There’s a reason why the job outlook for video production professionals is expected to increase by 7% over the next decade. Often many companies will turn to these professionals to produce various types of marketing events.
However, there’s another area of business that video production experts can help with: training videos. But exactly why is it a smart idea to invest in training videos? And how do you go about getting started with training video production?
If you want to learn the answer to these questions, you’re in the right place.
What Are the Benefits of a Training Video Production?
There are a lot of benefits that come with a professionally produced training video. For starters, they’re highly engaging. Video is one of the best ways of teaching material.
Not only can it help visual learners, but if someone misses something, they can easily rewind. In the long run, corporate training videos can save your business a lot of time and money.
Not requiring staff members to devote hours of their paid time to training employees. Instead, you can just pop on the video. Another great thing about training videos is that they’re easily shareable.
As long as the video has a public link, you can quickly send it to whoever needs to see it. Lastly, and more importantly, high-quality videos can help reduce turnover rates in employees.
It’s estimated that roughly 33% of employees quit a job within the first three months. One of the main reasons for this is a lack of adequate onboarding. When an employee doesn’t have proper onboarding, it doesn’t just affect how they do their job.
It can also make them feel like they don’t belong in the culture of the company. A training video is an essential employee onboarding resource that can help reduce instances of early resignation through proper job duty education.
How Do You Go About Producing a Training Video?
Creating a training video for businesses is a lot different than other forms of video marketing, like say a commercial. Your goal isn’t to persuade or inform but rather to educate.
Now, it’s true that a training video can be as simple as a manager talking into a webcam for thirty minutes straight. However, while this method is cheaper, it’s important to remember that it’s not effective.
If your training video isn’t engaging, employees are going to tune it out. By investing more in the overall production of your training video, you increase the likelihood that important concepts and instructions will stick.
In this way, you more than get your money’s worth from your production. So let’s explore in more detail the secrets to making an effective training video.
1. Find a Production Company
As we mentioned, you can go down the DIY right when it comes to employee training videos. That being said, there are a lot of reasons you’ll want to consider working with a professional production company.
For starters, they can help you at every stage of the process, from pre-production to post-production. If they’re good at what they do, they’ll likely also be able to provide valuable insights into how to make the training video more effective.
In this way, they increase the usefulness of the video for your employees. Lastly, a video production company can make your training video, which elevates your overall brand.
You might not consider brands when it comes to your employees’ training material, but you should. Consider two different types of training videos. One is shot on an iPhone with bad audio and unclear direction.
The other is concise and funny and features professional visuals, animation, and audio. Which place would you rather work for?
Your training material reflects your brand. So by investing in a good production company, you’re investing in a workplace that your employees can be proud of.
2. Decide on a Topic
The first thing you need to think of is a topic. Maybe you want to train employees on how to deal with customers? Or do you want to educate them on company expectations?
It’s important to not overload a video with too many different topics. Instead, consider making multiple videos so you don’t overload your employees with information.
Once you have a topic, you should begin brainstorming some ways to teach it. Ideally, you want to try to teach a topic within five minutes. Sometimes this isn’t possible.
However, most of the time, it’s fairly simple to compress even complex topics down a little. Once you have your topics selected, you can begin brainstorming how you want to present them.
3. Pick the Type of Training Video You Want
There are many different types of training videos out there. The right one for you will depend on your topic and goal. For example, screencasts allow you to record your screen while narrating.
This can be good for walking someone through a tutorial on how to use a website. Animation through whiteboards is a great tool for breaking down the process behind certain things.
Interviews are an excellent type of video for discussing potentially complex internal procedures and company culture. Lastly, if you’re training someone on how to do a manual task, then filming live actors or employees is a good way to demonstrate how to do something.
Many training videos can benefit from a combination of all these different types of videos. As such, you should discuss your needs with the production company to decide which specific ones to include.
4. Create a Storyboard and Script
A storyboard is essential for staying organized during the filming process. It also helps inform the script development. Your storyboard should contain a basic timeline of how the training video will go.
By outlining the different phases of training, you can get a better idea of what goes where. Remember that your storyboard can be as simple or as complex as you need it to be.
Once the storyboard is out of the way, you can move on to the script. One difference between training video scripts and other types of media is that you usually don’t need to write out the script word-for-word.
Instead, it helps to write down the rough ideas that need to be covered. Then, let the person speaking explain it in a more casual tone. Why is this a good idea?
As this study notes, one of the keys to making effective educational videos is to speak in a conversational tone. This helps create a type of social partnership between the instructor and the employee.
When developing your training video, you should also make sure to keep things short. If each lesson in a video is under six minutes long, it can help prevent the viewer’s mind from wandering.
5. Produce and Edit
Some video styles, like animation, can be handled entirely by the production company. However, others will require you to carve out a time and a place to film. You’ll need to decide where to shoot and who will be in it.
Do you want professional actors in your video? Or are you fine with amateur employees? Your video production company should handle all of the lighting, camera, and audio concerns.
However, if you’re going the DIY route, you’ll need to account for these too. Once the video has been produced, you’ll need to edit it down. Again, a professional is good for this.
They can help decide what’s essential and what’s simply slowing down the pace of the training. Once the editing is over, you’re ready to share the training video with your employees.
What Should You Look For in a Training Video Production Company?
There are a lot of video production companies out there. However, not all of them are good fits for your training video needs. The first thing you should look for in this type of company is experience with internal & training videos.
While other types of video production can be helpful, it’s no guarantee that they’ll be able to produce effective educational content. Next, you should make sure that they’re collaborative.
When it comes to training material, you know best in terms of what needs to be included. A video production company might have some good ideas about how this information can be included, but they shouldn’t be dictating the process.
Make sure you find a video production company that listens to you. That way, there can be collaboration throughout the entire production process.
Need Video Production? Contact Envision Video Services
We hope this guide helped you learn more about training video production. Remember that the effectiveness of your training video will ultimately depend on the production company you go with.
Here at Envision Video Services, we know that a good training video requires plenty of collaboration between the client and the production professionals. That’s why we pride ourselves on creating a family atmosphere when it comes to any production.
This sense of collaboration and openness allows us to make some truly exceptional videos. But don’t take our word for it. Contact us today to learn how Envision Video Services can help you.