Let’s face it… we live in a very visual world. Now more than ever, people are turning to visual modalities for entertainment, learning, and connecting with their family and friends. Take YouTube as an example as more than 500 million hours of videos are watched per day while on Twitter, 82% of users view video content over written updates. And, according a blog written by the Digital Marketing Institute, more video content is uploaded in 30 days than what the major U.S. networks have created in 30 years (how crazy is that!?).

So, what does this mean for you? When creating video training content for your team, you must create training content that “sticks”. One of the main ingredients that separates truly effective training from what amounts to corporate busy work is a strategy for getting employees to remember and use their training to the point where it becomes habit. To increase your training’s memorable qualities we turned to our training partner, ej4, to gain their top five tips for creating content. In no particular order, they are… 

1. Show the Relevance of Training for Development & Promotion

It’s no mystery: People learn more and retain information better if they are motivated to do so. Part of an employee’s motivation will come from engaging and appealing content. If a person feels the information is useful and it is presented in an interesting way, he or she will pay attention.

An even larger part of motivation, however, is context. People need to know the training they are involved in has a greater purpose. They need to feel not as if it were just another hoop to jump through, but a thoughtful step toward some greater goal. That goal can be personal or professional as long as it is meaningful.

2. Use Visuals in Your Training

Let’s be honest: Some training topics can be rather abstract, tedious, or downright dull. It pays to spend a little extra time adding visuals to your training materials to to give them an extra spark. When you think about “visuals,” don’t just think charts or PowerPoint templates. Visuals should be used to:

• • Tell A Story
  • Evoke An Emotion
  • Provide An Easy Metaphor
  • Inject Humor or Surprise

Not every visual will be able to do all four of these (though that would be fantastic), but each one should accomplish at least one. Short videos (5-7 minutes), animations, movement and transitions make for great visuals too.

3. Summarize Key Points on a Handout

Most people don’t have a photographic memory. Taking notes during a class or video is a fine work-around, but employees might not take good notes—especially if your content is particularly engaging.

The next best way to reinforce what you’re teaching is to summarize key points in a handout. The most effective student materials are short, no more than one or two pages. They often arrange information so it can be understood visually. Pro Tip: leave some space on your handout where participants can write their own notes. Pose questions to apply the learning points to their real-life work. This gives them the best of both worlds: the ability to note what they find relevant and a clear overview of what you feel are the important point – all without having to constantly write during the presentation.

4. Reinforce After Training Too

What you do after your training will be critical when it comes to getting your employees to remember, apply, and reapply what they have learned. Keep in mind that, even if they memorize the material you present to them, it will take your employees time to build up the appropriate habits. Send email notifications with quizzes and video recaps in the days, weeks and months after the training event.

5. Reward Desired Behavior

Motivation and memory are not just temporary states of mind. The best way to maintain them is through positive reinforcement. Whenever you observe employees using skills and information from their training, give them due recognition. Reward employees who do this consistently over time. Take advantage of routine meetings to review expected behaviors and call out recent examples who met these expectations.

Listen, getting training to “stick” is an ongoing battle, but knowing a little bit about how the human mind works can go a long way toward helping employees retain and use that information. However, if you’re feeling overwhelmed about creating content, don’t! We are here to help you! Our team of professionals have years of experience and we can help you take your vision to reality! Let us be your SME (Subject Matter Experts) in video content creation. If you would like to learn more about how we can do this for you please contact us at support@p1learning.com

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