Employee video training enables businesses to close skill gaps, quickly adapt to new technology, and boost productivity, morale, and customer satisfaction. Companies that invest in employee training produce 37% more gross profit per employee.
However, 43% of employees want their training to be more effective.
If you’ve ever sat through a boring lecture, you know training alone isn’t enough. That’s why we reached out to experts in learning and development, marketing, and operations to learn what works when creating employee video training that produces results.
Their experience, alongside insights from neuroscience, paints a clear picture of how to create training that engages employees.
Discover why video can be your superpower for effective video training. This complete guide reveals how to streamline employee training without in-person or online meetings and tedious reading. We’ll also cover how to track employee progress and completion.
What Is Video Training for Employees?
Companies use video training to efficiently onboard, upskill, and align team members with company initiatives. Video training is accessible and flexible. It can be shared directly with employees online, whether they work remotely or in the office.
The Benefits of Employee Video Training
Video training offers many advantages over in-person training events or exhaustive reading material. These benefits include:
- Improved Employee Experience: Onboard new hires with video training to expedite productivity and provide clear expectations
- Flexible & Cost-Effective: Eliminate travel costs with remote training and minimize employee time away from projects
- Scalability and Efficiency: Support team alignment and scale employee training while reducing manager workflow interruptions
- Compliance and Tracking: Track video engagement to validate training ROI and maintain compliance in regulated industries
- Employee Engagement and Retention: Engage and upskill employees, increasing business advantage and employee productivity
- Learning Effectiveness: Implement new software or procedures with increased adoption rates using micro-learning and interactive tools for greater absorption
- Feedback and Optimization: Gather feedback based on viewing patterns and engagement to increase training effectiveness
Types of Employee Training Videos
- Onboarding
- Company Culture/Policies
- Mandatory Training
- Scenario Training
- Demonstrations & Tutorials
- Professional Development
Skip to the video examples here.
What Makes An Employee Training Video Successful?
A good video training program is up-to-date and comprehensive. It should provide a measurable return in job performance, task efficiency, and employee retention.
The majority of video training aligns team members for specific roles within departments. A complete onboarding series or training program may include one-size-fits-all videos. But, companies often tailor video training to specific departments or roles within a business.
Effective video training is:
- Bite-sized: Create compact video content that is under 20 minutes long. Most viewers prefer videos that are 3-6 minutes long. Turn large topics into short videos to reduce cognitive load and increase watch times.
- Science-based: Our brains build connections to remember information. Darren Smith, CEO of Making Business Matter, believes space repetition is key to building those connections. “[It] essentially means we do something, stop, wait, and do something again. Video-based learning needs to be similar.”
- Engaging and Enjoyable: “Video-based training has a reputation for being boring,” says Rob Boyle, Marketing Operations Director for Airswift. “To hold employee attention, use relatable characters [with] a problem to solve or challenge to overcome.”
It’s essential that video training is accessible as well; we discuss this in detail later.
Corporate Training Video Examples
Employee video training has evolved. Gone are the days of retro training videos with over-the-top explanations and distrustful commentary about employees. Let’s look at some modern examples for inspiration.
Onboarding
Set new hires up for success and save managers time.
This video aligns new Spotify engineers with its company strategy in just over ten minutes using a whiteboard-style video. “Whiteboarding is an excellent way to break down tough ideas into smaller, more digestible pieces,” shares Adam Klein, a Certified Integral Coach and Managing Director for New Ventures West. “The use of straightforward drawings and animations can make the content more accessible to a wider range of viewers.”
Company Culture/Policies
Showcase environment and set new hire expectations.
In this video, the city of Edmonton uplifts its workers. It focuses on their role in creating a safe and healthy environment through waste management. The city also presents the idea of long-term fulfillment with the company by featuring employees who made it their career.
Mandatory Training
Maintain safety and compliance standards.
With a clever script and creative perspective, video training can be entertaining and cost-effective. A character-driven narrative is powerful for delivering important messages. Here, the live-action character holds attention while the animation delivers life-saving knowledge.
Scenario Training
Prepare employees to handle specific situations with success.
This type of video provides a solution-oriented explanation for a common but difficult situation. It offers an empathetic approach to why a customer may be rude. The video follows with effective instructions for moving through the interaction.
