Page 69 - Cyber Defense eMagazine August 2023

learning, and employees won’t benefit from educational programs that don’t provide information they can
retrieve and deploy in the real world.

When companies give employees convincing reasons to learn and keep them engaged as they do so,
they won’t just build a healthier workforce – they will also secure positive learning outcomes. When it
comes to cybersecurity awareness training, this means employees will be equipped to keep the company
safe from cyberattacks that can have devastating operational, financial, and reputational consequences.
But no matter what you’re training employees to do, the process is all about finding the right incentives.

Meeting the demand for professional development

Employees recognize that workplace education is necessary to help them compete in an increasingly
skills-based and global job market. A remarkable 77 percent of employees say they’re ready to learn new
skills or completely retrain, while almost three-quarters say training is a matter of personal responsibility.
It’s no surprise that the top action employers are taking to address skills and labor shortages is upskilling
workers – a goal that’s even more important when there are two open jobs for every candidate who’s
actively seeking work.

Employees want workplace education, but training content can’t be generic – it has to be relevant to their
unique responsibilities, skill sets, and professional aspirations. A critical aspect of cybersecurity
awareness training is real-world applicability. Employees have to understand exactly why they’re learning
about common cyberattacks such as phishing – it’s extremely likely that they will encounter one of these
attacks at some point, and they need to know what the red flags are and how to react.

Despite persistent inflation, the possibility of a recession, and other economic woes, the labor market
remains strong. Companies are struggling to fill skills gaps, and they’re increasingly turning to workplace
education to build a more productive and loyal workforce. When companies excel at talent mobility, they
retain employees for nearly twice as long as companies that struggle with it. Considering the role of
workplace education in facilitating mobility, companies will rely on it even more heavily in the coming
years.

Give employees a reason to keep paying attention

Any professional can tell you horror stories about sitting through exhausting, repetitive, and dull training
content at some point in their lives. This content isn’t designed to keep employees engaged, help them
retain what they learn, or secure sustainable behavioral change – it only exists as a superficial form of
due diligence. Instead of meeting employees’ demands for professional development and building a
better-educated workforce, too much workplace training alienates and frustrates employees.

One of the most reliable ways to keep employees engaged and help them fully absorb the information
they learn is to personalize their educational content. This means content should be customized on the
basis of each employee’s individual abilities, personality traits, and learning style. Personalized education
offers several advantages: it reinforces learners’ strengths while identifying and addressing their

Cyber Defense eMagazine – August 2023 Edition 69
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