It is no secret—training and video are a duo as iconic as peanut butter and jelly. In fact, according to a recent survey by Kaltura, 97 percent of businesses say video helps train employees better and faster. As the ones responsible for creating training content, this is great news. We know our audience loves consuming and sharing video content, and video is an effective training tool.
It’s up to us to discover different ways to incorporate more video into trainings, as well as our daily workflows and processes. But don’t despair. Finding new ways to incorporate video into your training content doesn’t have to be overly elaborate or complicated. Instead, it should be relevant to your audience and fulfill a purpose. Let’s look at some different types of video that can help refresh your training and learning experience, as well as enhance communication.
Internal Systems Training Videos
From day-one training and onboarding processes to rolling out new software/business tools, videos can be a real boon. Video is scalable, ensuring everyone sees and hears the same message, reducing the likelihood of misunderstandings. While there are benefits to face-to-face time during onboarding or new systems implementation, getting everyone in a room takes time and can carry a heavy expense.
Consider what parts of your internal systems training you don’t want to repeat in the classroom, or what materials/content you want your audience to be able to review when they need it. These are great candidates for videos. You also can tie in the business value of the new system and why your audience should learn it. You could create a video with a key stakeholder (who is probably too busy to attend all of the classes or Webinars) discussing the big picture value or strategy.
Technical Support Videos
As training professionals, we typically don’t view ourselves as technical support, but there are several valuable technical support videos you could create. For example, if you’re creating a new training program/topic and anticipate some frequently asked questions, you can handle them before they are asked by creating quick troubleshooting or FAQ (frequently asked questions) videos.
Additionally, if you’re working through technical and complex processes that require a lot of set-up, or are difficult to replicate in a training setting, technical support-style videos offer the advantage of showing off the real environment and real situation. Then you can share the videos with participants as part of your follow-up, so they can review it as needed.
“Meet the Staff” Videos
Whether you’re sending an e-mail or chatting on a collaboration channel, text formats lack personality, body language, and tone. With video, you’re able to convey emotion more clearly and remove any ambiguity that exists in text communication because your audience can see your body language and hear the sincerity in your tone.
These types of videos can be highly impactful, especially within larger organizations, because they engage viewers and help form/strengthen the human connection between employees, and with the organization.
From onboarding and new employee introductions to featuring internal subject matter experts, there are many ways to incorporate these videos into your culture. If you’re interested in learning more about this type of video, check out my previous article “Using Video to Strengthen Organizational Communication” on http://www.trainingmag.com/
As the demand for video communication in business grows, so does the need for finding ways to integrate video. While these ideas aren’t rocket science, it helps us think about ways we can incorporate video into our workflows. What different types of videos have you tried to incorporate into your organization recently? I’d love to hear from you! Share your thoughts with me on Twitter @piercemr
Matt Pierce is Learning & Video ambassador at TechSmith Corp., the go-to company for visual communication. TechSmith empowers people to create remarkable content to share knowledge and information. A graduate of Indiana University’s School of Education’s Department of Instructional Systems Technology, Pierce has more than 10 years of experience working in learning and development with a focus on visual instruction. He has directly managed the training, user assistance, video, and other teams for TechSmith.
