For years, training videos have ranked among the top trends in the continuing education industry. But not only for trainers are videos a profitable method: We show 10 strong reasons why especially companies can benefit from the use of training videos.
The use of videos is now indispensable in all areas of everyday life. In the online realm, moving images are also booming. According to the online study by ARD and ZDF, 60% of Germans watch at least one video online every week. Tutorials and training videos are especially popular: From cooking to dancing to makeup, you can have everything explained to you via video.
More and more continuing educators recognize the potential of learning videos for companies and utilize it. Online courses or blended learning approaches that combine face-to-face learning and training videos are becoming increasingly popular in professional contexts. The immense relevance that video media has for the continuing education sector was confirmed this year, among others, by the mmb trend monitor: 94% of the continuing education experts surveyed agreed that videos will have a central role as a learning form in the next 3 years:
You can find the complete report on the study here: mmb Trend Monitor 2019: What Continuing Educators Need to Know
In contact with HR developers and company representatives, we still encounter prejudices in 2019 that apparently speak against training videos in companies, despite the long-lasting trend movement.
Typical prejudices against training videos in companies are:
Producing training videos is too expensive!
Creating your own training videos requires more effort than benefit!
Videos are just a fad and will soon be “out”!
We debunk these prejudices and show: There are many more reasons for companies to use training videos than against them!
False Prejudices: 10 Reasons for Using Training Videos in Companies
By using training videos, companies have access to a multitude of advantages that are not possible with traditional face-to-face courses or outdated manuals. The following 10 reasons show why training videos are not just a fad but a long-term benefit for your company and employees:
1. Training videos convey knowledge more efficiently!
In the educational context, studies on the effectiveness of learning videos have long been known. The results are equally valid in adult education: When watching videos, various sensory impressions such as image and sound are communicated, along with emotions. This increases attention and learning performance.
Additionally, people can demonstrate actions and behaviors realistically in videos – and learning through imitation is the most natural and effective way of learning, not only for children but for all age groups.
2. Training videos support individual learning!
Since videos can be repeated, fast-forwarded, rewound, and paused, learners can set their own learning speed. Training videos therefore support the self-organized learning of your employees. This is particularly helpful in companies, as it reduces the risk of over- or under-challenging employees. Videos allow content to be repeated without time pressure. This boosts motivation and learning performance.
3. Training videos can be reused over and over!
In-person events need to be completely reorganized and paid for anew for new employees. Not so with training videos: They “preserve” the training content. The effort of planning and creating a training video pays off at the latest when the video can be made available a second, third, or tenth time – without incurring further effort or costs.
4. Training videos guarantee consistent training quality!
Videos “preserve” knowledge. Consequently, the content remains the same – and the quality of the training as well! A good application area is onboarding new employees (digital onboarding): Here, videos ensure that all new employees start with the same level of knowledge, as they have viewed exactly the same training content as their colleagues. The advantage: Thanks to training videos, onboarding can be successfully completed even entirely from home office! While training manuals can achieve a certain effect too, the transfer into daily work is significantly more effective with videos.
5. You can produce training videos on-site!
This requires neither an external agency nor an expensive rented studio. A simple camera or smartphone is completely sufficient (see point 6). A meeting room can serve as a set just as well as a regular workplace. As long as there is sufficient light, any available space is suitable for recording training videos. This mobility reduces costs and prevents time pressure that may arise when renting a studio. You can further improve the video quality with two simple tools.
6. You can record training videos with your smartphone!
To record good training videos, do you need an expensive camera, professional sound equipment, and special lighting? Wrong! Modern smartphones have really good cameras for this purpose. Just add a small tripod and a clip-on microphone – and you have your video equipment for just a few euros! This small investment quickly pays off when the videos are used regularly.
For more information on video shooting with a smartphone, you can find it here on our comprehensive info page!
7. Anyone can shoot training videos!
No special training is required to record training videos. An in-house trainer or training manager can also convey the necessary knowledge in front of a camera without prior experience. The fear of many companies that they will have to “outsource” their internal knowledge to external parties is therefore unfounded. To speak freely in front of the camera, you can write yourself a cheat sheet.
8. Training videos make organization easier!
When training videos are made available online to all employees, access to knowledge is spatially and temporally flexible. This reduces the number of traditional training sessions and seminars. Consequently, the enormous organizational effort for costly travel, suitable venues, and timing also decreases. And not only for the internal organizers of the company does this reduce stress: Employees also benefit from the ability to learn flexibly. Time and performance pressure are alleviated and have a positive effect on learning performance.
9. Training videos lower indirect costs!
In traditional training programs, indirect costs are often very high: Employees usually have to leave their workplace, resulting in unavoidable work downtime! On average, indirect costs account for nearly half of the total costs of training events in companies:
This means conversely: Training videos reduce the necessary in-person events and promote “learning on the job.” This way, employees can be trained and deployed at their workplace almost simultaneously. The work downtime due to ineffective traditional in-person training decreases – and thus also the enormous costs for work stoppages.
10. Training videos are the core method for “young professionals”!
Training and further education of young employees is a particularly important measure to secure the long-term supply of qualified staff for companies. For the “Generation Y,” videos hold a special significance: According to the ARD/ZDF online study, 96% of those under 30 consume online videos every week.
Companies that want to train and retain such “young professionals” in the long term must accept and implement videos as a standard method of knowledge transfer!
Video production doesn't have to be expensive and complicated: Good training videos can easily be recorded with a smartphone.
Training Videos in Companies: Must or Trend?
We state: The trend towards online video has been unbroken in the private sector for more than 10 years. And even in the continuing education sector, the agreement is enormous, considering videos as a central learning form in the future. Training videos are therefore no longer a mere fad! Furthermore, videos as a medium for knowledge transfer have already become standard among the youngest generation in the job market.
Apart from that, learning videos offer a wide range of advantages for companies that can be summarized in three convincing arguments:
Lower costs!
Less effort!
More learning success!
Training videos are not a short-term trend for companies. On the contrary: Videos are a method to save costs long-term while simultaneously making internal continuing education more sustainable!
