What’s the best way to train employees on phishing?
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Most phishing training fails not because the content is wrong, but because it's too much, too rarely, and too easy to forget. A one-hour annual security course doesn't stick. What does stick is small, frequent, and tied to real scenarios your employees actually encounter.
If your team has limited time, here's the order of priority:
1. Do simulated phishing first. Sending your team a fake phishing email and seeing who clicks is more valuable than any course. It surfaces who's vulnerable, what tactics fool your team, and where to focus training. You don't even need a vendor to start. A simple test email with a suspicious link and a "gotcha" landing page does the job. (Platforms like KnowBe4 automate this at scale, but you don't need them on day one.)
2. Train the people who clicked, not everyone equally. After a simulated test, the people who clicked are your highest-risk group. Give them a short, specific lesson on what tipped them off. Five focused minutes beats a 60-minute course watched on mute.
3. Show real examples, not theory. Pull screenshots of actual phishing emails that hit your industry or company. Walk your team through what made them convincing. Sender names that look trustworthy. Urgency in the subject line. A link that looks right but isn't. Practical pattern recognition beats abstract definitions every time.
4. Make reporting feel safe and easy. A lot of employees spot something suspicious and do nothing because they're not sure, or they're worried about embarrassing themselves. Reward reporting. Never shame a click. If someone flags a real phishing attempt, that's a win worth calling out. Some email clients let you add a 'report phishing' button right in the inbox, which makes it genuinely frictionless.
5. Repeat on a short cycle. Quarterly simulated tests and a short monthly reminder (one tip, one real example, under two minutes to read) beats annual training by a wide margin. Frequency matters more than depth.
The goal isn't to make everyone a security expert. It's to slow them down for two seconds before they click something that could cost the company everything. That pause is what you're training for.
Still if you're not sure where to start or want someone to walk through what makes sense for your team's size and setup, our SOS hotline is free and we're happy to help you figure it out.
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