Make It Easy to Train and Incentivize Employees to Report Phishing

Traditional phishing training often feels like a "gotcha" exercise, generating eye rolls and resentment instead of vigilance. A truly resilient security culture isn't built on pass/fail tests; it's forged by giving employees the tools and incentives to do the right thing. Material transforms phishing defense from a punitive chore into a collaborative, positive-feedback loop.

Problem: Traditional training doesn't stick

Most security awareness programs are built around artificial phishing simulations and negative reinforcement. You send a fake phishing email, an employee clicks, and they get a stern warning page. This approach is fundamentally flawed and fails to build a lasting security mindset.

This old model creates a culture of fear, not collaboration:

• Negative reinforcement fails: "Click shaming" employees who fail a test makes them afraid to report real mistakes. It teaches them to hide their clicks, not to be more vigilant.
• No positive feedback loop: When an employee correctly reports a phishing attack, their report often disappears into a black box. They receive no feedback and see no tangible impact, which erodes their motivation to report threats in the future.
• Analyst burnout: Security teams get flooded with user-reported messages, spending valuable time sifting through spam and false positives instead of focusing on credible threats.

Solution: Create a culture of security through safe, real-world experience

Material’s approach is different. We believe the best way to train employees is to give them safe, hands-on experience with defanged versions of real threats, directly in their inbox, and show them the positive impact of their actions.

Here’s how Material solves the problem:

• Incentivize reporting with herd immunity: When one employee reports a defanged phish, Material can automatically find and remediate that same threat across every other inbox in the organization. This creates a powerful, positive feedback loop: employees see that their actions directly protect their colleagues, turning them into active participants in security.
• Realistic, integrated simulations: Run phishing simulations that are about more than just a click rate. Material's simulations train users on the exact same reporting workflow they use for real threats, building critical muscle memory.
• Streamlined triage for security teams: Material automatically clusters similar user reports, enriches them with context, and allows for bulk remediation. This frees your security team from chasing false positives so they can focus on what matters.

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