As privacy expectations continue to grow both by regulatory requirements and user expectations, it’s even more crucial for employees to understand the what, why, and how of privacy in their roles. This is challenging if the privacy training is a snore.
As I’ve been preaching this and will continue to until we’ve changed the reaction to the word “privacy training” from 😟 to 🥳, I’ve put together this fun acronym to remember the key elements of a strong privacy training: PREVENT
P: Proactive
- Whether or not your business must be compliant with privacy laws, privacy training should be provided to new hires at their start to prepare them for the company's privacy practices. Then annually.
R: Relevant
- Content should be relevant to your company- how does privacy affect employees in their roles on a daily basis? Privacy by design is a great example. It is critical to have employees understand why & how privacy matters to their role and the integrity of the company. Even better: team-specific privacy training!
E: Engaging & interactive
- Get your employees engaged during the training. Ask for examples if it’s a live session; if it’s recorded, make sure the content is delivered with gusto. Keeping employees engaged by asking questions, polling, and provide scenarios to give a memorable example of a concept. Recorded sessions can stay engaging with gifs, memes, and stories.
V: Visual
- 4 or less bullet points & focus on the main objectives! Have enough text that folks can read the highlighted points, and make sure the same content is available for ADA access. Bullet points, limited text
E: Educational
- Privacy training has to educate your employees on company practices and policies. Including context & examples is a great way for folks to retain information.
N: New
- Privacy training should be kept fresh! The more recent & relevant the examples are, the more engaged employees will be.
T: Test
- Pop quiz! After the training, have employees take a short quiz covering the major points to understand if employees were engaged and retained the information presented. Test scores will let you know what areas you cover well & if there is room for improvement!
If your business locations and customers do not have required privacy regulations, it is still a strong asset to keep employees informed of privacy practices. Where to start? Privacy training can be purchased from vendors, or you can create your own. The International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) has a list of their training partners here. For in-house training development, Jackson Lewis has a great white paper to help get started.