Increase Engagement

Practical steps to raise engagement in ongoing security awareness training.

How to Build Better Training Engagement with Herd

Many users aren't used to ongoing security training. Their first reaction to daily, weekly, or monthly training is often negative. This guide shows you how to change that narrative as quickly as possible.

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1. Move to Microlearning

Microlearning improves knowledge retention by 20% and drives roughly 50% more engagement right from the start. By simply shifting to a microtraining format, you give yourself a 70% better chance at a stronger security program.

What to do:

• Break topics down into 30-second to 1-minute trainings

• Use multiple training types: video, audio, conversational AI, and more

• Make training accessible across multiple tools

Traditional learning management systems (LMS) can only be accessed in one place, limiting day-to-day use. By extending reach into Slack, Teams, web logins, and mobile, you give employees the opportunity to learn the way they want, when they want.

Getting Started in Herd

1

Open Herd AI

Navigate to Herd AI and enter a training topic.

"Build me a training about safely using a chatbot LLM"

2

Review the Micro-Lesson

A training will populate in seconds.

3

Send It to Your Users

Distribute directly to your team.

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2. Pull Content From Recent News and Apply It to Roles

People lean in when training clearly connects to the decisions they make every day.

Start by segmenting users into high-impact groups based on risk and behavior — who clicks, who reports, who has sensitive access — not just job title.

In Herd, segmentation can be done by creating groups based on existing user attributes (department, role, etc.) or by importing groups from your identity provider — Okta, Azure AD, or Google Workspace.

Decide What Each Group Sees

For each group, answer: "What attacks are most likely to hit them, and what mistakes would hurt us most?"

Group	Common Threats
Finance	Invoice fraud, vendor impersonation, payment redirect
Engineering / IT	Access abuse, OAuth consent phishing, technical phishing
Executives	Spear-phishing, urgent requests, data handling scenarios

Build Targeted Tracks

Instead of assigning one universal program:

• Finance — Modules and simulations using invoice, vendor, and payment language

• Engineering / IT — Examples referencing their tools (GitHub, cloud consoles, admin panels)

• Executives — Short, story-driven examples mimicking "from the CEO" or "from Legal/Finance" requests

Assign and Iterate

After a month or quarter, review which simulations your groups failed or reported — then swap in new content that targets the gaps you find.

Example: Closing the Loop in Herd

Scenario: Your phishing report shows the Finance group is consistently clicking on invoice-themed emails from fake vendors.

1

Create a Targeted Training

Use Herd AI with context from your simulation results:

"Build a training for the finance team that corresponds to what we've seen about them clicking on fake invoice links."

2

Add a Relevance Message

Open the training with a brief note that connects it to real events:

"We've recently seen several fake invoice emails targeting Finance. This quick training will walk you through how to spot scams and fake payment requests."

3

Watch the Loop Close

Phishing simulation → Results → Finance-specific training → Improved behavior on the next round.

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3. Provide Immediate Feedback

Motivation is driven by the dopamine response — triggering a reward or learning experience in the brain. Immediate feedback, both positive and constructive, is one of the most effective levers you have.

Examples:

• A user completes a training → it gets announced in a team channel

• They earn points on a leaderboard in Slack

• They successfully report a phishing simulation → they receive a message in Teams

Completion rates and behavior change both improve when users can see their progress and feel good about it.

Quick Wins in Herd

In Trainings

Use multiple choice questions within trainings. These dynamically show users whether their answers are correct or incorrect — instant reinforcement.

In Slack

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Next Steps

These frameworks are the foundation for building secure behavior across your organization — while maintaining the compliance required to pass security audits.

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