Tag Archive for 'training videos'

Why do men feel the urge to insert sexual terms into workplace training materials?

Published on March 9, 2010 in Inappropriate sexual terms, OHS videos, company induction training, corporate videos, improving safety standards, induction videos, staff induction videos, staff training videos and training videos. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Back in the early 90’s, there used to be an Australian comedy series called “Fast Forward”, that featured a character called, Calvin Cunnington (played by Michael Veitch), who would burst into laughter at any sexual innuendos mentioned in the workplace, subsequently driving his colleagues mad.

As a training video producer, specializing in safety and induction videos, as well as marketing videos in the industrial arena, I come across training materials that are pretty dry.  My job is to transform the training materials into training video scripts that are interesting and will improve message retention and comprehension.

Yet weirdly, I feel a bit like Calvin when I read training materials and find all sorts of sexual terms lurking behind quite mundane and technical text.

My favourite one is slab penetration.  Any shape and size of penetration can be made through decking.   If size of penetration is greater than one rib…..

I couldn’t work out what it all meant and was very surprised to discover that slab penetration is all about cutting.  Who knew that cutting a piece of metal is really all about penetrating and that even the size is so important?

The next one is “insert the fuel nozzle into the receptacle“.  Okay, that’s probably harmless and the more I think about it, it would be pretty hard not to write that in a suggestive tone!

But time and time again, I come across very technical training materials that seem to use a lot of references to penetration, erections, vibrator compaction (ouch!) and receptacles.  And many times, I’ve felt that the words are just said too many times or could be substituted for something else.

It reminds me of my biology notes at school.  I found it quite funny to write orgasm, instead of organism in my personal biology notes.  My mother read them and was quite disturbed that I had got those words so wrong.  But that was just a teenager deliberately exchanging words for a bit of fun.

What I can’t work out is whether men are deliberately slipping in sexual terms because they are finding the material just a tad boring and they want to spice things up a bit.  Or whether it’s all a bit subconscious.

One thing for sure is that while inserting sexual terms into training might be a bit of fun for the writer, it certainly doesn’t help the learner.  Once I stumble on sexual innuendos in a very non-sexy topic, it is fairly distracting.  Particularly, when I can’t understand how in the world cutting can be replaced by penetration.  Or maybe it’s just me (or just a girl thing)?  Maybe men are fine with all of these phallic phrases and don’t even notice them.

But as for staff training, how do employees go with reading these training materials?   Are there Calvin-esque type sniggers occurring during induction training in workplaces across the country?

What I want to know is has anyone else experienced sexual terms being inserted into training materials (or even marketing materials) that just seemed a little bit inappropriate?

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Digg
  • Delicious
  • Share/Bookmark

The Importance of Using Visuals in your Training Materials

Published on February 22, 2010 in OHS videos, company induction training, induction videos, safety videos, staff induction videos, staff training videos and training videos. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

farm_signsIn a recent AFRBoss article, it was cited that an important trend over the next decade will be the shift from words to images in communication.

Rather than bombard people with an avalanche of reading material, people will prefer visual representation of data.

This isn’t a surprise given our time-poor, attention-scarce, give-it-to-me-now lifestyle.

So to future-proof and update training materials, now more than ever, there is growing importance for companies to use visuals to aid in learning.

After all, 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

In fact, studies by educational researchers found that 83% of human learning occurs visually.   Visually rich training materials keep the eyes busy and therefore, the brain more alert and active to learn information.

Yet, I often get amazed when I go through company training manuals how so few of them include pictures or even colour for that matter.  And of course, very few of them use video as part of training.

“Something is happening. We are becoming a visually mediated society. For many, understanding of the world is being accomplished, not through words, but by reading images.”

