How To Establish a Company Culture That Values Business Security in 2023
Humans cause most of the security issues companies face. In other words, technology, vulnerabilities, and loopholes are only about 20% of security breaches, whether physical or online. Humans are biased, careless, negligent, and make terrible mistakes.
Your organization can have the best possible security technologies and protocols set in place, but they won’t do you any good if humans make a terrible mistake. Simply put, no technology is “human-proof”. Companies must focus on establishing cultures that value security, as there are more different threats each year.
It’s especially true now that companies have adopted the hybrid work model. This kind of approach to work brings in unique challenges meaning that companies must protect employees in the office and at their homes. That’s why investing in security values is the best way to go.
Show employees the importance of security
Let’s face it. The modern work environment is very different from what it used to be 30 years ago. Modern employees enjoy various benefits and amenities people could just dream of in the past. Even though these practices have had positive effects in the workspaces, they’ve also led to some negative ones.
Regarding security, modern employees often do not take it seriously. Why? They are used to being accountable only for their work and nothing else. It’s easy to forget some essential things, like ensuring you’ve done everything correctly in terms of safety.
Companies must remind their employees of security and show them real consequences. For example, you can hold presentations about some significant security breaches caused by human error and what they resulted in.
On the other hand, consider hiring fire protection services to teach employees about fire hazards and how small actions can result in catastrophes.
Talk about their personal security and not just about your business. After all, when someone knows the online or physical threats to them and can defend themselves, this will also reflect on your business.
Measure important metrics to create changes
It’s impossible to improve something immeasurable. You need to analyze the current situation to create a positive security culture within your business. How often are your employees involved in security training? What do employees think about security?
What are engagement metrics and participation rates? How do your employees react in risky situations? These are just some of the questions you need to answer. See the significant causes of attacks in your business and your weakest points.
All these questions can tell you what your current security culture is. Understanding the problems can help you focus on improving those areas. For example, if your employees use the internet carelessly, you can talk to them about online threats and how dangerous they can be.
Create a security awareness training program
Apart from passively influencing and changing your company culture, you must be creative. If you want to create a culture that cares about security, you need a training program. All stakeholders and employees must get comprehensive, concise, and clear security training.
If possible, track, record, and monitor their training sessions. Recordings of training can be sent again to your employees to remind them of everything they’ve learned. Consider using an online learning management system, as these tools let you create training content with maximum attention to detail.
Furthermore, they allow you to track all essential metrics after training. Finding an existing training course that delivers results is also a good idea. Luckily, modern training courses have various engaging elements, including videos, images, gamification, branching scenarios, and tests your employees can go through smoothly to learn new things.
Start by changing your leaders
You need to start from the top to make a vital culture change in your business. In other words, your leads and higher-ups must set an example for the rest of the company. It will never succeed if your most important employees aren’t supporting the process.
One of the best ways to get your leadership onboard with the transformation is to talk to them about the issues your business is facing and deliver numbers that prove them. Talk about the risk, metrics, and framework necessary to complete the process successfully. Show the positive results your organization will get and ask your leadership to help you with the task.
These people have positions through which they can impact others and are also capable professionals who can assist you in different ways. Furthermore, they are often role models to other employees, and their voices are heard.
Bringing managers on board means getting all of your employees on board. They are the ones that affect the overall morale of your workspace and can convince employees to accept changes.
Keep things relevant and offer tangible examples
Employees are more likely to accept something they understand and makes sense to them. Whether you’re trying to change your business process, adding new tasks, or changing the culture in your business, it’s always important to be relevant.
For example, when you’re training, try to use actual security breaches as examples, whether physical or online. Show how these attacks impacted everyone and why they were such a big story. Talk about cognitive biases and how they affect your daily operations.
In some situations, employees haven’t considered their actions and what effects they bring. In other situations, employees might know what to do but don’t know how. That’s why it’s generally a good idea to talk openly and honestly with everyone.
Create training programs based on security competence, level of risk, work profile, and job positions. Try to deliver the best content possible that’s valuable and engaging. If you engage employees, it will be easier to make them practice what they’ve learned in training.
Focus on accountability, not blaming people
Creating a positive security culture means having an environment where people have the confidence to speak freely about issues, problems, concerns, etc. You can slowly build a healthy culture when people talk openly and share knowledge and ideas.
Show everyone that being wrong is okay. Everyone makes mistakes, and by keeping silent about them, we are creating even more significant security issues. Create a culture where people aren’t ashamed of their mistakes and willing to help others when they need to learn something.
At the same time, letting your employees learn about security within the organization and the workplace will also help them protect their privacy and personal information. Establishing a culture where people can bounce ideas off each other and share knowledge is essential.
The security sphere is constantly changing and evolving. It’s essential to have a free flow of information between employees so they can get on the same page about the latest threats and learn how to protect themselves.
Communicate clearly
Just because you’ve created extensive reports, analyzed key metrics, and made projections for the future doesn’t mean you should share all of this with your employees. Don’t talk in technical and business jargon. It’s an extracurricular activity, and you should be more relaxed because employees won’t be that dedicated to it.
Use simple language because the goal is to transfer the information as quickly as possible so that everyone can get on board. You should also prevent phrases and sentences that resonate with negative connotations.
For example, instead of telling people they shouldn’t trust each other without verification, you should emphasize the importance of verification. Instead of talking about security patching, tell employees they just have to keep tools updated. Have a positive tone and communicate with people in the simplest way possible.
Not everyone has the same level of knowledge about security, tools, or physical breaches.
Reward employees
To maintain high morale and enthusiasm among your employees regarding security, you will have to celebrate their success. First, thank all of your employees after finishing a training session and reward them with something. For example, the best employees can receive some smaller rewards. It’s also a good idea to offer cash rewards if possible.
Recognize their achievements and progress. Always praise employees when they do something good. Consider organizing contests and rewarding winners.
For example, it’s easy to set up mock phishing attacks where employees compete who will recognize phishing emails faster. Even though it’s important to point out when someone is wrong, praising someone for their effort also matters.
If people show interest in cybersecurity, try to help them in any way you can. Provide additional training or resources that can help with their curiosity. You might even encourage one of your employees to become a cybersecurity professional.
Conclusion
These are the essential areas you need to cover when building awareness about security and embedding it into your company culture. Start introducing steps slowly but try to work on all of the aspects we have mentioned in the article.
Security is critical in modern business – companies can lose a lot of money and set themselves back in case of significant issues. We hope this post has helped you understand where your business needs to improve.Â
