Compliance keeps regulators happy, ticks boxes, and lets everyone breathe a small sigh of relief during audits. But compliance on its own probably won’t stop a real threat. Cyber insurance requirements and basic cybersecurity awareness training standards tell you what you need to do to meet the rules, not what you need to do to actually change end user behavior. Compliance looks good on paper, but so does a Calvin Klein underwear ad in a magazine. Neither will do much to protect your clients’ data or their money.
For MSPs, that gap between compliance and actual protection is where all the risk lives.
Most breaches still come down to human error, at least partially. A rushed click, a reused password, a moment of distraction on a Monday morning because Greg brought donuts into the office (nice one, Greg). The difference between an incident and a close call often comes down to whether your users actually engage with their training, absorb anything from it, and apply it when it matters.
That’s why the best MSPs - and if you’re reading a Phin blog, that probably includes you - treat compliance as the bare minimum. The floor, not the ceiling. Real protection comes from training that users remember, understand, and act on. Training that doesn’t bore them into submission, so they’re clicking “next” just to shut up the warnings.
Want some practical ways to make your cybersecurity awareness training more engaging, more memorable, and more effective at changing behaviors? Of course you do…
End users are busy. MSPs know this better than anyone. Training that takes twenty or thirty minutes will lose users after the first ten (maybe even the first 2). Keep modules short and focused with one clear learning outcome at a time.
You’ll see better completion, retention, and actual behavioral follow-through. The more digestible your training is, the more likely your clients are to keep running it without grumbles.
People don’t remember abstract advice. They remember stories. “Don’t touch strange plants” pales in comparison to “Nature called me on a bike ride once, accidentally wiped with poison ivy, and had to ride home standing up the whole way.”
If you want someone to rethink password reuse, don’t give them a wall of text. Give them a real-world example of a breach that happened because someone’s work password was the same as the one they used for their gym app. Narratives stick, and they give context that helps users understand why each behavior matters.
Fear-based training ages like milk. Users either tune it out or get defensive. But real, relatable consequences work. A short clip showing someone losing access to shared files for a day because of a basic phishing click is far more powerful than shouting about catastrophic breaches.
Show the inconvenience, the frustration, and the ripple effect. Users will get it.
Annual training satisfies compliance standards but any actual impact on behavior is negligible and/or difficult to prove. It’s like studying for your last math test of the school year, then coming back from summer vacation and already needing a refresher on what you learned 3 months ago.
Behavior is shaped by habits, repetition, and reinforcement. Short, recurring content throughout the year creates a rhythm that users get comfortable with.
Humor is one of the most underrated tools in SAT. There’s no need to turn your training into stand-up comedy, but the occasional joke or light moment can break tension and help messages stick.
Humor also makes the training feel more human. When people enjoy something, they remember it.
Generic advice helps with compliance, but personalized scenarios help with behavior.
Finance teams need different examples than marketing teams. Sales teams face different risks than HR teams. Tailoring scenarios to each role makes the training feel relevant and improves recall during real situations. If your users can’t see how the advice fits their job, they will ignore it.
Most MSP clients care about two things: staying compliant and staying insurable. When you show them that better training improves their insurance position, they instantly pay more attention.
Strong behavioral outcomes help clients meet modern cyber insurance requirements because insurers increasingly expect evidence of:
When your training supports all this, the value becomes obvious. It also helps MSPs justify SAT recommendations with something more powerful than fear. It becomes a clear business case.
One of the biggest weaknesses in the traditional SAT is repetition. Repetition of concepts? Good. Repetition of the exact same content? Bad. Users see the same style of video every month and mentally switch off. By mixing content from different providers, you keep things fresh and prevent fatigue.
If you use a blend of live action, animation, micro content, and scenario based modules, users never know what they are going to get next. That unpredictability keeps attention high.
This seems an appropriate point to mention that Phin actually has six content providers, each with their own specializations, delivery methods, and general *vibes* - so when you partner with us, you’re already getting the variety and the freshness without having to shop around and source content from multiple places.
You’re not selling SAT licenses but risk reduction.
When users genuinely learn and adapt their behavior, you cut incident volume, reduce recovery time, and improve security outcomes across your entire client base. That gives MSPs more time, more bandwidth, and a far more scalable security program.
Better engagement also strengthens your position when clients assess cyber insurance requirements or cyber security compliance standards. The stronger your clients look on paper, the lower their friction and the happier they are with your service.
In other words, engaging SAT is good business, not just good training.
All improvement starts with the quality of the training itself. If the content is boring, repetitive, or outdated, nothing else will fix it.
Start by choosing stronger content partners. Here is a breakdown of six providers that consistently deliver engaging, behavior-driven training that MSPs can deploy without hassle. Check it out.