Phishing simulations without the humiliation ritual

Most phishing simulation programs get the psychology exactly backwards. They send a fake phishing email. Someone clicks. Their name goes on a "clicked" list. They get sent to remedial training. Sometimes the report goes to a manager. The clicker feels stupid, the manager rolls their eyes, and everyone else on the team learns one thing: don't get caught.

That's the opposite of the outcome you want.

The whole point of a security-aware culture is that your team reports things quickly. The person who reports a suspicious email within four minutes of receiving it is doing more for your business than the person who sits quietly on it because they don't want to look silly.

What the numbers we care about actually are

• Reporting rate: how many of your team flagged the simulated email? (Higher is better.)
• Time to first report: how quickly? (Faster is better.)
• Repeat behaviour: is the same handful of people clicking every time, or has the whole team improved over a quarter? (You want the second.)

Notice what's not on that list: a "click rate" leaderboard. We don't do gotcha campaigns.

How we run it

• Realistic, not tricky. We use the same lure themes attackers actually use in Australia this quarter — Australia Post redelivery scams, ATO impersonation, invoice fraud, Microsoft 365 login pages — not made-up nonsense designed to inflate a click number.
• Private coaching, not public shaming. If someone clicks, they get a two-minute video, a "here's what to look for next time" note, and their name doesn't go on a wall. Ever.
• Report-buttons that work. One click in Outlook. It goes straight to us. If it's real, we act. If it's the simulation, they get a "nice one" from a human, not a robot.
• Managers get trend data, not names. You get to see whether your organisation is improving, not who to talk to at the water cooler.

This is the top-tier training we bundle into our premium support tier because it's the one that actually changes behaviour.