Should You Train Employees with Video Based Training?

There’s no denying the fact that more organizations than ever before are turning to video for their training needs and yet, many still ask, “Should you train employees with video?” Is video based training for employees actually the “best” way or the most cost-effective? Can training videos really be that powerful and effective? All of these questions are common, and we’re used to them!

At Beverly Boy Productions, we get asked many of these questions on a daily basis. As professionals with more than two decades in the film production industry, it’s common for us to be confronted by a business owner or manager that’s wondering if they should train their employees with video or they should just keep doing things, “the old fashioned way,” and when we talk to them, we’re quick to explain the powerful benefits of video based training for their teams. 

The thing is, training is often used just for the purpose of bringing a completely new employee up to speed, and it really shouldn’t end there! In fact, you should train employees with video based training for more than just their first few days or weeks. You should be training your existing employees too. You should be providing development training and enrichment opportunities for your team to help them be the best that they can be, to excel further than ever before, and to be more powerful and effective for your brand. 

So, “should you train employees with video based training?”  The answer is, “YES.”

Just consider the benefits.

Why Video Based Training is Best

Training videos are powerful, they provide employees with a way to train that doesn’t interrupt management, and they’re affordable. In fact, with training videos, you pay for training upfront, once, and then you can provide training over and over again. No other type of training, besides a dull and boring training manual, has the same level of power. 

Unfortunately, training manuals are hardly read. In fact, most employees cannot read above “average” or even at “average.” 19% will read “below average,” and many cannot read at all. So if you’re providing training via a manual, you’re taking a huge risk that your employees will not be trained at all. Furthermore, those who read the entire manual from front to back will only recall about 20% of what they read – that means out of every 10 pages they’ll recall content from 2!

Video has a significantly hire overall rate of understanding among adults and those younger regardless of their ability to read. In fact, with video you can expect most of your workers to recall the training that is provided for several months after they watch videos. Upwards of 90% is retained when a training video is watched over other formats of training and, if your team forgets what they were taught, training is accessible, available, and free to engage in again anytime!

Benefits of Training Employees with Video Based Training

There are several key benefits that come with the decision to train with video. For example, any of the following benefits can be expected when you train employees with video based training:

• Flexibility – employees can train anytime, anyplace. No interruptions to tenured employees or management to provide training.
• Engagement Boosting – employees feel better watching video than they do reading emails, training manuals, or other forms of training.
• Better Retention – employees recall 90% of what they learn even 6 months after training compared to retaining only 65% after 7 days when training is provided in person.
• Ease of Availability – video can be consumed anytime and from anywhere. It’s available on a phone, tablet or computer.
• Ease of Sharing – employees can share training with one another. Managers can share training with their team. Training can be shared across the organization with ease.
• Greater Productivity – management can focus on their work. Tenured employees can focus on their work. New employees can train faster, and more efficiently.

Video based training is really the best way to explain the various processes and procedures that are expected of your newly hired employees as well as to provide additional training to your existing team members. Information that is provided via training videos is easily absorbed and quickly logged into the mind for later use. For example, with video based training you can provide education on a specific topic on Monday and have your worker putting that training to use the following day. No other format of training is as fast, seamless, and powerful as video.

With video, management also has the ability to track and measure the effectiveness of the training.  It’s easy to see who has trained, what video training they watched, when they last trained, and how interactive they were with the video based training. If management notices that a team member needs to retrain, a quick email with a video link starts the process without any major interruptions to time or distractions.

So, should you train employees with video based training? Yes! You should, and you should be training both your new hires and your existing team in order to create the strongest potential for your future!