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.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

We all remember as kids having to stand up in front of the classroom and do a “Show and Tell” session to the class about our newest toy.

While this might be a great skill to teach young kids, it’s also a great training technique for an adult class.

To improve the effectiveness of training, the more senses you can use, the more impact the communication will have.

That’s because we remember:

• 10% of what we read
• 20% of what we hear
• 30% of what we see
• 50% of what we both hear and see

So in any training situation, demonstrations or “show and tell” are integral to training success.  If we hear something, a day later we will remember 20% of what we heard.  And if we see something, we will remember 30%.  So add both audio and visual information together and 50% of what was communicated will be remembered.

That’s why training videos are so effective.  By showing (visuals) and telling (narrator), the viewer instantly knows what to do.  And if you add titles to reinforce (reading), you increase the effectiveness by another 10% to 60%.

As Kris Cole mentions in her book, “Crystal Clear Communication” you need to do show and tell, twice.  Once so people can  see what they need to do.  And the second time to help people to see exactly what happens or precisely how something works to determine exactly what is to be done.

How can you add more demonstrations to your training?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Image courtesty of: Jusben/MorgueFile

When it comes to inducting people from a training perspective into any organisation, as important as this process is, unfortunately far too often not enough thought or preparation goes into it.

Organisations can become obsessed with running induction/orientation programs (with these terms often misinterpreted as being one and the same) on a new employee’s first day. Now I am certainly not saying that being given an OH&S overview or understanding the organisation’s mission statement isn’t important. But what about a true induction – and I am not referring to systems or database training, being allocated a new e-mail account, shown where the biscuits are, or being added to the kitchen roster.

These days it is not uncommon for people to move not only from one job to another, but also from one industry to another. And these people need to experience an in-depth induction, which can often go for an entire week.  But for someone new to both the organisation and the industry, when is the best time for them to be inducted?

From my own experience as a manager and having often hired people from outside my sector, I am a firm believer in having them sit within the business for at least 3 – 4 weeks observing the other staff, shadowing the experts, and getting an insight into the true goings on of the business.

After about a month, I think this is then the best time for them to be formally inducted (either by a facilitator from the within the business or an external expert). However the key word here is formally. Not just sitting at a desk, but being in a classroom environment – experiencing industry-specific training as well as performance support, role-plays and true simulations.

By waiting the month, new staff will have become more familiar with industry lingo, they will have watched their more experienced colleagues in action, and that way what is covered in the formal induction will actually make far more sense and be less likely to result in information overload.

Paul Slezak is our guest author this week who is the Director and Head of Learning and Development for Recruitment Academy – www.recruitmentacademy.com.au, one of Australia’s leading providers of induction, training, and consulting solutions to the recruitment industry.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

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

###

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It’s smart for companies to be worried about staff and customer training videos and how to tackle them correctly.  There are so many choices.  Quite frequently, training videos are produced that just don’t get watched.  Now making the right decision has just got easier.

Melbourne, Australia (August 11, 2010) – Digicast Productions, a training video production house, today released the “Training Video Buyer’s Kit”.   Developing the right training video for your company isn’t easy.  Nor is choosing the right company to help you.  This kit is a useful resource for anyone involved in the challenging and complex task of deciding upon producing a staff or customer training video and then how to go about it.

Using a four step process the buyer kit includes:

• A list of questions to decide whether or not a training video is right for an organisation.

• The critical questions to determine what the training video needs to achieve, in order to write the brief and how to best manage the project internally.
• A valuable checklist to evaluate the suitability of a video production house.
• An additional checklist to measure the effectiveness of training videos already produced by production houses.

For a complete copy of the kit, visit http://info.digicast.com.au/things-you-need-to-know-before-buying-a-customised-training-video
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.

Contact Marie-Claire Ross

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

###

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

1. Use more Visuals - 83% of human learning occurs visually.  Use lots of photos, videos, diagrams and colour to present training information.  Avoid relying heavily on text based training.  After all, we only recall 10% of what we read compared to 50% for what we both see and hear.

2. Tell Stories – During training, tell stories of exemplary staff behaviour that typify the type of action you want staff to do.  Stories help people make emotional connections.

3. Lead by Values – Let staff/contractors know what your values are.   Using values, empowers workers to make decisions based on company values.  Difficult for staff to make the right decisions if they only have rules to follow.

4. Positivise it – Remove negative language.  Tell people how you want them to behave, rather than telling them what you don’t want.  Remove words such as ‘no’, ‘can’t and ‘don’t’.

5. Involve senior management - Senior management play an integral leadership role in establishing culture.  Effective leadership whether it be concerning safety, a new sales method or business structure must be led from the top.  They must be involved in the induction process.

6. Reduce complication - Get rid of long sentences, jargon and big words in training materials.  Keep it short and tweet.

7. Ask more why questions - Teach people why they need to do something, so they can always figure out the how.  Otherwise, company processes keep getting perpetuated without people ever questioning why they do something.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Do new staff feel undervalued in your company?

