Resilience in Security Training – Kearney & Company Goes Virtual

Resilience in Security Training – Kearney & Company Goes Virtual

By John M. Hampson, Director of Global Security

Just as the Coronavirus was sweeping through the United States and events nationwide were being cancelled or postponed, the Kearney & Company Security Team was in the midst of planning our Annual Security Week 2020 in our Alexandria headquarters.   Not wanting to deprive employees of relevant, much needed security training and trends, we decided that instead of cancelling or postponing the annual event, we’d conduct a Virtual Security Week for 2020 – a first for Kearney. 

The Challenge

We knew we had to move quickly and with Kearney’s offices and headquarters shut down due to social distancing and Coronavirus precautions, our challenge was to successfully transition to a virtual Security Week now that our staff – nearly 800 employees – were teleworking.  To reach our now virtual audience, we asked all of our guest speakers if they could provide a recorded video or audio slide presentation.  Despite the short notice and technical uncertainties, all internal and external speakers agreed. The race was on to gather all presentations, find a suitable online training platform, and meet our shortened deadline to launch successfully on April 27^th. 

The Plan

Our top priority was ensuring that our employees could—and would–easily access recorded presentations as well as attend a live question and answer session each day.  By enlisting the support of senior management to encourage employee participation, we launched a promotional campaign conveying the importance of the training and the convenience of the new platform for our nearly 100% homebound staff scattered nationwide.  Using Microsoft QuickHelp as our training platform, all eight Security Week presenters delivered their presentations and Kearney Security published the presentations on the Microsoft QuickHelp platform.  Of course, due to the nature of our new circumstances, our security team did make a few concessions. This included providing refresher courses (CPR and Stop the Bleed), rather than certifications, which we will do at a later date, when social distancing requirements are relaxed.  To make the training interactive, we hosted live Q&A sessions with the presenters at the end of each day to complete the session.

The Results

After resolving a few minor glitches, Kearney’s Security team was able to reach 533 employees nationwide out of a total of more than 700 eligible employees.  This was roughly a 100% increase in attendance from last year’s in-person 2019 Security Week training held live at our headquarters in Alexandria.  Along with our increased attendance numbers, employees saved on travel time to headquarters and employees across the nation were able to virtually attend the presentations and classes.  The published presentations remained available each day on QuickHelp, allowing the content from the trainings to be 100% accessible at any time to give employees greater flexibility to attend and benefit from the resources after Security Week.     

Sometimes challenges create opportunities for those who are resilient. Kearney’s virtual Security Week 2020 is a case in point. Kearney plans to repeat its virtual security training again in 2021.