Paul Martin Lester, “Syntactic Theory of Visual Communication”

What can you do to start making your training materials more visually appealing?

n
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Digg
  • Delicious
  • Share/Bookmark

Ten Rules for Supervisors to Ensure a Harmonious Workplace

Published on February 9, 2010 in OHS videos, company induction training, induction videos, staff induction videos and workplace performance. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .
Recently, I found a great article written by Jay Goldberg that gives some rules on how to keep workers happy.  It’s great commonsense knowledge.
My particular favourite is Number 2: Explain Why.  In my role, I am privileged to get the opportunity to improve training materials for companies, in order to convert their training materials into training videos.  Yet, it often amazes me how workers are trained on how to do something but never told the reasons why (see ‘The Importance of Why in Training’).  It’s one of those little things that can really improve your workplace that is so often overlooked.

Jay Goldberg’s Ten Rules for Supervisors to Ensure a Harmonious and Successful Workplace
  1. Ensure that there are common goals between management and staff. One way to accomplish this is by defining desired outcomes for the unit/business and measuring the unit’s or business’ success towards accomplishing those outcomes on a regular basis.
  2. Explain why. Many supervisors just tell their staff what to do. However, informing them why tasks are done a particular way, or why certain behaviors are required goes a long way towards eliminating worker/supervisor friction, ensuring that the tasks and behaviors are actually done correctly, and that improvements in the workplace occur through suggestions from workers who are performing those tasks on a regular basis.
  3. Be results oriented. Many workplaces value time over results. However, unless a job function is time-based (e.g. customer service phone representative), reward the results of someone’s work more than their face time on the job. A worker who works a normal work day but produces high quality output and new ideas is more valuable than the worker who spends more hours at work but produces lower quality work and has fewer new ideas.
  4. Promote balance. Many workplaces want their employee’s top priority to be their job; over family, over enjoying life, and maybe even over life itself. In my opinion this leads to employee burn-out and many employees eventually working on “auto-pilot”. The best employees are employees who have a balanced life. Whether they balance work with family, playing softball, donating their time to a not for profit, or going to the movies is irrelevant. When an employee has balance and works for a business that promotes balance, when that business needs him/her to go through a period of time where work comes first, they will do it and be effective.
  5. Demand the best. Don’t accept workers being just okay. Remind them that they weren’t hired to do a so-so job. They were hired and are being paid to do a good job.
  6. Hold workers accountable. Your workers are adults so treat them as adults. Don’t act like an enabling parent. Don’t accept excuses, don’t allow them to slide through, don’t allow them to point fingers. You’d be surprised how holding workers accountable results in good workers performing at their best and feeling fulfilled at work; and bad workers (probably performing a lot worse than you realize) quitting or starting to look for work elsewhere.
  7. Reward properly. This means both rewarding the right people and rewarding them appropriately (no big reward for a small accomplish). This includes verbal praise as well as tangible rewards such as raises and bonuses. Nothing disrupts the smooth operation and effectiveness of a workplace more than the best workers not getting the recognition/rewards they deserve. Therefore you need to be aware not only of the actual performance of your staff, but their perceptions of who are the best workers. Then you need to take steps to ensure that their perceptions coincide with your employees’ actual performance by communicating what you value.
  8. Encourage creativity. Not everyone is creative. Therefore, creativity needs to be part of “going above and beyond” not part of the expected work product unless a person’s job is a creative position (e.g. writing advertising copy). That means that creative employees may not be creative on the job since it isn’t part of their standard job functions. So encourage creativity by always responding positively to creative suggestions (unless they are clearly ridiculous) and reward useful creativity with excellent rewards.
  9. Provide ongoing feedback. Don’t leave your employees waiting for their annual review to know how well they are performing on the job. Also, don’t wait for them to ask how they are doing. Provide ongoing feedback; positive feedback to your top employees (but also include areas where they can improve) and constructive feedback for others (don’t just let them know they need to improve, but give them steps to take to help them improve their performances). Also let your employees know that they really need to worry when they are receiving no feedback from you. For the under-performing employee, lack of feedback on their performance means you do not think that employee can improve, so you aren’t wasting your time talking to him/her about his/her job performance. This is also a good way to send a message to employees you would like to look for work elsewhere.
  10. Build an effective team. All managers obviously promote teamwork. However, there are some who build teams of workers who all have skills and knowledge that overlap their own, but at a lower level. Other managers build teams with workers with skills and knowledge that compliment their skills and knowledge. You would be surprised how many take the first approach since they either are intimidated by employees that know more than them in a specific area, or they do not have confidence that they can make good management decisions on topics that they are not knowledgeable on. However, that is not the way to build an effective team. Build your team with employees that have skills and knowledge that you do not possess, and have confidence in your ability to think logically and make solid management decisions.
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Digg
  • Delicious
  • Share/Bookmark