Demonstrations & Tutorials
Showcase how to complete a task or use a program.
Tossing pizza dough requires practice. New employees will likely watch the video various times while learning the technique, which makes this to-the-point video ideal. Additionally, it concludes with a few slides summarizing the key information.
Professional Development
Develop current employee skills for company goals.
Longer content is engaging and powerful when storytelling, delivery, and high-quality information align. This 12-minute talk by Simon Sinek showcases a high production value. But Sinek’s ability to persuade through storytelling is a masterclass on holding attention.
How to Design a Winning Video-Based Training Program
1. Define Objectives and Engage Viewers
“Define clear objectives for the training. Identify what employees should know or be able to do after completing the course,” says Bradford Glaser, President & CEO of HRDQ. “These objectives will guide the content and structure of your videos, ensuring that the training is purposeful and aligned with your company’s goals.”
Consider the other resources you will provide, too. Map out interactive elements like quizzes, discussion questions, practice exercises, and hands-on application. “These elements not only aid in comprehension but also make the training more interactive and enjoyable,” states Glaser.
2. Collaborate with Content Matter Experts (CMEs)
Also known as subject matter experts (SMEs), collaborating with CMEs is key to effective video training. CMEs include department managers, senior team members, and other internal stakeholders.
Alexander Nosek is an L&D specialist who updated and expanded training content for Patriot Growth Insurance Services. He recommends listing all CMEs and using a task management system (i.e., Jira) for project management. Additionally, they suggest
- Request CMEs provide the information needed to cover a topic accurately
- Use CME knowledge to write scripts and organize videos by chapters
- Have CMEs review video scripts for accuracy before moving forward
Stakeholders may also need to review content for approval before moving forward.
In some instances, you might be the expert. Following this process can still help organize the subject matter before creating content.
3. Invest in Production Quality
“High-production quality is also important,” says Bradford Glaser of HRDQ. There are three essential elements of video training that will enhance the learning experience and prevent distractions. They are:
- Clear audio
- Sharp visuals
- Professional editing
“Poor production quality can undermine the effectiveness of your training and make it less engaging,” Glaser notes.
4. Make Content Organized & Accessible
Accessibility comes in many forms.
- Inclusivity for people with disabilities is a key component of employee video training. “Use captions, subtitles, and audio descriptions,” recommends Steven Mostyn, Chief Human Resources Officer for Management Library.
- When scripting content and creating interactive resources, use various learning styles and culturally diverse examples. This accessibility practice increases training effectiveness by considering multiple groups of people.
- From a user experience standpoint, consider accessibility across devices. “Enable employees to learn anywhere and at any time in a comfortable and personal environment,” recommends Tornike Asatiani, CEO of Edumentors.
Finally, ensure employees can navigate your video training portal without friction. One solution is to organize content into playlists by topic, department, or role.
Learn More: Playlists Overview
5. Gather Feedback
“Before rolling out the training program, pilot your videos with a small group of employees to gather feedback on its effectiveness and engagement levels,” recommends Steven Mostyn of Management Library.
Get feedback from internal stakeholders as well. This review process ensures the information is accurate and aligned with the company.
The more people who test the training program, the more you’ll be able to ensure its accuracy, effectiveness, and accessibility.
6. Monitor and Evaluate the Program
Video training is successful when it positively impacts employee performance and company goals. Common key performance indicators (KPIs) for employee video training include:
- Time to onboard new employees
- The volume of customer complaints
- Compliance with regulations
- Adoption rate of new technology or platforms
Creating benchmarks for video content is a great way to ensure it meets company standards. Monitor overall video performance and individual engagement. These benchmarks can help you determine when to assist an employee who may be struggling to learn the material.
How to Track Video Engagement
Measure overall employee participation in training videos with average engagement rate.
The average engagement rate is represented as a percentage. It measures the time a viewer spends watching your video compared to its duration.
Therefore, 100% indicates that viewers watched every second of your video. Video engagement can also be above 100% if viewers rewatch parts of the video.
You can use engagement metrics to track individual employee video engagement and completion as well. We discuss how later.
