high completion rates, relevant content and clear documentation.