Creating and deploying business continuity awareness training
What tools should we use to create awareness training?
For a formal training course, good ol' PowerPoint will be fine. There are plenty of facilities to create engaging content and most Learning Management Systems (if your organisation has one) will be able to import a PowerPoint training course for inclusion in standard training [packages for members of the organisation
How should we launch the awareness training?
This will depend on the tools your organisation has. A Learning Management System will probably have the capability to notify members of the organisation of new training content that is relevant to them. Alternatively you may have an intranet or other internal communications tools that you can use to announce the availability of your business continuity awareness training and there's always shared network folders and email announcements if neither of these options are available
How do we measure engagement?
There's several options here:
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Automatically gather statistics on training course completion, duration and performance on tests. Most learning management systems (if one is installed in your organisation will capture this information for you.
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If you have SharePoint and have a site is dedicated to the topic of business continuity awareness training, you will be able to get statistics on site visits that might help.
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You could require confirmation from each participant that they have completed the course. A link for this can be placed on a PowerPoint slide that will send an email from the participant to a dedicated mailbox. This can then be used to confirm who has confirmed their participation on the course and those who are yet to confirm
How do we sustain levels of awareness?
Periodic, formal training will not normally maintain awareness at the desired level - people forget or become distracted by day-to-day issues. Maintaining levels of awareness requires a series of subtle reminders to "nudge" awareness. In order to achieve this it's helpful to define a "nudge schedule" consisting of discrete, short reminders to reawaken knowledge. A typical nudge schedule might include:
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Public area posters
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A change of screen saver with an appropriate reminder message
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Testing the incident notification system
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Distribution of updated quick reference guides
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