It’s a well-known fact that the rewards for creating a happy and engaged workforce equal increased productivity and loyalty.
Learning and Development is an important ingredient in this equation.
Here are three 2018 Employee engagement & Retention* stats that support this:
- 42% of employees say learning and development is the most important benefit when deciding where to work followed by health insurance (48%) (Udemy)
- Offering career training and development would keep 86% of millennials from leaving their current position (Bridge)
- 51% of employees would quit their job if training was not offered (Udemy)
So, it’s not surprising that many larger businesses are focused on increasing the amount of training they can offer their staff.
When budgets are squeezed there are two things that always get cut; marketing and training.
However, there is a way to make sure that if the business isn’t performing as well as hoped, or budgets need to be redirected, the training can continue at the same pace.
Delivering training in person can be a costly exercise. We acknowledge that there are times when training absolutely needs to be delivered by a qualified trainer face to face, especially when it is highly technical such as industrial gas boiler safety training.
Investing in training videos can be a cost-effective alternative. With the added bonus that the videos bring flexibility and repeatability, so that more staff can benefit from them.
Here are some examples of training that can be delivered using distance or online learning.
Basic Health and Safety training
A wide range of Health and Safety topics can be filmed, which are 100% relevant to your business. If your business has a warehouse that uses a powered pallet truck, that’s relevant, but if you have an office based business with no warehouse in sight – well it doesn’t make any sense to train your staff on these risks!
When tailoring your training videos to be relevant to your business, it’s not just the equipment that makes this so. On-site filming means that the building is familiar as well as the staff and the language that reflects your industry.
Once the library of training videos has been produced, you can create a simple e-learning product (built by Square Daisy of course!) where the videos are stored securely so that only your staff can access the course. They simply log-in and work through the training videos. Progress can be monitored, recorded and evidenced, as can answers to questions to show that the training has been understood and completed.
Here’s an example of a video that was commissioned to support corporate health and safety training for Display Screen Equipment.
Induction videos
There’s a huge learning curve when starting a new job. The induction plays an important part in settling in and getting to grips with everything the new employee needs to know. Whilst the human element is extremely important in making people welcome, videos can support this and even add a little ‘wow’ factor to make the experience even more special.
Wouldn’t it be nice to send an automated e-mail the day before a new member of staff starts with a personal welcome message from the CEO?
The video could include instructions on where to park, where the cloakrooms are and where to report. This all helps to ease the nerves the first day, making them feel valued before they’ve even arrived on site.
You can also use a variation of the learning platform described in the previous point to store handbooks and forms for new staff to submit bank details, uniform sizes and other personal details that need to be routinely captured.
Product training for the customer
These days consumers expect to have information at their finger-tips. They want to get answers to their questions at their convenience and quickly.
Having to make a phone call to find out how to set up or configure a product takes up precious staff time. And, if the customer must wait for the answer, this just adds to a poor experience and reflects badly on the company.
One solution to this problem is a series of product training videos, which customers can access from your website.
The video series can even start before the purchase is made. There will be questions that need to be answered even at the pre-sale stage. This initial product video can be used as a sales and marketing tool to secure potential sales.
Here’s an example of such a pre-sales video introducing SLE6000 Ventilator
Product training for millennials
Staff need training on products too. Whether for new members joining or when a new product is introduced.
In the stats at the beginning, we referred to millennials. Millennials consume information in a different way to previous generations. Much of this is via audio and video rather than reading.
If you have a legacy software system, chances are ‘help’ is in documentation format. Perhaps it’s time to bring the support material into the 21st century using videos to answer the question ‘How do I do this?’
Process training
The examples so far have been for live training videos. There’s also a place for animated training videos.
Animated videos are a great way to explain the intangible or the complex.
Processes can be extremely complicated to describe, however when explained alongside an animation showing the process as it unfolds, makes if far easier to understand.
The other benefit of using training videos for complex scenarios is that they can be watched over and over again. Repeatedly watching a video, either from start to finish or specific sections, helps the trainee to learn and understand at their own pace.
Here’s an animated video we created for Portaltech Reply that explains their Agile Development process.
Get creative with your training videos
Whilst standing at a coffee machine at a networking meeting I overheard someone say, “This drinks machine is so complicated. There should be a video running explaining which buttons to press and where to add the coffee sachet!”
What a great idea!
Training videos are great for the environment!
Some of the obvious benefits of training videos have been highlighted in our examples. In addition to improved staff and customer experiences and time and money savings, there are environmental benefits too.
Online e-learning can be accessed from anywhere. Removing the need for trainers and trainees to travel, whether it be by car, train or plane, contributes to reducing the impact a company makes to their carbon footprint.
Now’s a great time to plan your training videos and we’d be delighted to help you start that process.
Simply contact us on 0203 411 6617, email us or complete a contact form.
Source:
* From Access Perks blog 2018 Employee Engagement & Loyalty Statistics
