7 Tips for Creating Effective Employee Training Videos
Employee training may not be the most exciting part of a job, but it’s often a necessary one. Professional development and training courses teach your workforce required skills, encourage continuous improvement, clarify expectations, and instill confidence across teams.
However, many employers face several challenges when it comes to educating their employees. Workplaces must consider:
How to effectively reach employees
How to create engaging material
How to standardize training across their organization
Video presents a great opportunity for employers looking for answers to any or all of these questions. It’s a powerful tool that will help your employees learn and retain the material they need to know most. In fact, one study revealed that video viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it— a stark difference compared to a much lower 10% when reading text. Through video content, you can distribute the information that your employees need to know in an engaging and accessible manner.
7 Tips for Creating Great Employee Training Videos
If you’re looking to build a library of training videos for your workforce, we have some helpful pointers. To create quality content that resonates with your teams, keep the following tips in mind.
1. Start with a plan
First, you should come up with a plan for your training video or videos. Consider things like:
What topics you wish to cover
How the video(s) will be structured (e.g. one thirty-minute video or six 5-minute clips)
Who will be doing the teaching
What tools or products you might need for on-screen demonstrations
Once you have the basics nailed down, you can start planning the specifics and come up with a loose script. Whoever is speaking should have a solid understanding of what they need to cover without memorizing a script word for word. This ensures that the content is not rambling and incoherent, nor delivered in a monotone and disinterested way.
Keep in mind that the planning process may not happen overnight. For many companies, it’ll be a collaborative effort across different departments. Coming up with an encompassing curriculum or lesson might require input and approval from a number of stakeholders, which can take weeks or even months.
2. Invest in quality
You expect quality work from your employees. At the same time, your employees expect (and deserve) quality from you. There are several ways you can invest in creating professional training videos.
Option one: Invest in the right equipment. This means ditching the phone and opting for a more professional camera option. It’s also a good idea to source a few microphones and lights, especially if you plan on filming in a dim location. This option is suitable if you or someone on your team also has some audio and video expertise and feels comfortable operating a shoot and editing together the final product.
Option two: Hire a video production team that can take care of some— or all— production aspects. This is a great option if you know what you want to say, but aren’t quite sure about the logistics and technology that you’ll need to make a great video happen. A video production company will handle all things audio and video, meaning the only thing you have to worry about is getting the right message across. Hiring a video team will also give you more options when it comes to including things like graphics, animations, other external materials, and more.
Whichever you choose, remember that an investment in your employees is an investment in your business. Though you may be spending some money upfront, you’ll see the returns when you have a trained, efficient team.
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3. Choose the right location
If you choose to go the DIY route, there are a few things that you can do to get a professional look. Aside from the equipment you use, the setting of your video will play a large role in the overall look and quality of your content. Here are a few things to consider when choosing the perfect location:
Background distractions: Busy backgrounds can distract from the content of your video. Opt for an area free of distractions or purchase a backdrop to set up behind the video subjects.
Background colors: You should also be aware of the background color that you’ll be shooting in front of. If you are demonstrating or showcasing a darker product, it can easily get lost in a dark background. Pick a color that will provide a good contrast to whatever you’re showing on screen.
Lighting: The lighting of a room is especially important to think about if you have little to no lighting equipment. Look for a location that has generous amounts of soft, natural light. North-facing windows are usually your best bet because the sun never shines directly through them.
Noise and sound quality: We’ll talk about this more in a bit, but it’s important to find a quiet space.
If you can’t find a good location at your place of business, consider renting a studio space, PeerSpace, or even Airbnb for the duration of your shoot.
4. Focus on audio
The visual aspect of your training video is important. However, many people place so much focus on what’s on screen that they forget all about audio quality.
It can be hard to focus on the message of a video when the audio is muddled or there are distracting noises in the background. Because of that, it’s important to ensure you’re getting crisp, clean audio when recording. You can achieve this by:
Picking a space with good acoustics: A room with a bad echo is not where you want to film your content. Generally speaking, a large, empty room will not have the best acoustics. Smaller, carpeted rooms that have a few pieces of furniture will sound the best.
Use a microphone: Yes, your camera probably has an onboard microphone that will capture sound, but you shouldn’t rely on this. Instead, opt for an external microphone and recorder.
Listen before you hit record: Before you start recording, take time to listen to the environment. Do you hear any hums or buzzes? You might not notice them in your day-to-day life, but these sounds are easily amplified on camera. Appliances like air conditioners, heaters, or refrigerators are common culprits for background noise.
Some audio problems can be fixed in editing; however, your best course of action is always to prevent the issues in the first place.
5. Change up the visuals
Watching a person on video ramble while looking straight into a camera isn’t any more engaging than watching a long lecture in person. To create dynamic content that keeps your audience’s attention, incorporate B roll and/or multiple camera angles.
B roll is additional footage that can be intercut with a main shot. For example, if you’re explaining a process that happens at your business, you can intercut shots of someone talking about the process with visuals that match what they are describing.
Similarly, by setting up multiple cameras in different positions, you can cut between the shots of someone talking in post-production. This is also extremely helpful if you’re demonstrating a product that could benefit from a close-up shot.
6. Include graphics and titles
Utilizing simple graphics and titles can add a level of legitimacy to your video and reinforce information in your employees’ minds.
Your graphics and titles can accomplish several things:
Help brand and organize videos: Adding title cards can help you and your employees organize the information, especially if you have a collection of training videos. Branding your content with your colors, logos, etc. can add legitimacy to the training.
Provide information that you don’t say on screen: There may be certain things that you don’t mention in the video— such as the names of those leading training— that you wish to include. Text overlays and graphics can be used to add this information.
Highlight important information: Text overlays can also be used to emphasize certain points. It’s also common to include introduction or summary slides that recap important information.
Convey visual information: Graphics and animation can help your trainees visualize the material.
Many free editing tools online give you the ability to add basic titles and graphic components. More complex tasks may require professional-grade software or the help of an expert.
7. Make sure your video is accessible
Lastly, you’ll want to ensure that your video can be accessed by all of your employees. This means making accommodations for those who may be deaf, hard of hearing, or visually impaired.
Video transcripts and captions allow those who may be deaf or hard of hearing to access all of the information spoken in the video. They are also handy for those who are hearing but simply prefer to watch videos without sound. To learn more about the difference between transcriptions and captions and when you should use them, check out this article from the University of California.
Similarly, some video players allow creators to upload audio descriptions to their videos. These short descriptions give the visually impaired the opportunity to understand what is being shown on screen.
Successfully Train Your Employees
Proper employee training and education is one of the most important components to building a successful business. Video is a great way to train your teams. On top of helping employees better retain vital info, video content is easy to share and can reach your employees wherever they are located. By using the seven tips we talked about in this article, you can craft video content that will resonate and stick with your employees.