The most successful companies in the world today are learning organisations. Organisations that value their staff and empower them to learn in and out of the workplace.

It is proven that an engaged employee feels valued and that in turn leads to better productivity and better mental well being.
By upskilling your work force you add an extra layer of security, mitigating the threat of employees unwittingly putting your organisation at risk.

What do we mean by “Digital” upskilling? Security awareness training is a method of educating employees to the dangers of phishing or other online scams and should be a required component of every organisation. Here are 6 benefits that show how it can help protect your company from hackers, thieves, and other bad actors.

1. Training reduces errors. A recent study showed that 80% of breaches are caused by employee carelessness. By educating your staff about common scams, such as email attachments that contain malware or phishing emails that steal personal information, they are much less likely to accidentally click links or open files.
2. Training enhances security. With vigilant employees using strong passwords, flagging suspicious emails, and reporting unusual communications or activity in both their personal and professional life, the company itself becomes less vulnerable.
3. An educated workforce increases compliance. In today’s regulatory climate failure to have adequate safeguards increases the risk of litigation and regulatory fines.
4. Digital awareness training can help protect a company’s reputation (and possibly save the company itself). A security breach can destroy not only brand reputation, but also your personal reputation. One study shows that 60% of small businesses go under within 6 months of a successful attack.
5. Education helps morale. Scams are increasingly sophisticated and many employees are embarrassed that they don’t know much about security or what to do to stay safe. At Greycoat we specialise in taking complicated concepts and delivering them to suit all levels of technical understanding. This enables your workforce to gain valuable knowledge to keep themselves safe whilst empowering them to be confident in using your Corporate IT.
6. Your company will save time and money. On average it takes organisations 7 months to identify and recover from a successful cyber-attack. The insurance company Hiscox has stated that the average cost for an attack on a small to medium enterprise in the UK is £194,000, whilst this is lower than international trends ask yourself; does your company have this kind of spare cash?