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Think training videos are all about bad hair and music?

Find out the science behind why training videos are so effective and why every company needs to use them in workplace training.

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1. Match the visuals, titles and voiceover – This is a common mistake of amateurs.  Sadly, even  some experienced editors have difficulty with this one.  This is one of the reasons why training videos are so powerful, but so many production houses get it wrong.  Remember, don’t skimp on editing time.  It is worth the time and effort to use lots of titles and to match the vision accurately.

2. Focus the training video on instructional design principles. Producing a training video is more than just editing and filming.  The script must be written in a way so as to enhance learning.  Avoid working with directors whose main desire is to be a Hollywood producer.  While you are getting a training video made, remember it is just another communication tool like a poster  magazine ad.  It is not about amazing pictures with  stereophonic sound.  How it is put together is a necessary requirement, but it is the instructional design principles behind it that make all the difference.

3. Entertaining videos usually don’t work.  Avoid effects that do not add to communicating your message.  Do you really need the paint splash effect title when your company has nothing to do with paint?

4. Change what’s on screen every 5-7 seconds. Use a variety of communication methods – titles, different voiceovers, numerous camera perspectives  and a change in music.  Keep people engaged.

5. Show people as much as you can. People like looking at people. Again, amateurs don’t get this key principle.  I have seen amateur videos where a blank wall has been an unnecessary feature point while the narrator rambled on.  No joke.

6. Linear sequence (Step 1, Step 2 etc) avoid Step 2, Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Step 5 etc).  Our conscious brain absorbs information in a linear fashion.  Information must always be given from start to end with no confusing jumping back and forth.  With any type of training the structure is crucial to success.  This is the same with an educational video.   In a video, it can be quite boring and annoying to see things twice or in the wrong order.  Makes it difficult to understand.

7. Script - This is crucial.  It must be friendly and  conversational.  Use short words and sentences.  This is not a time to make out your clever because you know some big words.   And don’t get lazy and refer people to a book (yes, some training videos do that!)

8. Segregate the training video into chapters and make these clear. Just like a book, structure the training video into a range of titles and subtitles and make these easy to skip to.  By using titles in the video on the next topic, it helps to focus viewers on what they are going to learn next.

Training videos are an incredibly effective method of training people quickly and thoroughly.  More importantly, they help viewers to retain the information much more than if they were to read the information or even hear it.  But they have to be made right.  By spring boarding off what makes training videos so great and including these components in you training video, you’ll get fantastic training outcomes.

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Getting Safety Training Messages to stick can be Tricky.  Find out Seven Key Factors behind Successful Workplace Communication and how to implement them.

Melbourne, Australia (9 March, 2011) – Digicast Productions, a safety and induction training video package production house, today announced that their popular seminar “Seven communication tips for workplace safety managers” will be available to all trade show visitors of Safety in Action in Melbourne during the 5 – 7 April 2011.

In this short, free 30 minute seminar, participants will learn:

• The most important components to include in induction training
• Seven communication tips for success
• How to be the industry leader in workplace communication.

Located at the Demonstration Stage seminar session times are:

• Tuesday 5 April– 2pm
• Wednesday 6 April– 1pm
• Thursday 7 April– 1pm

All participants will receive a free copy of the popular white paper “Seven Communication Tips for Workplace Safety Messages”.

For a complete copy of the whitepaper, visit http://info.digicast.com.au/workplace-safety-messages/

Digicast Productions will present the Seven Communication Tips seminar at Safety In Action, which runs from April 5 to 7 at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. For more information, visit www.safetyinaction.net.au, email safetyvisitor@aec.net.au or phone Australian Exhibitions & Conferences Pty Ltd on 03 9654 7773.

About Digicast Productions

Established in 1991, Digicast is an Australian vendor of customised safety and induction training videos. Thousands of people each year worldwide are trained with Digicast training videos. For more information, visit Digicast at www.digicast.com.au or The Workplace Improver blog for training tips, www.digicast.com.au/blog.  Digicast will also be located at stand S14.

Contact Marie-Claire Ross
Digicast Productions
+ 61 3 9696-4400
mc@digicast.com.au

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Companies often tell us that they are frustrated by how hard it is to engage staff with training.

After a bit of digging, we usually find out that training consists of:

1. A trainer talking a lot,
2. Some trainer made PowerPoint slides (learn how to improve your training presentations here) that generally consists of lots of words, or
3. A black and white manual that staff are expected to read.

What research has found is that is that passive/low engagement training is ineffective compared to active/high engagement training.   Passive training is when you get a trainer or lecturer telling lots of information or when lots of reading is involved.

So any training that is designed around a trainer reading through slides is not enough to create engagement.  Nor is producing a training manual and expecting workers to read it.

