Your staff use email, share customer information and make decisions under pressure every day. A useful cyber security training day should help them handle those situations with more confidence and know where to ask for help.
Start the planning conversation with examples from the business. Which requests reach the finance team? How do remote staff report a suspicious message? What happens when someone approves an unexpected sign-in prompt? Those details give the training a practical purpose.
Choose the behaviours you want to improve
Agree a small set of outcomes before building an agenda. You might want staff to verify payment changes, use approved sharing routes, report concerns promptly and understand how to recover access safely.
Different roles will need different examples. An accounts team may practise a supplier bank-detail request. Sales staff may consider a fraudulent document-sharing invitation. Managers should rehearse how they respond when an employee reports a mistake.
Use examples people recognise
A session can combine short explanations, group discussions and realistic exercises using fictional or properly anonymised information. Ask participants to explain their decision, rather than measuring success only by whether they spotted a deliberately suspicious message.
- Practise checking a request through an independent, trusted contact route.
- Discuss unexpected sign-in prompts and requests for authentication codes.
- Demonstrate safe ways to share information with colleagues and customers.
- Rehearse the organisation’s reporting process from start to finish.
- Give managers a short incident scenario requiring a business decision.
Keep demonstrations controlled. Staff should not need to provide real passwords, customer records or personal information to take part in an exercise.
Make reporting feel safe
The NCSC recommends creating an environment in which people can report suspected phishing, including after clicking. A training day should reinforce that an early report helps the business act, rather than making people fearful of embarrassment or blame.
Managers need to support the same message through their actions. If an employee raises a concern during the session, agree how it will be handled privately and who owns the follow-up.
Prepare the office and the participants
Agree group size, accessibility requirements, room layout, display facilities and any device needs before the day. Decide whether everyone needs the same session or whether smaller role-based groups would be more useful.
Provide the trainer with your current reporting route, relevant policies and anonymised examples in advance. Tell staff what the session is for and how it relates to their work. Make time for questions without requiring people to disclose an incident in front of colleagues.
Continue the learning afterwards
One day can start an improvement programme, but it should connect to shorter reminders, onboarding and future practice. Gather feedback, record the agreed actions and check whether the reporting process works in everyday use.
39Support can help plan face-to-face cyber awareness training at your business premises. Tell us your location, approximate attendee numbers, preferred format and the situations you want staff to handle more confidently so we can scope the day around your team.