How to Measure the ROI of Security Awareness and Human Risk Programs

Rethinking ROI for Human Risk

Let’s move beyond superficial measures like training completion rates or phishing click-through stats. A meaningful ROI framework for human risk and awareness programs includes:

1. Risk Reduction

• Behavioral trends: Are risky behaviors decreasing over time?

• High-risk groups: Are targeted interventions reducing incidents in key cohorts?

• Attack simulation results: Are employees responding better to social engineering attempts?

2. Incident Impact

• Are near misses becoming fewer and less severe?

• Are costs per incident declining in areas with strong awareness programs?

• Has time-to-detection improved for human-facilitated incidents?

3. Cultural Shift

• Are people more likely to report suspicious behavior?

• Are employees engaging in optional cyber learning resources?

• Are sentiment and belief indicators showing higher risk awareness and accountability?

4. Enablement Metrics

• Are security champions more active across the org?

• Is risk conversation more embedded in daily workflows?

• Are business units using security guidance more proactively?

Putting the ROI Numbers Together

Calculating ROI doesn’t require magic. It requires baselining, benchmarking, and linking outcomes to business impact.

• Baseline: Use assessments to measure starting risk and behavior levels. This gives you a clear picture of where your organization stands today, highlighting vulnerabilities and behavior patterns that need attention. A strong baseline helps prioritize efforts and tailor interventions effectively.

• Benchmark: Compare over time and against industry standards. This step allows you to track progress and demonstrate improvement in measurable ways, while also understanding how your organization stacks up against peers. A desired stat might be a 30% improvement in key risk behaviors year over year.

• Correlate: Show links between improved awareness and reduced incidents or costs. Correlation helps make the case that human risk programs are preventing real harm, from fewer phishing clicks to lower remediation costs. For instance, you might tie a drop in incident response time directly to an awareness initiative.

• Communicate: Translate outcomes into business impact (e.g., fewer downtime hours, avoided fines, improved audit scores). This ensures your message resonates with leadership by connecting human risk to operational resilience and financial protection. A good stat to aim for might be showing ROI in terms of cost savings per avoided incident or improved audit readiness scores.

What Does Good Look Like for Human Risk Management ROI?

High-ROI human risk programs don’t just prevent bad outcomes—they unlock better ones. In mature programs, we see:

• 40–70% reduction in phishing-related security events over 12–18 months, as reported by industry benchmarking sources and aggregated customer outcomes. These figures reflect organizations that pair targeted phishing simulation with behavior-driven training and culture initiatives.

• Up to 3x more reporting of suspicious behavior

• Cultural shifts where cybersecurity becomes part of "how we work"

• Improved resilience during incidents due to better decision-making and collaboration

Key Takeaways — A practical ROI model you can defend

• Define human-risk KPIs tied to incidents: phish-to-click ↓, time-to-report ↓, MFA coverage ↑, risky-share events ↓, Sev-1/2 ↓, MTTR ↓.

• Use a conservative ROI calc:
  Loss avoided = (baseline incidents × avg cost) − (current incidents × avg cost) − program cost
  If sparse data, present low / expected / high bands and note assumptions (FAIR-style).

• Report like finance: a quarterly Human-Risk P&L with trend lines and next bets.

• Balance external + internal proof: cite DBIR (human element prevalence) and peer benchmarks, then lead with your telemetry for credibility.

• Maturity matters: programs that track behaviors/culture outperform activity-only metrics; this aligns with SANS guidance on measuring what changes risk.

Ready to transform your metrics into momentum?

✉️ Let’s talk about how Cybermaniacs can help measure what matters—and prove the value of your human risk investments.