While training is generally a major part of an employee’s first few weeks with a new company, learning retention often suffers during that same time. The training they receive often outlines everything from where the bathrooms are, to whom they need to speak with about getting technical support. Mixed in with the basics however is product training, company history, and other elements that likely are more vital to their success within the company.
We all are naturally wired to forget information we aren’t focused on — lets face it, remembering your new colleague’s name is difficult enough. Finding the right way to allow employees the ability to easily consume critical company information is of significant material value.
According to the Association for Talent Development (ATD), companies offering comprehensive training programs have a 218% higher income per employee than companies without formalized training. Furthermore, these same companies also enjoy a 24% higher profit margin than those who didn’t invest in training.
With stats like these, you would think that investments in training and subsequent learning retention would be on the rise. Yet many organizations are still struggling as the path to delivering effective learning isn’t always obvious.
To ensure your learning strategy is capturing the interest and attention of every single employee, it needs to appeal to a multitude of learning styles. One way to achieve this is through the incorporation of video into corporate learning and training programs. Video differs from traditional learning platforms because it provides a visual element that viewers can directly engage and interact with. Research suggests that by boosting the viewer’s engagement and comprehension through video, audience retention rates are increased on average by 3-6 times over the use of traditional training methodologies.
Many studies have also demonstrated that employee video training is a more memorable way to learn than other types of media. Corporate training videos provide employees the ability to learn when and how they prefer. And as a result, participation and of course more importantly retention, naturally increases.
Here are a few ways to ensure your corporate training gets the attention it deserves:
Make it short
While many of us hate to admit it, the truth is our attention spans are decreasing. Even those of us with longer attention spans are struggling to find the time to fit in lengthy presentations. Keeping videos short means more engaged employees. It also makes content easier to update and manage. Aim to make videos 3-5 minutes in length. If you find your content is significantly longer, consider breaking it up into smaller, more digestible chunks.
Make it dynamic
Traditional video training largely consisted of long lectures which failed to allow for employee participation or questions. When employees can be involved in the content there is a greater likelihood they will retain the information they are presented with. By incorporating a video platform into employee training, organizations will have the tools they need to create rich and interactive video presentations which can feature PowerPoint slides, pre-recorded video, Q&A, chat, polls, surveys and downloadable files.
Make it accessible
A dedicated video platform makes it easy for employees to view videos and webcasts on any browser or mobile phone or tablet. Caption, transcript, and translation features make it further accessible to your entire workforce.
In today’s fast paced work environment we are constantly inundated with information and it’s becoming harder to retain what matters. Including an enterprise video platform will increase learning retention which allows businesses to take their employee and training to the next level.
