As a former corporate employee, I remember receiving all-staff emails from the human resources director, explaining that we were required to watch a training video on our computers. I dreaded watching these videos. They included actors who attempted to use humor to remind us of important safety issues. The jokes and scripts were so hokey, employees focused more on the silliness than the substance. To avoid wasting time, some co-workers outmaneuvered the system and fast-forwarded to where we acknowledged watching the videos. The company had our digital signature of acknowledgement, but had we actually learned anything to ensure a safer workplace?
Workplace rules and safety are serious, but there is still space for some fun and creativity. Here are five ways we build better employee training videos to ensure businesses genuinely accomplish their objectives:
Create a kick-ass opening montage. Don’t open training videos with simply your organization’s logo fading up from black. Spark attention by editing a fast-paced opening montage. For branding and consistency, start each video with the same rock ‘n roll approach. Include quick, tight shots of actual employees at work. (Do not substitute stock video.) Raise audio levels to bring the scenes to life. Create bold, short graphics that zoom or slide onto the screen to display and reinforce your company’s core values. Add quick transitions that infuse your company’s colors. Using those same branded colors, don’t fear filling some shots with eye-grabbing filters.
Develop a dramatic topic title. After the eye-popping montage, clearly identify the video’s topic. We use Maxon’s Cinema 4D software to build large titles with dimension. The title instills the company’s primary branding color, reflecting simulated light and casting subtle shadows. Aligned with a subtle sound effect, the organization’s logo then slides swiftly across the bottom of the screen. The logo’s size does not dominate the scene, but it’s big enough to emphasize this is a branded video and that the business built it specifically for its employees.
Interview real, frontline employees. Employees have told us they appreciate learning from and seeing their peers in training videos instead of watching executives who spend most of their time behind desks while choosing each word with robotic precision. Actors often look too polished and not believable. Employees may not speak with perfect eloquence, but that’s OK. That’s genuine. And good audio editing can clean up issues that might prove too distracting. For on-camera work, the key is choosing employees wisely. Too often, due to a lack of time and planning, organizations select whichever employees happen to be available at a given time. Businesses should send their most passionate and knowledgeable employees to the plate instead of simply someone off the bench who volunteers because no one else steps forward.
Conduct active interviews. If employees work in a shop with tools and many moving parts, don’t conduct interviews with people sitting in a seat in a boring conference room. Include a related background and environment. And get interviewees to show and tell instead of always standing up straight without much movement. Those on camera should demonstrate safety procedures while speaking. They should show us where to find safety equipment. They should show us how safety devices work. This type of interview creates a true learning experience. Employees will understand key concepts much more by seeing them instead of only hearing about them.
Buy some rockin’ music. While working around employees in a shop, we frequently heard employees listening to 1980s classic rock on radios at their workbenches. We buy royalty-free music from websites such as www.pond5.com and avoid tracks with the word “corporate” included in the title. Instead, our keyword search might include “80s rock.” Corporate videos are not required to include corporate music. That is old-school thinking. Employees have provided us unsolicited feedback praising the background music. That might sound superficial to an executive who argues a safety video should not stray from the highest level of seriousness. But key training messages will bounce off brick walls unheard if a business does not take even the smallest steps to grab employees’ attention. The music should not be distracting. But it should help draw in viewers.
One of the first times we attempted to implement some of the above ideas for employee training videos, we heard someone say there’s no “fun” in safety. But what’s the point in teaching important lessons if everyone in the audience is staring at their smartphones or at the clocks on the walls? If your creative ideas meet resistance, try earning buy-in one concept at a time. One of the most important aspects of video is understanding what works for your audience instead of focusing primarily on how the person in the corner office wants it to work.