When it comes to induction training, common complaints are that it is ‘boring’ and ‘overwhelming’.

Yet, inductions also represent the only first impression that you ever get with a new employee.  Inductions are a great opportunity to align new starters with your company values and processes.

In this interesting seminar, you will learn:

• Five induction trends that could send you out of business
• The benefits of getting your induction process right
• Seven tips to improve your induction process
• How your company can be the industry leader

The details are:

Monday 26 July 2.30 – 4.30pm at Protector Allsafe 41 Greens Rd Dandenong

The cost is free for members; $5 for non-members.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Truck driver training

Recently, I was speaking to a client about what baseline figures we needed to measure before and after his company induction training video gets released.

What I found interesting was that even though there are some key figures we can measure (eg: trends in customer complaints and accidents), as far as he was concerned the video was mainly a holistic training device to help in a number of key areas that were immeasurable.

In this company, they have 450 truck drivers who do a vitally important job.  Yet, other staff members in different departments and even the truck drivers themselves, do not realise how important this role is to the company success.

The training video has been written to let truck drivers realise how important their responsibilities are and the broader impact on the company itself.  This is part of the all-important introduction which clearly lets drivers know what the company does, who they serve, how their job role impacts the company, the importance of safety and their job responsibilities.

The induction video is a way of connecting emotionally to these truck drivers so they realise the importance of their ambassador role for the organisation while also ensuring the fresh and timely delivery of their milk products.  It also includes procedural tasks.

Interestingly, my client made the remark that the training video was really a different communication medium to ‘put life’  into their induction document.  And while it is important to train on procedures, it was more important to align the truck drivers with the broader perspective of their job and the company vision and values.

What pleases me, is that this organisation understands that training is not just about teaching the right processes, it is also about getting staff aligned with what the company does and why, as well as the importance of jobs.  It’s not just about delivering a product on time, it’s also about the being an important visible representative of the company.  After all, a truck driver that is discourteous reflects badly on the company reputation.  By letting staff know the greater meaning and importance of the job, the more they will see purpose in what they do which will result in better performance, but also better job satisfaction.

After all, a happy team is a productive team.

What can you do to your training materials to provide information about the importance of the job role and its relevance to the broader perspective to your company?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I love a good coffee.  And my world recently changed when we bought a coffee machine.  Well, two actually.  One for home, one for the office.

We bough a cheapie Sunbeam machine for home and an expensive automated Jura coffee machine for the office.

Both machines are great.  In fact, I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t need to go out to cafes all the time to get a good coffee.

Jura promotes itself as a premium brand using full page ads in glossy magazines featuring Roger Federer (and I thought print advertising never got me).  And that did it for me.  A quick chat to associates also confirmed that it will last a long time and that it’s easy to use.  It’s a beautiful looking machine and comes with attractive manuals and cleaning devices.

But then it let itself down by providing me with a training DVD that had black texta writing scrawled across it and even a crack.

Naturally, I wasn’t expecting the contents of the DVD to be very professional.  Surprisingly, the training video was put together professionally and featured a perky female voiceover and broadcast quality footage.

But this is where the accolades stop…

One day my barista left me all alone with the new Jura machine.  This just happened to be the day it let me know it wanted to be cleaned.  I’m not technically inclined, so I decided to practise what I preach and go straight to the training video rather than fumble through a manual.

So I was rather frustrated to discover that upon viewing the information about care and maintenance I was dutifully informed by the narrator to visit page three of the manual which was displayed to me with a “Sale of the Century” type hand flourish.

Shocked, I listened on only to find more hand gesture references to other pages in the manual.

At this point, I wanted to make my own hand gesture.

And then when I was actually shown how to use the machine, the language was so stilted and robotic that it was obviously lifted straight from the manual.

Now I don’t want to point out something incredibly obvious here, but there really is little value in producing a training video that refers customers back to the training manual.  I just can’t understand how anyone thought this was a good idea.

And then of course, everyone knows that we all dislike the cold, distant language of a technical manual.  But to do it in training video is pretty unforgivable in my book (or manual as the case maybe).

Producing stilted, un-engaging training videos for a workforce will always be a waste of time and money, but to do this with customer training is incredibly damaging to your brand.  I might still like the Jura for the coffee it produces, but my impression of the brand as premium has fallen quite considerably.

A customer training video is a great opportunity to let your customers know that you care about them and want to improve their experience with your product.  Talk to them like a human (not a robot), help them love your product, not want to make rude gestures at it.

Produced correctly it can also serve as a multi-purpose promotional tool.  And if you are producing a high quality product, your training video also needs to be premium quality.

And what about the Sunbeam coffee machine, you ask?  Well, it also came with a training DVD.  A beautifully produced, well-written script that makes me feel good about my bargain purchase.  I have been pleasantly surprised at how good my low priced coffee machine is.  And I would definitely recommend it.   Cappuccino, anyone?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.