The Importance of “Why” in Training

Published on February 3, 2010 in OHS videos, company induction training, customer training videos, induction videos, safety videos, staff induction videos, staff training videos, training videos and workplace performance. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Roast vegiesWhen we were all young children, we all used to bug our parents with lots of  “Why?” questions.  And while this can test even the calmest of parents, the truth is children are curious about the world around them and want to understand why things happen.  It helps them learn and communicate.

Yet, somehow, as we get older, we forget the importance of why questions.

Recently, I went to a talk by Michael McQueen from NexGen Group.  He believes that one of the top five mistakes that leaders make  is that they pass on the ‘how’, but not the ‘why’?

And the reason why this is a big mistake for most companies is that often company processes are perpetuated without people ever questioning why we do something.  Over time, staff are taught processes that solve problems that no longer exist.

He then read us The Pot Roast story:

There was a young woman who moved out into her own house. While living at home, she never cooked. Upon the move, she returned home to learn how to cook a few dishes. One of her favorite recipes was Pot Roast. So she asks her mother to show her how to cook one.

The mother begins to share her expertise with the daughter. She tells her to salt and pepper the meat well. To make sure the vegetables are all cut the same size. Just before the mom places the roast in the pan, she picks up a knife and cuts about a ¼ of an inch of roast from each end. Then she places the meat in the pan.

The daughter stops her mom. “Mom, I understand why we cut the vegetables the same size – that way they’ll cook uniformly. And I know the reason we salt and pepper the meat all over – and rather heavily, is so the whole roast will absorb the flavor of the seasonings. But why did you cut a little bit off each end of the roast before you placed it in the pan?”

“Because that’s what you do”, said the mom.

“But why?”, questioned the girl.

“Does it help it cook better?”

“Well, I do it this way, because that’s the way my Mom taught me”, said the mother. “But I’m not really sure why we cut the ends off. Next time we go to visit we’ll ask her.”

Several months later the family gathers at Grandma’s house for dinner. As grandma prepares the meal the mother and daughter are in the kitchen with her. The daughter asks her grandmother, “Grandma, you’re such a good cook, and I know you passed all your methods on to Mom, but I can’t figure out why we cut the ends off of the pot roast before we cook it.” The grandmother turned to her granddaughter and said, “What are you talking about? I don’t cut the ends off before I cook it.” At this point the mother jumps into the conversation and says, “Yes you do! The time you showed me how to make pot roast, you started to put it in the pan, and then you put the roast back on the cutting board and cut about a 1/4 inch off each end of the roast. I’ve been doing it that way ever since”, she declared!

The grandmother stared at her daughter in amazement. “Every time you cook a pot roast you cut a ¼ inch off the ends? Every single time?” “Yes!” She answered her mother. “Every – single – time, just like you showed me.” “Honey, all I can say is you’ve been wasting a lot of good meat over the years. The only time I ever cut the ends off the roast is if it’s too big for the pan!”

In my role, I am given the opportunity to review new employee induction and procedural training manuals.

When I work on the training materials to write the training video script, I constantly add the “why” to procedures.  And the interesting thing, is that when I ask a company why a process needs to be done in a particular way, they either realise that we either need to get rid of the process or that we can explain the process better.

Where in your company can you ask more ”why’  questions to improve your processes?

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Digg
  • Delicious
  • Share/Bookmark

How to Evaluate the Effectiveness of a Training Video

Published on November 24, 2009 in OHS videos, company induction training, improving safety standards, induction videos, staff induction videos, staff training videos and training videos. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

training_video_checklist

Research has found that expertly produced training videos provide faster training, high usage, flexibility and more consistently trained staff.

Selecting the correct training video producer is extremely important to the success of your training video.

Video production houses often do a full array of video production services from television ads, filming seminars and live events, producing corporate videos and training videos. They can be separated into three categories – advertising commercial, live corporates or instructional-design producers.

For most training situations, instructional-design producer-writers are best for producing video enhanced training sessions. These producers also possess greater expertise in working with detailed training materials.

The best way to assess whether the training video company is producing training videos from an instructional design perspective is to review their work and ask the following questions:

Script
1. Is the level of information easy to understand? Would a school age student be able to easily grasp the messages?

2. Is the script written in a way that engages? Or do you feel as if you are being told to do something by a bossy teacher rather than being shown in a friendly way?

3. What was the pace like for the video? Was it just right, too slow or quick?

4. Was the content presented in a logical, easy to follow sequence?

5. Was new material introduced before you could absorb the previous information fully?

Production

6. Were the work surroundings relevant? Was it trying to be all things for a range of industries or has it been customized for one company?

7. Were the characters and situations shown realistically?

8. Were the desired behaviours modeled in a way that can be copied by employees?

9. Were there things happening in the background that were distracting you from learning (eg: forklift hitting a pole)?

10. Were elements of a process clearly shown so that you could understand what they were referring to? (eg: when discussing say, a ‘stop’ button on a machine it was shown, so you knew what it looked liked)?

11. Were there too many special effects or graphics that took the attention away from the messages, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the program?

12. Were titles used to reinforce important points to enable staff to remember and absorb important information?

13. If you were an employee of this company how would you feel about them? Excited to be working for them, comfortable about the new process or feeling like they don’t really care about their staff?

14. Were employees tested on their knowledge after watching a video to increase mental effort, therefore improving motivation and comprehension?

By keeping these questions in mind when reviewing training videos, you will be able to quickly evaluate how effective the training video will be as an educational tool.

This will enable you to choose the right video production provider rather than developing an employee training video that will end up gathering dust on your shelf.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Digg
  • Delicious
  • Share/Bookmark

When Coffee Machine Training Videos make Customers Turn Off

Published on November 2, 2009 in customer training videos and training videos. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

coffee machine training videoI 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?

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Digg
  • Delicious
  • Share/Bookmark

Telling Stories to Improve Company Staff Inductions (Part 1)

Published on October 28, 2009 in OHS videos, company induction training, improving safety standards, induction videos, safety videos, staff induction videos, staff training videos and workplace performance. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Company induction training is all about communicating the company’s core values and its nature, in order to motivate new employees to adopt behaviours that translate into action on a daily basis.  It is about shaping staff’s work values and sense of identity with the company.

Typical information includes a company introduction, history, nature of the business, organisational philosophy, human resources policies and procedures.

In a Management Research News article (August 2003), Cirilo and Kleiner found that highly effective induction training painted a vivid and detailed picture of the firm and used corporate story-telling techniques.

In “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” author Verne Harnish also concludes that corporate storytelling is crucial for successful staff indoctrination.  He believes that a little bit of story and legend is needed to cement the bond between the CEO (or other senior manager) and employee.

For example, US company Nordstrom is renowned for its customer service.  Their orientation of new hires consists of telling stories about heroic customer service (e.g., the employee who ironed a shirt for a customer who had a job interview on the day of the purchase).

Effective induction training allows for the new employee to possess a good sense of what actions are valued and how they can manifest it in their own behaviour.

Rather than just telling staff what to do or giving vague parameters, corporate story-telling raises the bar further and encourages staff to undertake exemplary behaviour.  Or just understand the company history and values in a more detailed way.

And of course, corporate story telling comes to life in video format.

Stories can easily be incorporated into induction training videos.  The story can be told by senior managers or those involved with the story.  This only involves a small amount of time to be filmed which can be used to show many staff across many locations for years to come. Reenactments can be filmed to make the story come to life.

Can you think of ways to include storytelling in your inductions?

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Digg
  • Delicious
  • Share/Bookmark