LyondellBasell: Gamified Security Training for Increased Engagement and Reduced Repeat Clickers

Fast & flexible AI-enabled content creation

Hoxhunt’s AI-driven content generation equipped LyondellBasell’s cybersecurity team with fast and flexible tooling to create tailored, company policy-specific training modules in multiple languages without relying on external vendors or manual design work. The automation freed up countless hours, allowing admins to shift their focus from building phishing templates from scratch to analyzing behavior, refining communications, and onboarding new users.

Timely, context-relevant content reached employees faster and felt more connected to real threats. By automating the repetitive tasks, the team was able to spend more time driving meaningful culture change instead of managing campaign logistics.

“Before Hoxhunt, building company specific training could take days. Now, we can spin up relevant, multilingual content in minutes.” — Joy Wangdi, Cybersecurity Trust Officer, LyondellBasell

“The AI tools let us stop spending our time crafting phishing simulations and start spending our time improving the program. That’s been a huge shift.” — Dave Bang, Senior Trust Advisor, LyondellBasell

Gamification that drives voluntary participation

Leaderboards, stars, and quarterly resets sparked friendly competition that transformed security from a compliance task into a game people wanted to play. Employees proactively asked for more micro-learnings to climb back into the top 10, and many even paused their training while on vacation so they wouldn’t miss chances to earn points. The results spoke for themselves: In addition to reported phishing simulations jumping by 7X, from 1,200 to over 8,000 quarter-over-quarter, repeat failures nearly disappeared.

Roughly 10% of employees even opted into “Spicy Mode,” choosing harder phishing challenges just for the fun of it—proof that engagement had evolved into true ownership.

“People actually brag about turning on Spicy Mode. They want to prove they can handle the harder phishes.” — Dave Bang, Senior Trust Advisor, LyondellBasell

“I’ve never seen this level of excitement for a training program. Employees are competing, learning, and protecting the company all at once.” — Joy Wangdi, Cybersecurity Trust Officer, LyondellBasell

Turning Repeat Offenders into Resilient Defenders

Before adopting Hoxhunt, LyondellBasell struggled with a core group of repeat clickers who consistently failed phishing simulations multiple times per year. This is a problem because research such as by e.g. Centia has shown that over 80% of incidents are caused by fewer than 5% of employees.

Hoxhunt helped break that cycle. Within the first two quarters, the number of repeat failures dropped sharply, with almost no one who failed in 2024 or Q1 2025 failing again in Q2. Instead of punishing mistakes, the platform turned those moments into teachable opportunities, transforming former repeat offenders into some of the company’s most vigilant reporters.

“We consider people failing multiple simulations over time to be a high risk in our program. With Hoxhunt, that pattern basically disappeared.” — Dave Bang, Senior Trust Advisor, LyondellBasell

“The difference was how fast people learned from their mistakes, once failure became a learning moment instead of a repeat behavior.” — Joy Wangdi, Cybersecurity Trust Officer, LyondellBasell

Global reach with multilingual content

Previously, all phishing simulations and the majority of training modules were delivered only in English, which limited effectiveness for many of LyondellBasell’s non-English-speaking employees and may have contributed to higher repeat failure rates in some regions. Hoxhunt’s multilingual platform changed that by automatically localizing both simulations and micro-learnings into 39+ languages, ensuring everyone could understand and engage fully.

Native speakers reviewed the translations and found them roughly 85–90% accurate out of the box, requiring minimal adjustment and dramatically reducing admin time.

“We realized some of our repeat clickers weren’t struggling with awareness—they were struggling with language. Once training was in their native tongue, their performance improved immediately.” — Joy Wangdi, Cybersecurity Trust Officer, LyondellBasell

“The multilingual capability made a huge difference. Participation from our European and Asian regions jumped as soon as employees could train in their own language.” — Dave Bang, Senior Trust Advisor, LyondellBasell

“Spicy Mode” lights a fire under security culture

Hoxhunt’s optional Spicy Mode—which lets employees opt into harder phishing simulations—became an unexpected hit at LyondellBasell. About 10% of employees voluntarily turned it on, surpassing even the number of those choosing to reveal their identities on the leaderboard. What began as a niche feature quickly evolved into a badge of honor, with employees proudly sharing their progress and challenging peers to “go spicy” too.

Even initial skeptics who once questioned the need for more frequent or complex simulations have since become some of the program’s biggest champions, turning early pushback into enthusiasm and pride in mastering tougher, more realistic phishing challenges.

“The same folks who first said the training was too much are now competing and want the training harder. That’s when you know the culture has shifted.” — Joy Wangdi, Cybersecurity Trust Officer, LyondellBasell

Privacy-first adoption that respects GDPR

Because LyondellBasell operates globally, data privacy and cultural sensitivity were top priorities, especially across Europe. Hoxhunt’s default anonymity allowed employees to participate freely in phishing simulations and training without revealing personal performance data, ensuring full GDPR compliance from day one.

Employees could choose to “unmask” themselves voluntarily if they wanted to appear on the leaderboard or fully join the gamified experience, motivating engagement naturally instead of via pressure. This opt-in design built trust and drove wider adoption across regions that had resisted more intrusive methods.

“In Europe, you can’t just roll out a program that tracks individuals by default. Hoxhunt’s anonymous mode gave us a way to engage people without crossing privacy lines.” — Joy Wangdi, Cybersecurity Trust Officer, LyondellBasell

“The opt-in model really worked for us. When people saw they had control, they wanted to participate—and that’s when we started seeing real cultural buy-in.” — Dave Bang, Senior Trust Advisor, LyondellBasell

Reporting That Tells a Clear Story

Hoxhunt’s built-in analytics and automated dashboards made it effortless for LyondellBasell to visualize progress and share results—from board-level summaries to detailed business-unit breakdowns. Instead of manually compiling spreadsheets, the team can now show trends in clicks, reports, and repeat failures at a glance, turning complex data into actionable insights. This transparency has helped leadership see security awareness as measurable progress rather than a checkbox exercise.

“With Hoxhunt, I can pull reports for the board or any business group in minutes. It tells a clear, data-driven story about how our people are getting better every quarter.” — Joy Wangdi, Cybersecurity Trust Officer, LyondellBasell

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