5 Reasons You Should Offer Organisation-Wide Privacy Training

Organisation-wide privacy training should be a no-brainer: it’s in the top messages from all regulators as a way to reduce privacy risk and an essential part of any mature privacy program. But it is also a significant investment that, to be frank, may not seem worth it if ‘checklist compliance’ is the only outcome. We’re sharing five benefits we see organisations unlock when they introduce team-wide privacy training. 

5 Benefits From Organisation-Wide Privacy Training

Empowers your team to act as privacy champions

Privacy training increases your organisation’s capacity to ensure privacy is thought of up-front (an essential part of privacy by design).  By building in good privacy controls early you can defend against poor privacy practices. Here are just some examples how how organisation-wide privacy training can empower your team: 

• Training increases agency and accountability amongst your team members. It makes privacy part of their job, as opposed to something someone else is responsible for. 
• Training empowers them to identify opportunities for improvement and ‘near-misses’, so you can avoid certain types of data breaches in the first place. 
• It helps them know and understand why certain processes are in place and encourages them to follow existing practices (or even offer improvements). 
• It encourages the respectful use of personal information amongst your team members.

Supports better understanding of your data

Right, so this one is partially compliance-based. But privacy training can help to reduce the risk your team members pose to your organisation. Human error remains one of the leading causes of data breaches in Australia (and across the globe), so training your team about the very real risks their mistakes can pose to your organisation is crucial.

More than this, it can also improve your organisation’s maturity when it comes to data collection and handling. If your team knows what personal information is and when it’s appropriate to collect it (legally and culturally), they’re in a better position to make informed decisions about when to collect personal information and what to do with it afterwards. 

It enhances cross-functional collaboration

We’ve seen many examples in companies where marketing feels like they’re at odds with legal over everything. The legal team is seen as the department that’s constantly there to stifle innovation and fun, and ruin the marketing and sales teams chances of targeting leads more effectively. This is usually due to a disconnect in understanding of the privacy law, organisational privacy practices, or both. 

If all teams and team members know and understand the organisation’s position on privacy and what it takes to be legally compliant, it can promote collaboration across functions – and usually results in increased opportunities for win-win-win outcomes (ie. a privacy win (decreased risk), a win for marketing/sales/your company, and a win for your customers – often through a streamlined experience).

• You can read more about cross-functional privacy practices.

Promoting a culture of privacy

Privacy training signals to your team that your organisation takes data protection seriously, setting the tone for employees to do the same. It embeds privacy into the organisation’s culture and values. 

This cultural shift can lead to benefits such as:

• Teams proactively discussing privacy implications in their day-to-day work.
• A shared sense of pride in respectfully using customer data, which enhances trust and brand reputation, as well as employee engagement.
• Fewer mistakes as employees build privacy awareness into their processes, from product development to customer service.

Improved employee confidence and engagement

Plus, there are a host of benefits for your employees (that your organisation then benefits from). 

• When organisations invest in training, employees feel valued and motivated, fostering a positive workplace culture.
• Training helps employees feel equipped to handle complex or sensitive situations, reducing stress and empowering them to take ownership of their roles.
• Training enhances employees’ skills, increasing their value in the marketplace. Employees often see this as an investment in their career, which boosts engagement and retention.
• A well-trained team performs tasks with greater accuracy and efficiency, directly benefiting organisational productivity.

Helpfully, organisations that offer privacy training are also likely to benefit from an improved employer brand. This is a result of employees who feel supported becoming advocates for the organisation, improving its reputation amongst their peers – which can reduce hiring costs and employee turnover. 

Privacy Training with Privacy 108

Privacy 108 offers tailored training to teams in Australia. We work with you to identify gaps and learning opportunities and present the information in a way that makes sense to your teams. 

Dr Jodie Siganto, our lead instructor, has been delivering privacy and security training, both online and face-to-face, for clients located across Australia and New Zealand for 20 years.  Dr Siganto is recognised as one of the leading privacy professionals in Australia. 

Our portfolio includes instructor led programs via live streaming or webinar format, or  in-house at your premises plus computer based training.

Reach out to us to discuss your organisation’s privacy training needs.