The Most Effective Training Materials

Educational researchers have found that 83% of human learning occurs visually.  The right brain prefers visuals and can process pictures hundreds of times faster than words.

When it comes to producing training materials, it’s a good idea to use as many visuals as you can.  And to really increase engagement, try and get trainees to touch, see and hear (obviously, taste and smell aren’t suitable to all industries, but they work especially well in food).  Use as many of the senses as you can during training.

And while having a trainer talking at students is passive training including lots of “Show and Tell” or demonstrations takes the training to a new level.  This is where the trainer demonstrates a process and gets the trainee to have a go.  This is integral to an active learning style.  Coaching is then given to improve.  Which brings us to assessment, which is also really important with learning.  It is important that trainees get face to face feedback on how to improve rather than information from a computer.

A Checklist for Creating Effective Training Materials

Several research studies have found that learners more easily understand and recall new material presented in video that allow participants to both hear and see the information.

This dual-encoding process reinforces information in multiple brain areas, thereby increasing the chances that the material will be stored in long-term memory.

To make use of this powerful memory booster, training materials need to be centred around a visually appealing training video.  By getting learners to see, listen and read important information you start getting higher levels of recall than just reading alone.  After all,  we remember 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear and 30% of what we see, so by addressing these three areas, recall is increased to 60% v 10% for reading alone.

But just having a training video is not enough.  Another important addition to your training kit is the Trainer’s Manual.  This guide needs to help the trainer know the best method to teach the material.  It needs to include a trainer’s session schedule that has advice on what segments of the training video to play, what questions to discuss, when to do a demonstration, when to get trainees to have a go, when to pass around relevant items and the questions and answers for the quiz (and how to test respondents and discuss the answers).

In addition, to really keep trainees engaged and to help them believe that the training is important, each trainee needs to receive their own copy of an Employee Handbook.  This is the document that they go through in class, it needs to have information on how to undertake tasks, as well as photos that will remind them of the training video that they have seen.  The booklet needs to also contain their quiz with space for them to write in their answers  (also gives them ownership rights).

By using these three main training materials, you end up with a self-contained training package that gives trainers the resources and support that they need to create an interactive and high engagement training session.  It will also ensure that training is taught consistently across numerous locations.

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As a training video production house, we often get calls asking if we have a training DVD that people can buy right there and then.

Given that we only produce customised training videos, the answer is no and we send customers elsewhere.  But what are the pros and cons of an Off the Shelf v. A Customised Training Video?

Let’s take a look at the differences between the two and the associated pros and cons.

Off The Shelf Videos

Advantages - This is an extremely cost effective way of training workers with audiovisual content.

Given that 83% of human learning occurs visually, any training that involves just reading a manual or looking at fairly bland PowerPoint slides with a presenter will always give you mediocre training results.  Humans learn better with pictures.  So just by adding video content to your training presentations will not only engage your trainees, but it will also increase their message recall and retention.

For small businesses, it is a great way of getting affordable video content for your staff.

Disadvantages – While people might initially be interested in watching a video (to break up the constant chatter from the presenter), it has to hold their attention.  Strange looking workplaces, actors and uniforms can start to lose their appeal.  And depending upon the quality of the training video, poor acting, bad hair, different accents and music can start to make the video more of an object to laugh at rather than learn from.  You really need to assess ready-made training videos carefully, as there are some dodgy companies out for a quick buck, that make some pretty horrendous training videos.

Will they or won’t they?

A couple of years ago, a client ‘forced’ me to watch an off the shelf  safety training video that was made in 1985 (it can still be bought today).  The client was still using it and they were thinking about producing a more, shall we say, modern version.

Nearly all of the actors had bad moustaches and the one thing that stands out to me, was that after the video illustrated a bad accident at the workplace, the next scene was a female worker approaching the office of the production supervisor to look at his safety report.  As she approached the doorway, the music changed to well, porno music and I really thought something non-safety related was going to happen (okay, that might depend upon your definition of safety).  It didn’t.  But it just shows how little I was learning.  Needless to say, any video that looks tired and dated won’t be very effective as a training tool.

Customised Training Videos

Advantages – This is where companies can use examples from their own workplace and ensure that processes and language matches what they use in their company.  It also is filmed at the company workplace, with their own staff and uniforms.  Interestingly, staff really enjoy seeing their fellow workers on the screen.  It’s like a bonding experience.  In fact, filming a training video can have the added benefit of boosting staff morale.  Staff love being involved (okay, some don’t but they still like to watch their co-workers).

A customised training video, if produced correctly, can also give you high message recall and retention levels.  Generally, much better than what you’d get with an off the shelf video, simply because your staff can relate to it more.  You own custom made video can also be used for five years plus (depending upon on quickly processes change).

