Utilizing videos to train your employees is a powerful strategy to equip your staff with the skills they need to excel. In many companies, employee retention is a challenge. There are many reasons for this, but sometimes it boils down to the employee not feeling engaged or confident in their position. Videos can help your employees pay close attention to training and retain more of what they learn. When people watch a video, they recall about 95% of the message as opposed to 10% with text or sound only.
You likely already know that videos work when training your employees, but how can you make those videos really shine? We’ve all sat through that boring training video where you need toothpicks to prop your eyelids open. Fortunately, new approaches to training videos can help engage the viewer and hold their interest.
In this blog, I’ll cover the six types of videos that your employees will benefit from, as well as tips to create each one.
1. New Hire Videos
In the past, onboarding included sitting in a room and listening to a manager or HR professional lecture on various topics. A lot of information is thrown at new hires, but not a lot is retained using this method.
If it’s not in your budget to create videos for every aspect of training, you’ll need to prioritize what information you most want the employee to remember, such as company policies and best practices.
Here are some tips for new hire videos:
- Create videos for the topics you most want the employee to remember (as information in videos is better retained).
- Keep the video short and to the point.
- Make sure the video has professional elements that will engage the viewer, such as music and captions.
Google is on the cutting edge of technology, so it isn’t surprising that their onboarding process starts by offering the snapshot above of what it’s like to work at Google. The video features various employees and interns sharing what their typical day looks like, the benefits and freedom of working on the Google campus, and shots of the campus both inside and out.
2. Webinars
Webinars offer the ability for companies to train workers located anywhere in the world. About four million employees in the United States work from home at least part of the time, which has increased by about 115% since 2005. With more and more companies realizing telecommuting attracts the best and the brightest minds, the one challenge many face is how to train someone who lives hundreds of miles away.
Fortunately, webinars offer a number of benefits in this area, such as:
- The ability to show everyone a whiteboard-type screen at the same time.
- A chance to host a training session that allows remote workers to see the same materials as those who are in-house see.
- The recording of training sessions available for those who might be in a different time zone and need to watch later.
Webinars are a smart way to present information to a variety of employees. They can also be a real time saver for your company because leaders create the material once and share it multiple times as new employees are onboarded.
3. Training Videos
A video that gets to the heart an employee’s experience can help that worker retain more of the processes she needs to know to do a good job. When you have a lot of information to share with your employee, offer a number of short videos and allow them to put what he or she has learned into immediate practice. This is an effective, and very hands-on way for your employee to learn and retain information.
When creating training videos, keep in mind that:
- Training videos should have a complete story—a beginning, middle, and end.
- It is better to create several short videos than one massive, long video.
- It’s best practice to stick to one topic at a time so that you don’t lose the attention of the viewer.
The video above is a training video meant for teachers who are trying to help English as a second language (ESL) learners with their pronunciation. The video shows an issue some students have and offers a technique to help them overcome it. By showing a teacher performing this task, the viewer can learn how to interact with a student.
4. Company History
You want your employees to feel a sense of pride about where they work. Sharing the company history and how the business was built from the ground up can help foster this sense of pride. It also equips the new employee to better understand why the company has certain business practices in place.
When creating a company history video:
- Start at the beginning. Who founded and built the company?
- Share the company’s philosophy and how it was developed.
- Finish with a forward-looking thought, such as where the company wants to go in the next five to 10 years.
Keep in mind that the video should also be short and to the point. What makes your company unique and special? If your employee watched this video, would he or she be able to share that message with others in one or two sentences?
5. Annual Reports
Employees who know the financial health and goals of a company may feel they play a bigger part in its overall effort. However, annual reports can be dry and boring. They are usually dozens of pages long and contain a lot of dry data.
You can make the report more interesting by featuring the highlights in a video:
- Turn hard data into visualizations, and share them in the video.
- Utilize images and graphics to break up some of the information.
- End on a positive note.
Note how IHG offers some positive highlights from their annual report in this video. At the same time, they utilize the video as a form of promotion, because they take the opportunity to highlight some of their top properties alongside the data. This information should excite employees and investors alike about the continued growth of the company.
6. Employee Highlights
It’s easy to fall into the routine of a job and lose your passion for what you’re doing. Try featuring employees in video when they go above and beyond, or demonstrate consistency and dedication. This not only encourages that employee but also shows others that hard work is recognized and rewarded. Employees who feel appreciated tend to stick around, saving companies as much as $4,129 in recruiting and training costs.
When creating an employee highlight video, keep the following in mind:
- Decide what the video should achieve. Do you want to just give a shout out for a job well done or also inspire others?
- Focus on a key challenge the employee overcame to succeed and why he or she was chosen as the employee to highlight.
- Get personal. Even though the focus is on their work as an employee, this video is also an opportunity for co-workers and customers to get to know a person better. Share something unique about them, given their consent.
Highlighting employees is a great way to show the heart and soul of your company, while making the individual person to feel special and appreciated.
Take Advantage of the Benefits Videos Have for Your Employees
As you can see, there are numerous ways to utilize videos in your onboarding and ongoing training. Make professional videos that engage the viewer and help them retain the information being presented. Creating videos for training is definitely worth the time and effort, so get started!