4 Ways to Create Employee Training Videos
Across the types of employee training videos you create, Steven Mostyn for Management Library recommends including “a mix of visuals, animations, and real-world examples to illustrate points and keep the content dynamic.”
Here are a few different ways you might approach employee video training production.
1. Live-Action Videos
Live-action videos use real-world scenarios and human interactions to convey a message. This video style centers on realistic situations, making both task instructions and messages like “safety first” or “your team is here to support you” more engaging and emotionally impactful.
This level of video production may require a team. Use in-house team members, video freelancers, or a production company. Your approach will determine the resources or creativity required.
2. Animated Videos
Animated videos are effective at engaging viewers. Voiceover conveys important information that is brought to life through animated elements. Common animation styles include whiteboard, 2D or 3D animation, and motion graphics.
This video tier is suitable for various budgets. There are many ways to create animated videos, from hiring an artist to employing an online tool.
3. Talking-Head Presentations
Are you working with a skeleton (or no) crew and limited resources? A single person with a quality filming setup can create professional videos alone.
Create a well-crafted script and consider how the video will hold attention. These videos often cut to short animations, stock footage, or text-based slides. Another strategy is to film two camera angles and flip back and forth during the video.
4. Screen Recorded Videos
Screen-recorded videos showcase how to perform a specific task within a software program. This type of training video is the easiest and most affordable.
One person can easily create professional screencast videos. However, making engaging videos in this category is challenging. Keep videos focused on a single how-to and use playlists to guide employees through the software onboarding.
How to Implement A Video Training Program
It’s essential to make employee video training easy to access and navigate. Social sharing sites are great for distributing brand materials to a wide audience. However, employee training videos are usually intended for internal distribution only.
One solution is to create a dedicated and secure video library for training content. This ensures that your proprietary content is organized and visible only to employees with authorized access.
A second option is to use your company intranet.
Secure Video Library
Share internal videos with employees through a secure and centralized video library.
SproutVideo makes it easy with our hosted Video Websites, which include a suite of video hosting tools. Create a professional video portal and use privacy tools to control and monitor access.
Common privacy measures include login protection and single-sign-on (SSO). Both options allow you to track the viewer’s email address in engagement metrics. Use this data to audit viewer access and review employee video engagement. We discuss how here.
You can also add dynamic watermarking to deter screen recording theft.
Company Intranet
Another option for sharing employee video training is your company intranet. Use it in combination with SproutVideo privacy measures to ensure private content stays internal.
Here’s an example of how to secure video content embedded on your company intranet when using SproutVideo:
- Leave your videos set to private and embed them on your company intranet.
- Use allowed domains or signed embed codes to prevent video sharing.
- Add dynamic watermarking to deter screen recording theft.
You can still display individual engagement metrics. Use embed code parameters to track viewers by email address through your company’s intranet.
How to Track Individual Employee Video Training Engagement
How to evaluate training video effectiveness or maintain compliance with regulations? Track individual viewers using video engagement metrics on the SproutVideo platform.
How to Track Individual Employee Video Engagement
Video heat maps visually represent viewer engagement with a single video.
You can use heat mapping to determine what parts of videos employees watch and rewatch. When viewers rewatch part of a video, the content may be confusing, worth repeating, or especially engaging.
Heat mapping is a granular way to:
- Ensure individual employees are gaining the necessary insights
- Determine what topics an employee is struggling to learn
If employees skip parts of a video, the heat map reveals what sections they overlook.
When this happens, review the video and determine why. It may be that the video is redundant, loses viewer attention, or doesn’t relate the information’s importance to the employee.
Heat mapping insights can help you improve and update your content. Use this data as a before-and-after test to measure the effectiveness of your changes.
How to Track Employee Video Training Completion
Track if an individual completed the video using engagement metrics. Within engagement metrics, click on a viewer’s email address to review:
- All past videos accessed
- The percentage completed for each video session
- Heat maps that indicate viewing behavior
You can also access individual viewer data from Viewer Logins when using login protection.
Learn More: Video Analytics
Employee video training provides businesses with a tactical advantage in more ways than one. It increases productivity, morale, and retention—all of which lead to more gross profit. Video training makes it easy to gain these benefits while providing flexibility to employees.
Check out our related content to keep learning:
