HR Training Videos for Employees: Tips

Tips for HR Creating Employee Training Videos

Below are a few tips on how to make employee training videos that are engaging and result in longer retention. Not boring company training videos. For employee training video creation steps, please see the How to Create Employee Training Videos article.

HR Training Video Tips:

1.      Create engaging storytelling and voiceover:

a.    When writing a script and storyboard, create a vibrant storyline instead of a formal one.

b.    Extend the exciting storytelling with exciting fonts and 

 

(animated) if the text is to be displayed in the training video.

c.    Consider using a professional voice-over artist, or even having two voices-over professionals convey the storyline as a conversation. (Example: Equipment Reliability Video.)

d.    Mix it up, possibly implementing a, b, and c above at different points in the storyline video to wake up the employee and revive their interest!

2.     Make the video narrator or instructor visible in the video:

a.    Seeing the speaker in the video can help the employees relate to and retain information more. (Example: Motor Starter Wiring)

b.    Look for opportunities in the video to use the company’s own employees and managers to further amplify the positive outcomes of tip 2a.

c.    Use speakers/employees who are humorous or have sparkling personalities.

3.      Provide practical real-world examples:

a.    Real-world examples will serve to clarify and make the video topic more relatable. (Example: What is a PLC?)

b.    Look for potential problems the employee may encounter using the knowledge gained from the video and provide a solution within the video.

4.      Use humor:

a.    Making that emotional connection with employees will go a long way towards keeping the employees interested. Especially if the emotion is humor.

b.    Struggling with finding something funny about a dry topic? Try a funny outtake on performing the function being taught, the wrong way. (Example: HVAC Refrigeration Basics)

c.    Amplify the humor effect in a video by surprising the viewer. “It was dry, then all of a sudden…”

d.    Humor is best served when it is relatable to the employee. Something that happened to most of the employees at one time or another.

e.    Humor doesn’t have to be complicated. For example, if employees always joke about how the manager in the video is always cracking the whip (an inside joke), after he/she speaks each time, have a whip cracking sound.

f.     Can you think of a related stupid question to ask?

g.    Run the funny parts of the video by the Human Resource department just to make sure it won’t be offensive. (See this harmless, yet controversial joke in the video example, not run by HR first.)

h.    Have a younger audience, try adding some emojis.

5.     Look for opportunities to make the video interactive:

a.    Ask a question or present a problem with a short pause to give the learning time to think of an answer.

b.    “Take a look at the person sitting next to you and ask yourself …”, then short pause with background music to give employees time to do so.

c.    Another take on tip 5b, “ask the person sitting next to you, this …”

d.    “Take a moment to try it yourself …”

e.    Combining interaction with humor can be a powerful tool, it may even have employees talking about the video afterward. 😊

You may have noticed above that most of the tips for HR making employee videos for employees are under the humor category. Are you comedically challenged? …

If you can’t make it funny, at least make it FUN!

 

For the steps to create an employee training video, and more tips, please see the full article How to Create Employee Training Videos.

 

Don (Follow me on Industrial Skills Training Blog and on Twitter @IndTraining .)