Disadvantages - It is more costly and it takes time to produce.  If done poorly, it can be a big waste of time and money.

Summary

So my advice is if you are about to start training workers in a lecture, jump online and see which off-the-shelf training videos you can purchase to liven  up your training session.

However, if you know that you have a lot of company procedures that are nothing like what other companies do, or you have a large workforce, then you are better off investing the time and money into your own bespoke training video.

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Death by PowerPoint.

Many of us have experienced sitting in a presentation that involves lots and lots of PowerPoint slides that bore us rather than engage us.

The  slides are usually crammed with text and the presenter reads them ad nauseum.

Yet, humans are visually oriented creatures.  Educational researchers have found that 83% of human learning occurs visually. In fact, we process pictures much faster than we process words.

So while PowerPoint can be used as a weapon of destruction in persuasion, it also has the ability, used correctly, to be a powerful educator.

Have you ever sat in a presentation where a confident presenter will tell you that they don’t like PowerPoint?  So instead of referring to any slides, they tell you their presentation off by heart.  You probably walked away impressed that they barely referred to their notes.

But how much did you remember?  Research shows that an audience that hears a presentation will remember only 10-15% of the content three days later.

So after a month, or three months, any important information that was conveyed will all be forgotten.

Fortunately, social scientists have found a solution.  An audience that both hears and sees a presentation will retain around 70-85% of what was presented.  This is an increase in retention of around 60-70% just by showing words and pictures.

Say it with Pictures

So it’s important to always add visuals to your training presentations. But before you get too carried away, just remember that not all visuals are created equal.

In the words of Coco Chanel: Less is more.

Avoid filling your presentation with too many colours, different fonts, lots of images and an overwhelming amount of information.

Good graphical information is visually clean and uncluttered.  It should never upstage or overpower your messages.

As a rule of thumb, use one graphic to represent one particular message or idea.  Limit the amount of text per page.

Use video where possible, to explain any complex information.

Use the “Ten Year Old Rule”

Karyn J Taylor, a former award winning producer of 60 Minutes says that broadcast journalists use the “Ten Year Old Rule” when writing for 60 Minutes or the Six O’clock News.  That is, the language is so simple that a 10 year old can understand it.  For them, they have no chance to clarify; when the broadcast ends, that’s it.

As a pubic speaker or trainer you only get one chance, so make your presentation as easy to understand as possible in a visually engaging manner.

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Getting the right people into your company and training them properly is crucial for the success of any company.

There are so many reasons why inducting is so important.  Reasons include:

• 25% of new starters make the decision to stay in a company in their first week
• 47% of employee turnover occurs within the first 90 days of employment (with 60% of respondents citing induction as a priority area of improvement within the company, Recruitment Solutions 2007).
• The quicker that new hires are trained the quicker the return to your bottom line (let’s not forget the expense of hiring a newbie, training them and waiting for them to get productive).  Companies that do this right get a 60% reduction to their “time to productivity rates”.

So what’s a great induction process?

1. Be friendly and welcoming.
2. Have training materials that treat the new starter like a valuable friend.  Use lots and lots of visuals to train people better.
3. Have senior management explaining the values of the company, what the company goals are, what the safety goals are, and how the new starter fits into the scheme of things.  Tell stories to make your values memorable.
4. Have face to face training, but also use training videos to further explain processes that will convey much more information than just words and pictures alone.
5. Test the newcomer on their knowledge.
6. Be friendly and welcoming and do include a meet and greet early in the process (I know I’ve mentioned this twice, but it is really important).
7. Make it fun!

By improving your induction process, you will not only reduce your recruitment and training costs, but improve the duration people will stay at your company.  Oh, and they will also want to work at your company and tell all their friends how wonderful you are.

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It’s smart for companies to be worried about staff training videos and how to tackle them correctly.  There are so many choices.  Quite frequently, training videos are produced that just don’t get used.  Now, working out what components to include in your training video just got easier.

Melbourne, Australia (August 26, 2010) – Digicast Productions, a training video production house, today released the “Best Practice Guide: How to Produce Staff Training Videos that get Results”.   Developing the right training video for your company isn’t easy.   This guide is a useful resource for anyone involved in the challenging and complex task of producing a company training video that performs.
In this 4 page guide, discover:

• The key components required for the best induction training program
• The causes of a poor performing training video
• Issues to avoid during the production of a training video

This guide is suitable for anyone wishing to produce a company training video that will be used for many years.  It is a companion guide for the Training Video Buyer’s Kit.

