Veering away from traditional routes, companies are now increasingly opting to train staff using video tutorials. From analysing the statistics, there is a clear reason why businesses are gravitating towards this new method.
According to research conducted by Cheryl Cran, founder of NetxMapping, 82 per cent of employees find internal videos had a significant effect on improving their training knowledge and retention. In a report by Kaltura, a video platform, this number increased to 99 per cent, with three-quarters of employees (75 per cent) agreeing that video was very valuable or somewhat valuable (24 per cent) in training employees in a better and faster way.
Wirebuzz, a video marketing agency, reported that, in general, viewers recall 95 per cent of information set out in a video and only 10 per cent of information presented through text.
This means video training is increasingly being seen as a powerful tool to effectively train staff.
After analysing data about videos and reaching out to corporate companies who make their own training videos, HRReview has compiled a list of the best tips on creating the most effective videos for training employees in corporate companies.
- Keep the video short
According to VideoGuru, a video production company, 60 per cent of viewers will stop watching a video after two minutes. Additionally, VidYard, a software company, reports that the average retention rate for videos over 30 minutes is only 10 per cent.
This means that the most efficient training videos are the ones which manage to strike a balance between being informative and concise.
- Keep the content visual
A reoccurring piece of advice was to implement images in order to appeal to the visual nature of human beings.
Using visuals helps to convert the information into a story-like format of “cause and effect” which is how human beings understand the world, says Darren Hockley, managing director of DeltaNet International, an eLearning provider.
Troy Stein, general manager of Techsmith’s screen recorder and video editor tool, Camtasia, claims that the visual nature of videos is an increasing trend that is here to stay. He predicts there will be more images in videos going forward as they are “concise, tight and vibrant” and convey the knowledge in the fastest possible way.
This is supported by the Pictorial Superiority Effect which indicates that using pictures and words together promotes greater information recall. Specifically, after three days, human only remember 10 per cent of the information that was presented in word format. In this same length of time, humans remember 65 per cent of the information presented in both word and picture format.
- Engage your employees through tailoring your training videos–
Content should be customised with interactive activities, quizzes and a competitive element to keep it engaging, advises Nigel Davis, founder of Claromentis, a digital workplace company. He also suggests supporting “real-time collaboration” which will allow learners to directly interact, ask questions, add comments and ‘like’ videos.
- Create supplementary videos to assist the training videos
Take time making supplementary seminar videos, says Claire Gamble, founder of virtual PR and marketing agency Unhooked Communications. She adds that although it takes extra time to make these videos, these videos allows staff to easily refresh their skills and are especially useful for training staff who work remotely and may not be able to directly communicate as easily with other employees to ask for help.
- Use artificial intelligence to fill in the gaps of knowledge
Darren Hockley, managing director of DeltaNet International, encourages utilising Artificial Intelligence (AI) which tailors learning content by analysing what employees are learning and “measures their gaps in knowledge”.
He continues by mentioning the Experience API (Xapi), an eLearning software specification, which can take note of what employees do not understand through the answers that they are searching for online. This software then feeds this information back to the learning platform. This serves to provide further tailored content and ultimately “tackles the skills gap” that each individual employee struggles with.
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If you are interested in using video for training, check out our related articles:
- Make Your Own Training Videos with Camtasia
- Deploy Training Materials and Test Understanding with WP-HR Manager
Monica Sharma is an English Literature graduate from the University of Warwick. As Editor for HRreview, her particular interests in HR include issues concerning diversity, employment law and wellbeing in the workplace. Alongside this, she has written for student publications in both England and Canada. Monica has also presented her academic work concerning the relationship between legal systems, sexual harassment and racism at a university conference at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
