How can you use video content to train and develop employees effectively?

Imagine how many times you can watch your favourite movie? That's the beauty of videos. As much as videos work, incorporate texts if they are for individual consumption. Use apps like Loom to demonstrate how to use a new software. As you navigate the software, the employee is able to follow. Use long form videos like interviews to explain company history, achievements, and future plans, for the employee to understand the vision and systems. Videos work well in an interactive session. You get to see how people interpret things differently which adds to diversity.

Use video to support micro-learning opportunities in your organization. Instead of lengthy, hours-on-end training videos, short videos that are hyper-focused help support adult learning. To increase their success, make them available on-demand at the time and place the employee needs the information. Don't make the employee do endless searches in your learning management system. Instead, make the video available within the business process/workflow.

Social media has killed our ability to focus on one thing for a period of time. Two decades ago, any video would kep you glued because they were rare. Nowadays videos bombard us daily, each offering better promise. And instead of helping, they are a distraction because of their sheer numbers. This has led to short attention span fueled by social media. The reason you have to keep your videos short is because of competing interests like Netflix and the likes. Our choice for what is beneficial has been corrupted and we have to feed what we've become.

Don't underestimate the power of gamification. People want to compete, earn points, level up, etc. Turn your video content into a quest for learning with fun avatars, competition across teams or organizations, and let people share achievements.

If you want to rank in SERPs, you have to optimize your videos. Nowadays, Google prioritizes videos before text to answer search queries if they are available. That means, videos are becoming the go-to form of content marketing, from tutorials, ads, reviews, user experience, etc. Your content stands to trigger more engagements in video format, so ensure regular updates are conducted to keep them useful.

What I love most about video content for learning is the flexibility it provides! The possibility of learning asynchronously, when it suits the learner best according to their schedule, is key to giving your employees control over their learning journey. You can take this a step further by creating video content in bite-size pieces and providing a menu that allows the learners to navigate throughout the lesson at their own pace. LinkedIn does a great job with this in their learning modules, for example. Every learner is different, so consider offering side-quests to dig deeper into a topic or "explain to me like I'm five" versions to meet various levels of expertise and interest.