Phishing attacks remain the top cybersecurity threat globally, accounting for 33% of data breaches in small and medium businesses according to Verizon’s 2025 Data Breach Investigation Report. Despite investing heavily in employee training programs, organizations often find themselves repeatedly compromised. This raises a critical question: How effective are these phishing training programs in preventing real-world attacks?
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll examine the research on phishing training effectiveness, explore why traditional approaches often fail, and provide actionable strategies for implementing security awareness programs that actually work – from executive leadership to front-line employees.
The Research: Why Phishing Training Isn’t Working Like You Expect
An extensive 8-month study involving over 19,500 employees at a major healthcare organization analyzed the efficacy of both annual cybersecurity awareness training and embedded anti-phishing simulations. The results reveal surprising insights that challenge conventional wisdom and highlight the need for more effective approaches.
1. Annual Cybersecurity Awareness Training: A False Sense of Security
Many organizations mandate annual cybersecurity training to keep their employees informed about the latest threats and best practices. Typically, this training includes educational modules about phishing and social engineering attacks. However, the study shows that annual awareness training offers little to no real-world protection.
Key Findings:
- No Correlation with Performance: Employees who recently completed their annual cybersecurity training were just as likely to fall for simulated phishing attacks as those who hadn’t.
- Compliance Doesn’t Equal Security: Simply meeting compliance requirements does not translate into effective threat prevention.
2. Embedded Phishing Training: Limited Impact on Real-World Security
Embedded phishing training involves sending simulated phishing emails to employees. If an employee clicks the malicious link, they receive immediate, context-specific training. While this approach seems intuitive, the study reveals its limitations:
- Minimal Improvement: Users who received embedded phishing training showed only a marginal improvement—just 1.7% lower failure rates compared to untrained employees.
- Highly Effective Lures: Even with training, sophisticated phishing lures had success rates as high as 30%, far outweighing the minor benefits of training.
Thus, although organizations invest significant time and resources into these training programs, the minimal impact suggests that relying solely on embedded training as a primary defense is not enough.
3. Low Engagement: Why Employees Ignore Phishing Training
One of the most striking findings from the study is the low level of employee engagement with training materials. Real-world behavior contrasts sharply with the controlled environment of lab studies, where participants are often motivated to learn.
Key engagement metrics observed by the study:
- Immediate Exit: Over 50% of employees exited the training page within 10 seconds.
- Low Completion Rates: Only 24% of employees completed the training sessions.
- Time Spent: In more than 75% of cases, employees spent less than one minute on the training content.
Low engagement means that the educational value of these training sessions is limited. Most employees are not absorbing the information, reducing the overall effectiveness of the program.
4. Interactive vs. Static Training: Why Content Matters
Not all training methods are created equal. The study compared static training pages (simple text-based information) with interactive training sessions (engaging activities and quizzes). The results clearly show that interactivity plays a crucial role in learning outcomes.
- Interactive Training Works Better: Employees who completed interactive training were 19% less likely to fall for subsequent phishing attacks.
- Static Training Pitfalls: Surprisingly, users who completed multiple static training sessions were more likely to fail future simulations. This suggests that passive training might even reinforce bad habits.
Apparently, interactive, engaging content is more effective than static information. Organizations should prioritize interactive training modules to improve retention and real-world performance.
Beyond Compliance: Strategic Cybersecurity Awareness for Leadership
While front-line employees need practical phishing awareness, business leaders require a different kind of security education – one that focuses on strategic understanding rather than technical details. You have probably heard that security in any organization is everyone’s responsibility. “Wait, that also means our CEO?” you could ask. Yes, CEO, CFO, and everyone in the management team.
The problem is: they may not possess the necessary knowledge. Do you know many CEOs able to distinguish between Stored and Reflected XSS? They must not; instead, they should delegate the tactical and operational routine to a security function led by a CISO.
However, a modern business leader should be aware, at the strategic level, of possible cybersecurity risks, attack vectors, and protection countermeasures for three reasons:
- To think rationally and skeptically about security spendings and investment.
- Measure and control the efficiency of their corporate security function.
- To be able to protect themselves against highly sophisticated hacking groups.
Sure thing, it is pretty tricky for top managers to understand cybersecurity concepts. They should focus on revenue, profit, and costs instead. That is correct, and we know that very well. BSG has extensive experience in advising senior management and facilitating strategic security decisions.
Strategic vs. Tactical Security Awareness
The goals of Strategic Cybersecurity Awareness training for leadership are to give top managers meaningful mental models, intuitions, and data sources to do the following:
- Master personal cybersecurity – Apply tools, techniques, and procedures to stay safe online when you’re a high-profile target.
- Define data-driven strategy – Supervise cybersecurity strategy and make security decisions without fear, uncertainty, or doubt.
