When it comes to compliance training, while there are specific legal requirements and regulatory messages that people are familiar with reading in memos, briefings, laws, and policies, your learners will thank you for using video as part of your training to bring these key messages to life and make your training more engaging and interactive.
Balancing video with other types of learning interactions and instructional screens in your online compliance training can improve the impact of your compliance training curriculum. Here are some tips and recommendations on how best to use of video as part of your program.
1. Add instructional value
Don’t use video just to use video. Video should be used where it adds value.
Use it to connect with and engage your learners, creating a teachable moment. A human subject such as harassment prevention lends itself well to the use of video and can add value to your compliance training, but using it for data privacy may be less effective.
2. Be authentic
Be credible and honest in your communication on camera.
Have you ever seen an executive come on camera and felt like even their introduction was scripted?
If your viewers feel like they’re watching a low-budget production with bad acting, or something that’s been put together hastily and without thought, your message will not carry the same weight and value.
Authenticity and credibility will add strength and impact to your message.
3. Blend it with interactions
Video has the most value when blended with other types of interactions.
People rarely volunteer for compliance training, so if you want maximum retention, you need maximum engagement.
This can be achieved by using video as one of many different tools, along with case studies, explore screens, and rapid-fire quizzes.
4. Keep it short
As a general guideline, video should be 90 seconds or less, with a high-impact introduction to set the scene.
Think about the last time you watched a video online. If after 10 seconds you felt compelled to check how much time was left, the video had already lost your attention.
Videos should be short, engaging, and impactful.
5. It’s more than the CEO
Feature everyone across your business. Create a feeling of diversity and inclusion.
A video from the CEO can carry a lot of weight, and it’s important to have consistent messaging from the top down, but how many employees interact with the CEO daily?
Employees want to hear from people they can relate to, as well.
6. Beware of humor
While humor can be a great way to get people’s attention, it isn’t always appropriate when dealing with sensitive topics.
Harassment hurts people’s lives. Using humor in an anti-harassment course could reflect how people end up treating the issue in the workplace.
You can still draw emotion from your learners and help them see that “This is something that could happen here. This needs to be taken seriously.”
Humor can also be very difficult to translate, and what counts as humorous in one culture may not be the same in another.
7. Reflect your workforce.
Actors can be great to use, but make sure they’re people your learners can identify with. You wouldn’t hire a cat to play a dog.
Use real employees, if that’s a possibility, but if that’s not an option, at least do some auditions first.
Alfred Hitchcock once said, “A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission, and the babysitter were worth it.”
Companies spend a lot of time and money on compliance training – don’t just check the box; make it worth the price of admission.