Employee Training: How Video can Help

Let's face it: The truth is, today, training videos have become the de facto king of how people learn... If you put a screen or a thick manual in front of the average person, how many people do you think would choose to reach vs watch? Look at it this way, when you need to put together a desk from Ikea, do you sort through the instructions? We're guessing you go straight to YouTube instead.

This is most likely because 96% of users watch a video that explains more about a product or service to learn more about it. And this method is effective not only for informing your audience about products or services, but also for how-to, guides, and company training.

Today, most leading companies have augmented their training content to incorporate video wherever possible... and there's a lot of great reasons behind the shift.

What are the benefits of using training videos in your employee onboarding?

Training videos provide consistency

Let's start with consistency. By moving the most critical messaging or portions of training to video, you'll never have to worry if key training elements were conveyed to everyone correctly, or with the amount of emotion and energy that a great training video can deliver! In addition, you ensure no important training pieces were missed by an error of omission by the trainer.

Cost-effectiveness of training videos

The economics of augmenting training programs with video content is also something worth noting. In-person instruction can be great, but it can also be wildly expensive, and create a bottleneck if you're trying to onboard many people at once. This is not to suggest that video can completely replace in-person instruction, but many soft skills or corporate culture content can be taught just as, if not more effectively with great training videos followed by a knowledge assessment.

Instructor-led training is time-consuming and expensive, with much of the money and resources being spent on travel rather than delivering the training itself.

But with video, you actually save money because you don't have to hire and pay someone to train your employees. And because the video has already been recorded, all you need is a location for your employees to gather and watch the training video.

And in some cases, this isn't even a factor! Because most workplaces are now virtual, you can simply share your training video with your employees, who can watch it from their desk or home office. As a result, there may be no travel expenses at all.

Another advantage of producing training videos? This is a one-time expense. You can make a training video that you will be able to use for years to come.

Training videos boost productivity

How many times have you dreaded –– or avoided –– going to on-site training? You know, the drawn-out, hour-long presentations. Not only are they be painstakingly long for your employees, but the pressing work duties get postponed until another day.

Video training eliminates the need for your employees to be physically present at the training session. They can actually watch the video whenever they want, so there is no lost time.

Training videos increase retention

Whether it's video podcasts, video how-tos, or just plain entertainment, it's no secret that videos are fun to watch. According to Forrester Research, watching a video will make employees and the Human Resources system feel up to 75% better than reading emails or web articles.

To put it another way, if you want your employees to stay focused and enjoy their training, make it fun! Interesting videos can hold people's attention much more than traditional documents and lectures.

What are the steps in training video production?

Prepare the materials

Whether you’re the on-screen talent or hiring a professional team of actors, an engaging script is a must-have for your training videos. But keep in mind, not just any writer can take on scriptwriting. It’s a unique skill so be sure to hire an experienced scriptwriter.

Set up your recording environment

Nothing is more unprofessional than a cluttered or distracting background. When deciding on a shooting location, choose one with solid color background (whether it's a backdrop or a wall). And you should also make sure there is no window or other reflective surface in the background.

Gather your equipment

You don't have to go full Hollywood on your training video production. But, you should keep quality in mind at all times. This video may be seen by new employees, so you'll want to make a good first impression. Remember, this training may be reused for many years to come.

If your company does not already have some, you should budget for a good camera, microphone, and professional editing software.

Bonus tip: Don't overlook the minor details, such as ensuring that the background is free of clutter and excess noise.

Scheduling with ease

How often have you had to reschedule a meeting due to scheduling conflicts? In today's fast-paced world, it's nearly impossible to find a date and time that works for everyone on your team. Perhaps an employee took the day off or someone called in sick. Then it's up to the meeting attendees to relay the information to their teammates.

By having a recorded session, you make company training available to all employees, regardless of their schedules.

And the more training video productions you have, the more you can build a library of sessions that your employees can watch whenever they have the time. If an employee needs to refer to a policy, they can simply search for what they need to know when they need to know it.

How do you make a good training video?

Know your audience

Your audience needs to connect with you to retain the information you’re providing. Consider the demographics of your audience. Are your viewers full of 20 and 30-year-olds or are they in the 50+ bracket? Including memes or gifs might hit home with millennials but might miss the mark with Generation X.

Consider your style

Which style of messaging will best communicate your company’s message? Animated videos are easily digestible and great for explaining complex concepts. Videos with faces make your video feel authentic and your viewers feel connected. Feel free to mix and match!

Practice, practice, practice

Make sure you make time to practice. The more practice you put in, the more natural you will appear. Reading your script out loud will also help you catch any grammar mistakes or redundancies you might have missed.

Keep your training videos short and sweet

Keep in mind that people's attention spans are shrinking by the day. According to research, videos that are less than six minutes long perform the best. So, if you have a lot of information to share, it's best to divide it up into short lessons of less than six minutes each.

Add annotations

Annotations draw the audience's attention and keep them engaged.

• Start with a title that lets the audience what you'll be talking about and end with a closing graphic that ties the whole thing together.
• Subtitles can be used for those who prefer to watch videos without sound.
• When presenting, use captions to highlight the main ideas, such as outlining the steps.
• Make a list of some guidelines, methods, or other key points. It will also assist you in focusing the viewer's attention on important information.

Shake things up with learning activities

Combining video-based lessons with online courses and assessments like quizzes, for example, can make a training program much more engaging and thus more effective.

Improve your learners' understanding of your video lesson by delivering it as part of an eLearning course, or administer an online test or quiz after they've watched a video to assess their knowledge.

After you create and edit your training video and you get it in front of your employees for the first time –– pay attention to how it hits.

If your video's goal is to instruct employees on specific daily duties, monitor their performance on those tasks over time. This will be a clue as to whether the video was effective.

If the video is more of a general job overview, encourage employees to complete a survey about how useful the video actually was for them. This feedback will help you continuously improve your training videos.

If you’ve been thinking about creating a company training video, we hope this article gave you a bit more insight and clarity about the process and the benefits. If you’re still not sure of how to go about training video production, send us an email! We’ll be happy to help with your training video production needs.