I used to think telling someone how to do something was enough. But it isn’t. Teaching someone how to think, how to approach their role, and how to internalise what you know – that’s the real behaviour-changer. That’s where video shines.
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Why Employee Training Videos Work
Video is a tool for information transfer. But, it’s also a tool for transformation itself. When done right, it bridges the gap between what you know and what your team needs to do. Videos can guide, inspire, and reinforce behaviours that lead to better client outcomes.
But here’s the catch: not all videos are created equal. Badly made ones are ignored. Worse, they can reinforce the wrong habits. Let me walk you through how to make employee training videos that make behaviour stick.
Step 1: Map the Employee Journey
Every team member’s experience in your company is a journey, from their first day to their first big win. If you want to guide their behaviour, you need to understand where they are now and where they need to go.
Start with milestones:
- Day one: Welcome and orientation.
- Week one: Clear job expectations.
- Month one: Measurable progress.
- Ongoing: Continuous learning and feedback loops.
Think about what your team members need to see, hear, and feel at each stage. That’s where employee training videos come in.
Step 2: Nail the Message
People remember stories, not statistics. Research by a professor in Stanford found “a story is up to twenty-two times more memorable than facts alone”. So if your video is just a list of facts, you’ve already lost them. Instead, anchor your video in real-world scenarios:
- What’s the client problem your team is solving?
- What’s the behaviour that’s working now?
- What’s the gap between where they are and where they need to be?
Use plain language. No jargon. If your video sounds like a manual, it’ll feel like a chore. Instead, aim for clarity: short sentences, action-oriented words, and visuals that match what you’re saying.
Step 3: Make It Engaging
Engagement isn’t optional. If your team checks out halfway through, your effort’s wasted. Here’s how to keep their attention:
- Start Strong: Begin with a hook. “What if one small change in your process could make clients love working with us?” gets more attention than, “Today we’re talking about client outcomes.”
- Use Visuals Wisely: Don’t just show talking heads. Show the process in action—diagrams, examples, and step-by-step visuals.
- Break It Up: Keep videos short. Five minutes or less per concept. If it’s longer, make sure it’s modular, so people can come back to specific sections.
Step 4: Build Repetition and Reinforcement
Behaviour change doesn’t happen after one viewing. Repetition is king. Here’s how I reinforce key behaviours:
- Follow-Up Emails: After the video, send a recap of the key takeaways.
- Interactive Quizzes: Embed quizzes into the video to make it active, not passive.
- On-the-Job Prompts: Use reminders like, “Remember the process from the video? Now’s the time to use it.”
Step 5: Measure and Improve
What gets measured gets improved. With employee training videos, you can track:
- Completion rates.
- Behavioural changes.
- Feedback from your team.
Ask questions like, “Was this clear?” and “What’s still confusing?” Use this feedback to tweak your approach.
Examples That Stick
One of the most effective employee training videos I created was a role-playing scenario. Instead of saying, “This is how we handle client objections,” I showed an employee responding to a real-life scenario. It wasn’t perfect—that was the point. The team learned from watching mistakes and successes play out in real time.
Another? A series of five-minute videos breaking down our client onboarding process into digestible steps. Each one ended with a simple challenge: “Try this today.”
Start with One Video
If this feels overwhelming, start small. Pick one behaviour you want to change—just one. Make a video about it. Test it. Refine it. Then move on to the next.
The beauty of video is its scalability. Once it’s made, it works for every new hire, every time. That’s how you align your team around better client outcomes—one video at a time.
So, what’s stopping you? Let’s get your team in front of the camera.
Contact Waking Dreams Media to get started →
