End of year awareness and training review

As we plunge towards the end of another year, now is an opportunity to take a long hard look at your awareness and training program as a whole, thinking forward to next year and beyond. Here are some rhetorical questions  to bear in mind:

• Is the program pitched appropriately? 
• Is your awareness and training approach polished in appearance? Does it look good? 
• Is it professional? Is the branding and presentation up to scratch? 
• Is it attracting sufficient interest and engagement? 
• Is it reaching all the right people across the organization?

What about the delivery mechanisms and awareness activities: are you making good use of the available corporate communications and training facilities? Consider your Learning Management System, intranet, notice boards, seminar and training rooms, email circulations, newsletters, company magazines, courses, briefing sessions, lunchtime updates, security clubs and so on. By all means focus on the methods that achieve the most benefit for the least effort, but don't completely discount the others including novel approaches. Look around for additional opportunities. Remember, you have a diverse audience with differing personalities and preferences. A diverse comms approach takes more effort but increases the reach.

How well is your security awareness and training program working out, in fact? Is it well-respected and popular with punters? Is it adequately funded and proactively supported by management? 

Critically review relevant metrics such as awareness test results and attendance figures, and study evaluation feedback comments to see things from the perspectives of the awareness and training participants. Look at training records and skills profiles. Run an impromptu survey if you need more data.

As your experience and maturity grows, you will undoubtedly find ways to tweak and refine your awareness and training program, possibly making substantial improvements. Talk to colleagues in HR, Health and Safety, Risk etc. about how their awareness and training programs and activities are doing. Share good ideas and novel approaches. Collaborate and work as a team to address common issues and collectively raise your game.

What about the awareness and training program management and governance arrangements: are there rough edges that need attention? Can the metrics and reporting be improved to deliver better value and efficiency (better outputs from less work!)? Do you have sufficient resources - not just budget but people, skills, sources, systems and so on? If you could wave a magic wand, what would you most like to do with additional resources?

Use all of this to review/update your strategy and plan your awareness and training program for 2019. Make notes on what you intend to:

Keep	Drop
Outline the most effective bits, the approaches, activities etc. that are working well and delivering real business value.	This is the low-value, outdated stuff that no longer earns its keep, is unpopular and frankly not worth the effort any more.
Change	New
The things that need revision. Clarify the need or justification for change, elaborate on the anticipated improvements and (for the plan) at least outline how the changes are to be made.	innovation helps keep the awareness and training program topical, engaging and relevant. As well as updating the content, updating the delivery mechanisms etc. can breathe new life into it.

Regarding innovation, for example, millennials just joining the payroll are likely to be more familiar with mobile devices and social media than the average worker, and being new they are obvious targets for awareness and training ... so ... how can you exploit their interests and technological mastery?  

We, too, are enthusiastically reviewing our services in preparation for the new year. No matter how good we are, we can always do better. That hunger for quality improvement is part of our passion for security awareness and training. We can't help it. We love this stuff!