Most companies use videos for their employee training, and why not? It's an incredibly effective and efficient way to get the information they'll need to them, without having to dedicate too many of your other employee's hours to the task. But just like with anything else, there are a few ways to improve upon the core idea.
A key element to successfully incorporating video into your LMS is that you should always give your employees mobile access to the videos. Letting them view any videos on a mobile device at their leisure is a very important first step, and always something to keep in mind.
While it may seem simple at first glance, there are many hidden factors going on behind the scenes for employee training videos. It's not too hard to create a basic video and have their employees view it on accessible mobile devices, but going beyond just that simple idea is only the beginning to incorporating truly excellent video into your LMS. You have to keep retention in mind, at the very least. After all, if your employee is watching the video but can't tell you half of what was in it afterward, what was gained from playing it?
Below, you'll find three of the most important things to keep in mind when incorporating video into your LMS. By utilizing these concepts, you can make sure that your time spent working on your training videos is time well spent.
#1: Transcoding
One of the first things to keep in mind is video transcoding. This is a process where you convert every aspect of digital video into a different format. With proper use of transcoding, the videos can be viewed on as many different types of devices as possible.
Other things to keep in mind in this vein would be keeping everything localized and compressed. Having an external database with every video available for streaming sounds like it could be a good idea at first, but that is simultaneously a waste of bandwidth and the process of buffering can make it more difficult for employees to keep their focus on the video at hand. With proper compression of the video files, they can be locally transferred and played on any device without issue.
#2: Microlearning
Even controlling the experience on an easy-to-access device, people's minds will often wander if exposed to the same thing for too long a period of time. If you give someone mobile access to a video containing everything they need to know all at once, they almost certainly won't retain all of it after a single viewing. That's where the concept of microlearning comes in.
Utilizing microlearning, each video would cover a single topic that the employee can view from their mobile device when it's directly relevant to them. Having many shorter videos like this, that employees have mobile access to, means that they are far more likely to retain any and all information contained within, than if it were just in one large video.
This negates the problem of losing focus during the video, cuts down on orientation time, allows better on the job training, and makes it easier for the employee to perform their job correctly the first time.
#3: Variety
To keep a broad range of information available while keeping each individual video short, you'll want to have a large selection covering different topics. Making one for each relevant area is a great way to start, and you can branch out from there. User-generated videos where veteran employees can help to teach those just starting, demonstrational videos where the employee can see what they're expected to do in action, or more contextual videos that won't be for every employee.
In the restaurant and retail industries, it's of paramount importance for your employees to have access to the tools and resources they need to perform their work no matter where they are. For employees that need to keep mobile, you can't let your communication and engagement strategy fall to the wayside. To hear more, you can find our expertly crafted guide on Ditching the Paper Binder: 5 Successful Steps for Going Mobile.
