Keys To Corporate Training Videos That People Actually Want To Watch
The human attention span is not at all impressive. One of this biggest struggles with corporate training is getting people to pay attention, especially when it’s something as learning the procedures to properly fill out the TPS report.
When you create training videos, you’re competing with Disney+, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and the rest of the entire internet with the click of.a mouse button. Today, people expect a stream of info and entertainment followed up by some commentary on Twitter or social media.
In order to make Training Videos work, they must be engaging . Whether you’re in tech or traditional manufacturing, your content needs to be up to par with everything else on the internet that can distract.
In other words, your training videos need to be distractable-worthy.
Here’s some practical tips for more distractible-worthy training videos videos that people actually want to watch and learn from:
Keep it Simple
Pretty hard to hold attention of your audience when they can’t follow what you’re explaining. Be sure to break down the knowledge you’re sharing into smaller manageable chunks. The last thing you want is to overload your audience with new information.
Taking time to clearly identify what you’re talking about improves the overall quality of your training video while eliminating any confusion at the end.
Use animations of abstract concepts to help your audience better visualize them. Most people will only understand a small percentage of the information you tell them. But when you repeat that information in a visual representation, like an animation, you increase the portion of your audience that will understand what you’re saying — and be able to retain and put it into practice.
Another technique to create effective, engaging training videos is to us real-life scenarios. It is a great way to engage your audience and make your concepts more relatable. People may memorize the concepts you present in your online training, but if they can’t apply them in a concrete way, they haven’t truly learned anything.
Arguably one of the best training videos known to man. Practical, simple to understand, engaging and authentic.
The best corporate training videos show your face. Consider the tutorials you see on YouTube - they talk directly to you. By seeing your face and hearing your voice, your audience will connect with the video and get more out of your message. It’s important to let them see you as natural and human — not some robotic corporate figure. If your audience can relate to you and find you approachable in your presentation, they’ll be more engaged with the video.
Employee training videos are an opportunity to showcase your company culture too. Whereas the your company’s current employees are most likely immersed in the company culture, your new employees who are not used to your vibe will pick up more cues about it. Use these training videos as an invitation to be more involved in the company’s way of life.
In your position as a manager or trainer, you are expected to embody the corporate culture. When your presentation in the video is natural, the corporate culture shines in a positive light. Everyone who watches that video should want to be just like you on some level. You want to inspire them to take part in the company’s culture and really buy into it. The first rule of Fight Club…
Break up dense content & Vary Your Presentation
Use various styles of presentation to keep the interest of your audience. Think about the ways information is presented to people in television.For example, news is usually a mixture of talking heads and on-location videos. Take queues from magazine articles — either online or in print — they use photos to break up the monotony of text to keep people’s attention.
The key is maintaining attention by keeping the content lively. No one will remember everything you present if you show it just once. Instead, use different ways to explain the same message multiple times. Saying the same thing more than once is key to learning and will not seem repetitive if you do it in different ways
Evoke your employee’s emotions
Making a video is a lot like making a movie: if it reaches the audience at an emotional level, it will stick. Of course, the best training videos don’t need to be Oscar-winners. Your training video should inspire employees to excel, given the new information you’re presenting to them.
The best training videos help employees renew pride for the company and the work they do. Try showing them your own passion for the work the company does and your pride in your team, product, and service.
Your video will stick to your audience if it makes them think about why they do what they do. Once your training videos tap into their passion, the next step is to encourage them to to do it more and better. With this type of emotional draw, your training video will be very successful.
Get your people to feel like the video is speaking directly to them. It should feel like an intamate conversation. Employees feel important when the management speaks to them individually, and employees who feel important are more engaged.
Depend on High-Quality Production
Even if you know nothing about video production, you can tell when a video was done professionally. As much as DIY is a popular trend in many things right now, don’t rely on it for your training videos. Anyone can make a video but the best training videos are engaging and easy to watch. Take Masterclass, for example - for that, you need a professional to guide the process and produce technically superior quality.
Masterclass - Timbaland Teaches Producing and Beatmaking
A video with good sound, lighting and editing are much more likely to maintain the attention of your audience. Watching people in a video who are awkward and nervous can also be uncomfortable for the viewer. It’s worth the time and money to bring in professional actors to give your video a polished look. When your video looks amateurish, so do you and your company.
Stay short and to the point
Much like a movie, the best training videos have a beginning, a middle and an end. IThey set up a premise or an idea to be explored. Then they present a question, conflict, or problem to solve. Finally, the end of the video brings the material to a logical, impactful conclusion.
Simple narrative structure
If you follow this format, you’ll find it much easier to keep the attention of your audience. People are used to consuming video materials this way. Knowing what to expect helps draw people through the video. They want to see the resolution.
If you have a lot of material to present in your training, it would be better to make a couple short videos than to use one long one. Break up your presentation and allow people time to commit what they learn to their long-term memories. The best information retention techniques involve learning small chunks of information, moving them to long-term memory through repetition and practice and then tackling new information.
A really long training video will bore your audience and oversaturate them with information. When was the last time you crammed for an exam last minute? How well did that go? No matter how engaging you think the subject of your video is, it will lose people’s attention if it goes on too long. When your audience becomes saturated with information and can’t take in any more, they will zone out even if the video is still rolling.
Leave time for Q&A
The interactive part of a training session is key. People need to be presented with facts and information, but in order to move that information to long-term memory, they need to apply and practice the information. Asking questions while the presentation is still fresh in their minds will help your audience clarify and digest what they learned.
Questions provide a chance for clarification and encourage interaction on the topics. This is part of practicing. Before people can put a new concept into practice, they need to be able to talk about it. A lively discussion of the new information following the video presentation can help with the transition into practice
In the conversations following your presentation, members of your audience can share what they’ve learned with each other. Knowing a fact is one level of learning, and applying that fact to a situation is another. Teaching the new information to someone else brings your learning to the level of mastery. Jedi mastery.
Questions at the end of a presentation can move everyone closer to mastery. But if no one asks any questions, don’t assume they fully understand the information presented. They may be too confused or overloaded with information to formulate a question. Asking summary questions will help your audience advance their understanding by keeping them engaged.
Conclusion
When you’re ready to get started on your next corporate training video, contact HADJI Studios to make it really engaging. We are a full-service video production company with experience producing high-quality, highly engaging videos.We have the equipment, resources, and knowledge to produce professional training videos your company needs. Just like your business, planning is the first to making this successful.
Our proven 4-step process of ideation, strategy, production, and delivery help keep things on time and on budget while avoiding costly mistakes during the planning process. Shooting your training video in your conference room with a couple of your employees may sound like an easy, low-cost solution, but it can come out expensive in the end.
By using HADJI Studios. we give you the best chance of training your people and inspiring their work by using a combination of audio, video, and motion graphics to enhance the education experiences of the viewer.
You know your industry and the information you need to present in your next training video. We know how to make it look attractive to your audience.
For more information on creating training videos that your people actually want to watch, or to get a quote for an upcoming project, schedule a free 20min ideation call with HADJI Studios today!
