Employee Phishing Readiness & Security Behavior Assessment
Measures employee phishing detection confidence, reporting behavior, and security practices to identify organizational risk gaps and prioritize awareness training investments.
Sample questions
A preview of what’s in the template. Every question is editable before you launch.
To the best of your knowledge, did you receive any message you considered suspicious (email, SMS/text, or chat) in the past 30 days?
- Yes
- No
- Not sure
In the past 60 days, how often did you hover over or inspect links before clicking them in emails or messages?
How confident are you that you could handle a suspicious message appropriately?
What is your most common way to report a suspected phishing message?
- Report Phish button/add-in in email
- Security email alias
- IT helpdesk ticket
- Messaging app bot
- Tell my manager
- I don't report them
- I'm not sure how to report
When did you last complete security awareness training?
- Within the last 30 days
- 31–90 days ago
- 3–6 months ago
- More than 6 months ago
- I have not completed it
- I don't remember
What is your primary role?
- Engineering/IT
- Operations
- Finance/Accounting
- Sales/Marketing
- HR/People
- Legal/Compliance
- Product/Design
- Customer Support/Success
- Executive/Leadership
- Other
Based on your responses in this survey, please share any additional thoughts about what would help you handle phishing attempts more effectively.
Approximately how many suspicious or phishing-like messages did you notice in the past 30 days?
- 1–2
- 3–5
- 6–10
- 11–20
- More than 20
In the past 60 days, how often did you verify the sender's identity before acting on a request (e.g., checking the email address or calling the person)?
When judging whether an email is legitimate, rank these cues from most to least important to you.
- Sender domain and address
- Link URL on hover
- Urgent or threatening tone
- Unexpected attachments or requests for credentials
When you do report a suspicious message, approximately how long does it typically take from the moment you notice it?
- Within 5 minutes
- 5–30 minutes
- 30–60 minutes
- 1–4 hours
- More than 4 hours
- I typically don't report suspicious messages
Rank the following areas by where investment would most improve phishing readiness for your team, from highest to lowest priority.
- Better reporting tools and integrations
- More frequent simulated phishing exercises
- Improved training content and refreshers
- Faster feedback after reports
- Just-in-time guidance in email apps
- Manager reinforcement and team nudges
How long have you been with the company?
- Less than 6 months
- 6–12 months
- 1–3 years
- 3–5 years
- More than 5 years
We'd like to understand more about how you handle suspicious messages. Imagine a senior executive emails you requesting urgent gift card codes. Walk us through what you would do and why.
In the past 60 days, how often did you report suspicious messages through your organization's official reporting channel?
Which of the following actions are recommended when you suspect a message is a phishing attempt? Select all that apply.
- Use the report button or security alias
- Avoid clicking links or opening attachments
- Verify the request through a known, separate channel
- Share the suspicious email in a public chat
- Forward to personal email to check later
- Reply to the sender asking if it's legitimate
- Delete without reporting
What are the biggest things that slow you down or stop you from reporting suspicious messages? Select up to 3.
- Not sure what information to include in a report
- Unsure which channel to use
- Worried about reporting a false alarm
- Too busy or it takes too long
- Reporting tools are hard to find or use
- No feedback after reporting
- I resolve it myself instead of reporting
- None of the above
In which region do you primarily work?
- Americas
- EMEA
- APAC
- Multiple regions
- Other
Thank you for completing this survey. Your responses will be analyzed in aggregate to identify training priorities and strengthen our organization's security posture. All answers are confidential.
In the past 60 days, how often did you check a URL or website address before entering login credentials?
What is your typical work setting?
- Primarily in-office
- Hybrid
- Primarily remote
Which of the following security practices do you currently use on your primary work devices? Select all that apply.
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- Password manager for work accounts
- Automatic OS and browser updates enabled
- Lock screen when stepping away
- VPN on public networks
- Unique passwords for each service
- Phishing-report add-in/button installed
- None of these
What’s included
AI follow-ups
Adaptive probes on open-ended answers that pull out detail a static form would miss.
Attention checks
Built-in safeguards against rushed answers and low-quality respondents.
AI-drafted copy
Wording, ordering, and branching written by the AI — tuned to your research goal.
Auto report
Themes, quotes, and a plain-English summary write themselves once responses come in.
How it compares
We reviewed the closest templates from other survey tools. Here’s what they do well — and where this template goes further.
Why this template
- Includes adaptive opinion-scale questions on link-hovering, sender verification, and reporting frequency over the past 60 days, plus a ranking exercise on which email cues matter most
- Goes beyond static self-report by including a scenario-based AI follow-up interview asking respondents to imagine and describe handling a suspicious message in their own words
- Captures organizational context (role, tenure, region, work setting) alongside behavioral and confidence metrics, enabling segmentation of risk gaps by group
- Asks a second ranking question on where security investment would most improve readiness, directly supporting prioritization of awareness training spend
Jotform
Cyber Security Risk Assessment Checklist Form TemplateThis is a static checklist-style form aimed at general cyber security risk assessment rather than phishing-specific employee behavior. It's fielding-ready for basic checkbox-driven audits but not built around adaptive questioning or behavioral depth. Useful as a broad IT risk inventory rather than a targeted phishing readiness survey.
What it does well
- Simple checklist format that's quick for respondents to complete
- Drag-and-drop form builder typical of Jotform's platform
- Can be embedded or shared easily as part of broader IT audit workflows
Where it falls short
- Static checklist with no adaptive follow-up probing into individual responses
- No mechanism to assess phishing-specific behaviors like reporting speed or link-checking habits
- No transparent scoring methodology or automated report generation described
SurveySparrow
Information Security Risk Assessment QuestionnaireA general information security risk questionnaire rather than a phishing-focused behavioral assessment. It appears to be a fielding-ready template covering broad security risk topics, but lacks the granularity around phishing detection confidence and reporting friction. Best suited for organizations wanting a wide security posture snapshot rather than a targeted awareness-training diagnostic.
What it does well
- Conversational survey format typical of SurveySparrow's UI
- Covers broad information security risk topics beyond just phishing
- Fielding-ready template that can be launched quickly
Where it falls short
- No adaptive AI follow-up interviewing to probe inconsistent or interesting answers
- No per-response quality scoring to flag unreliable answers
- Does not appear to include phishing-specific behavioral metrics like time-to-report or reporting channel used
SurveyMonkey
Security Awareness Survey TemplateThis is the closest direct competitor, targeting general security awareness among employees. It's a fielding-ready static template, likely covering knowledge and attitudes, but without behavioral granularity like phishing cue ranking or training-recency segmentation. Good for a quick pulse-check but not designed to surface prioritized investment areas.
What it does well
- Well-established survey platform with strong distribution and analytics tooling
- Template likely covers general security awareness topics accessibly for HR/IT teams
- Easy to customize using SurveyMonkey's standard question library
Where it falls short
- Static question set with no adaptive AI-driven follow-up interviewing
- No scenario-based interview component to observe how employees reason through a suspicious message
- No transparent per-response quality scoring or automated gap-prioritization reporting
Ready to launch?
Open this template in the editor. Every part is yours to change before the first respondent sees it.
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