- Understand cybersecurity economics – Estimate and optimize security investment, and measure its efficiency.
This strategic framework focuses on the business value of cybersecurity rather than technical implementation details. It gives decision-makers the means to make strategic decisions without the burden of technical minutiae. One might say, “But the Devil is always in the details!” That is true, and that is why strategies have none.
Why Traditional Training Fails: Cost vs. Benefit Analysis
Phishing remains one of the most challenging cybersecurity threats. Training programs are often seen as the first line of defense, but the research shows they provide only minimal protection. Here’s why this matters:
- Cost vs. Benefit: With limited impact (1.7% improvement), are traditional training programs worth the investment?
- Time to Rethink Training Strategies: Focus on high-engagement, interactive training and regularly update content to reflect evolving threats.
- Beyond Training: Consider complementing training with robust technical defenses and user-friendly reporting tools.
Building an Effective Security Awareness Program
Based on the research findings and our experience implementing security awareness training, here are actionable strategies that actually work:
1. Make Training Interactive and Engaging
- Replace static PDFs with interactive scenarios
- Use gamification elements (points, badges, leaderboards)
- Create realistic phishing simulations with immediate feedback
- Incorporate short video demonstrations (2-3 minutes max)
2. Shift from Annual to Continuous Training
- Monthly micro-learning sessions (5-10 minutes)
- Quarterly simulated phishing campaigns
- Just-in-time training when threats emerge
- Regular security updates via Slack/Teams channels
3. Tailor Training by Role and Risk Level
- Executives: Strategic awareness, spear-phishing, whaling attacks
- Finance/HR: Business email compromise, wire fraud, credential harvesting
- IT Staff: Technical controls, incident response procedures
- General Staff: Basic phishing recognition, safe browsing, password hygiene
4. Combine Training with Technical Defenses
Training alone isn’t enough. Layer technical controls to reduce reliance on human vigilance:
- Email filtering: Advanced spam and phishing filters (e.g., Microsoft Defender, Proofpoint)
- Link protection: URL rewriting and sandboxing suspicious links
- Multi-factor authentication: Blocks 99% of credential theft attempts
- DMARC/SPF/DKIM: Prevents email spoofing
- Browser isolation: Separate browsing from local systems
5. Measure What Matters
Move beyond simple “click rates” on simulated phishing emails. Track metrics that indicate real behavioral change:
- Reporting rate: % of employees who report suspicious emails
- Time to report: How quickly threats are flagged
- Training completion: % who complete interactive modules
- Repeat offenders: Identify high-risk individuals for additional coaching
- Real incident reduction: Actual phishing-related incidents over time
6. Create a Positive Security Culture
Avoid punitive approaches. Instead, foster an environment where employees feel comfortable reporting mistakes:
- Celebrate employees who report phishing attempts
- Share anonymized stories of thwarted attacks
- Make reporting easy (one-click “Report Phishing” button)
- Frame training as “we’re in this together” not “you failed the test”
Who Benefits from Security Awareness Training?
The security awareness workshop is not limited to strategic leaders only. Virtually anyone can take part in the training and benefit from it. For instance:
- Progressive CISOs can use workshops to bring colleagues up to date with the threat landscape. Worrying about cyber threats alone when everyone else is unaware is counterproductive.
- CFOs and finance teams can raise awareness about business email compromise and wire fraud schemes that target financial operations.
- Board members can understand cybersecurity economics to make informed decisions about security investment and measure ROI effectively.
- HR departments can learn to spot credential harvesting and protect sensitive employee data from social engineering attacks.
Rethinking Phishing Training for Better Security Outcomes
Current anti-phishing training methods, especially in their static or compliance-driven forms, offer only a minor defense against sophisticated attacks. Organizations must move beyond traditional models and invest in interactive, engaging content that truly educates employees. More importantly, combining training with technical defenses will create a more resilient security posture.
Stay ahead of the curve by continuously evaluating your training programs and adapting to new threats. Remember: effective cybersecurity is not just about ticking compliance boxes—it’s about creating a culture of awareness and vigilance at every level of your organization, from the executive suite to front-line staff.
How BSG Can Help
BSG offers comprehensive security awareness training programs tailored to your organization’s needs:
- Strategic Cybersecurity Awareness for Leadership – Focused on business value, investment ROI, and strategic decision-making for executives and senior management.
- Developer Security Training – Hands-on secure coding practices for engineering teams. Learn more about our developer training.
- Custom Security Awareness Workshops – Interactive training programs designed for your specific industry, threat landscape, and organizational culture.
Contact hello@bsg.tech to discuss how we can help build a security-aware culture in your organization. We offer both open enrollment sessions and private corporate training tailored to your management team’s needs.