For a complete copy of the kit, visit http://info.digicast.com.au/best-practice-guide-to-training-videos

About Digicast Productions

Established in 1991, Digicast is an Australian vendor of customised safety and induction training videos.  Thousands of people each year worldwide are trained with Digicast training videos. For more information, visit Digicast at www.digicast.com.au or The Workplace Improver blog for training tips.

Contact Marie-Claire Ross

Digicast Productions
+ 61 3 9696-4400
mc@digicast.com.au

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According to Wikipedia, advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade an audience  to purchase or take some action upon products, ideals, or services.  Advertising can change the values, attitudes, and actions of those who see or hear the message.

Think television commercials.  Advertising is a billion dollar industry focused on changing consumers’ habits and beliefs.   And while it is true that television might not be as effective as it used to be, this is only because fewer people are watching it now.  Nevertheless, Government organisations like WorkSafe and VicRoads have used television commercials to successfully change our behaviours and attitudes towards workplace safety and road safety respectively.

In order to market safety messages, it’s time that safety professionals started to think like marketers.  And this might be hard, as let’s face it, they are a strange group to more linear thinkers like engineers.  However, let’s put on our marketing caps and find out how they try to get into our brain.

Key advertising tactics to consider for marketing safety are:

• Consistent, clear messaging (includes branding) – Always promote the same standarized safety message and ensure that all departments are aligned with the message and do not send out conflicting information (eg: safety officer tells people to work safely and cautiously, but production manager pushes for speed).

• Consequences of poor safety – One of they key messages is to get employees really understand that poor safety behaviour puts their health and safety at risk, but also other employees, contractors and customers.  Let them know what effect this will have on the personal life and how it will effect their family.

• Multiple message placement – This means you have a consistent safety message or theme and you repeat it in multiple places.  It is like the glue that holds these tactics together and is essential in successful advertising.  In advertising campaigns, it is believed that people need to be exposed to a television ad six times before they will absorb the message.  This is why frequency of message equals success in the advertising campaign.

Most safety training programs fall short when it comes to frequency of message. Yet, there are many simple and cost effective ways to do this.

By getting workers to engage in your safety message in different ways (watching it, hearing it, reading it), supervisors can better ensure that more workers receive it.  Different communication methods include a training video that is supplemented with matching posters, email newsletter campaigns, key rings, employee handbooks and toolbox talks.

But how do you develop workplace safety communication?  Read How to Develop a Workplace Safety Messages Campaign (Part 2)

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Induction training is absolutely vital for new employees.   It is also the time when new starters are thirsty to know more about their new workplace and want to quickly integrate into their new team.   However, it can be difficult to know how well a new starter or contractor has absorbed training information.

Establish an induction training evaluation system

According to Joe Huang from Wondershare, makers of the Quiz Creator, as with any type of training, it is important to review and seek feedback before, after and during induction training.  The evaluation of induction training can be divided into three stages:

1. Evaluating new employees’ learning and academic performance. Before new employees start with you, you can quiz them on their knowledge.  This can be determined through examinations: paper-based tests are usually the most common way, but for the sake of time-saving and cost-effective, computer-based tests are the best choice.
2. Evaluating the appropriateness of the training course content.  For companies who are not sure about the content in their training and how new employees feel about it, you can quiz new starters to find out how they found the training and what they liked/disliked.  This is a great way to update your training in a meaningful way.
3. Evaluating the work performance of trainees.  After the newbie has started, you can quiz  supervisors on certain learning outcomes, to find out what they think of the performance of the new starter, so  you can know how the new employees took their training into practice.  This is also important information when reviewing your induction training and what areas need further improvement.

How quizzes can be used with induction training video for optimal results

Research has found that viewers of a training video score better on message retention and recall levels when they are told that they will be tested.
To use quizzes properly with a training video:

1. Quiz your learners before producing the training video. By finding out what information current staff have difficulty with, you will be more knowledgeable about the type of information to put into your training video.
2. Quiz your learners after (or during) the video training. This makes sure they have absorbed the information.
3. Use a quiz as a review tool. This is a great way to refresh staff.  Even if they only watch a small segment of an induction training video (for example: warm up exercises, by undertaking a small quiz on this topic, you know that they have learnt the information).

Now, while it is all well and good to test people during induction training, we hear from many companies that this sort of e-learning approach can be flawed.  All it takes is for a dodgy supervisor to hand people the answers and everyone passes through the quiz in flying colours.

That’s why it is important when testing people that if they get it wrong, they have to go back to that section and watch the video again.  Or alternatively, the questions are randomly displayed so that it makes cheating much harder.

According to Joe Huang, it is important to choose a quiz creating software that has anti-cheating features.  This includes a time limit (so that there is no time to research answers), randomization (questions occur in different order), access control (password only access to change the test) and a concealed XML file (this stops the answers from being viewed).

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