How to create
amazing
employee training videos
In last week’s blog post we discussed the 7 Reasons Why You Need to Be Using Videos for your Internal Training. We looked at how employee training videos are versatile, engaging and accessible. And how they can save you ALOT of money in training in your organisation. In case you missed it – IBM saved $579 million in the first two years of its video learning program.
There are a number of ways that you can approach the production of your employee training videos. This post will get the ideas flowing by looking at how to create amazing employee training videos for your team!
1. Tell a story
Storytelling is a great way to connect with new members of your team, and help them to connect with the mission and vision of the organisation. Providing employees with the ‘why’ of training – why what they are doing is important and makes a difference – can have a resounding effect.
Stories in employee training videos can also take the form of role play. The training videos could show staff members (or actors) facing various scenarios in the workplace, such as a difficult customer, and then the different responses the staff member could make to the scenario. The videos could then explore how different responses affect the story and the experience for the customer.
An example of storytelling can be seen in the video we produced for Meals on Wheels below, where we used story to showcase poor food hygiene.
2. Break content down into bite-sized pieces
To make training more approachable, we recommend breaking down learning into bite-sized pieces. Smaller videos allow staff to experience a sense of accomplishment as the complete each video. This also helps to maintain engagement. Furthermore, providing shorter videos allows your employees the opportunity time to stop and replay any sections they would like to review again, digest what they’ve just watched, and ask questions as needed.
3. Have clear learning outcomes for each training video
It is important with employee training videos to have a clear idea of what you would like staff to learn from each video. Each video should have its own topic and set of outcomes. Don’t try to overload a single video with too much information or to cover too many different sections of your company at once. For example, have separate videos to learn the organisation’s computer software and to learn the organisation’s heavy lifting policy. Think about who is the audience for the video – is it an entry level staff member, a supervisor, or upper management? This will help to determine the kind of information that is shared in the video.
4. Find ways to have fun with your employee training videos
Training involves learning a lot of new information, so if you can find opportunities to make it fun, go with it! This will show that even thought your company takes training and results seriously, you are still a fun place to work. An example of a fun training video is Air New Zealand’s ‘Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made’.
5. Add a quiz
Quizzes at the end of your training videos are an effective way to test your team’s understanding of the new material and to reinforce the key learning outcomes fo the video they’ve just watched. If they get some of the answers wrong, they can simply rewatch the video to check what they’ve missed. If they get the answers right, it helps build new employee confidence and encourages them to keep learning.
5. Include captions
Including captions is your video training is a great way to ensure maximum retention of the material. We all know someone who likes to watch movies with the captions on – some people just prefer to watch videos and learn in this way. Captions help to ensure that no information is misunderstood or missed.
In conclusion...
Effective training in an organisation can boost first impressions of a company and can even improve the long term retention and effectiveness of new hires. Using the above tips, you can ensure your employee training videos are engaging and effective!
To discuss the production of an employee video training program for your organisation, please get in touch using the form below.
