When construction firm Laing O’Rourke introduced bite-sized video courses, they expanded training access from 80 to 700 employees in just one month.
But here’s the real kicker: they only dedicated 10% of their learning budget to creating their corporate training videos.
It’s true — employees love video content. 72% say they find short training videos engaging. 83% also agree that video training would improve their overall employee experience.
Training videos are also easy to make, scalable, and accessible to the entire workforce, making them particularly valuable for delivering high-quality, consistent training to remote, distributed teams.
Not to mention, visual learning helps employees retain more of what they learn — boosting your training program’s effectiveness.
But where do you start? What makes a good training video and how do you create one? This guide gives you the full blueprint, including mistakes to avoid and trends to watch for.
Table of contents:
- Why corporate training videos work
- Key types of corporate training videos
- How to create engaging and effective corporate training videos
- Best practices for distributing corporate training videos
- 5 common mistakes to avoid in corporate training videos
- Future trends in corporate training videos
[#TOC1]Why corporate training videos work[#TOC1]
Effective corporate training content is easy to access, consume, and retain. Video just checks all these boxes and more:
Better knowledge retention and engagement
Visual learning simplifies complex concepts, making them easier for employees to grasp. No wonder 2 out of 3 people watch at least one instructional video every week. 73% also say they’d rather watch a minute-long video than read an email.
And with 7 out of 10 employees remembering video content better than written text, it’s clear video is a far more effective learning format than PDFs, whitepapers, and slides.
Flexibility and accessibility
Video training isn’t time-bound, allowing employees to watch content at their own pace — whenever they need it. Adding subtitles and pairing videos with text-based resources further helps cater to different learning styles, making training even more accessible.
Scalability and consistency
With video easily accessible anywhere in the world, training videos ensure all employees — regardless of their location — receive the same high-quality training. Video-based training is also far more cost-effective than conducting in-person sessions, making the format highly scalable.
Improved compliance and safety training
Video makes complex policies and procedures much easier to understand than text-based content. This, in turn, ensures employees fully grasp compliance protocols, minimizing risks.
Performance tracking and analytics
By regularly reviewing your video engagement metrics, you can also easily evaluate your training effectiveness. Adding interactive elements like quizzes allows you to further assess how well employees are retaining the material.
[#TOC2]Key types of corporate training videos[#TOC2]
Employee onboarding videos
Employee onboarding videos introduce new hires to the company culture, mission, and values. A series of these videos can include a welcome message, a video from the CEO, an IT systems setup guide, and training on company policies.
Compliance and safety training videos
Compliance training videos break down complex legal and regulatory requirements. The more engaging and digestible this content is, the better it standardizes safety protocols and helps reduce workplace accidents.
Here’s an inspiring example:
Leadership and professional development videos
Professional development videos focus on building managerial and soft skills. These don’t have to come only from managers and executives though — team members can also create them to train peers and juniors. Leadership videos from the C-suite, on the other hand, inspire and motivate teams.
Product and software training videos
Software training videos educate new employees on using internal apps. SaaS teams can also use these videos to train employees on their product features.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training
These videos educate employees on bias awareness, respecting colleagues, and cultural competency, offering practical advice on fostering an inclusive work culture.
[#TOC3]How to create engaging and effective corporate training videos[#TOC3]
We've established that video is the way to go when it comes to training. However, according to our latest research report, The Science of Great Video for Training, only around 1 in 5 employees report their training videos as being very effective.
The reason? There's something broken about today's corporate training videos. They're not made with clear objectives and trainee-preference in mind.
A high-quality employee training video relies on thorough planning to ensure your content not only captures the viewer’s attention but also aligns with your learning outcomes. Here’s a straightforward step-by-step breakdown:
Step 1: Define learning objectives
Start by analyzing your current training material, business objectives, and job roles to identify knowledge gaps and key learning outcomes.
Conducting employee surveys also helps you find training gaps across teams — giving you insights to plan department-specific learning videos.
While you’re at it, also determine which subject matter expert(s) will create each video. Managers or top performers, for example, can create role-specific training content.
Step 2: Choose the right format
Determine which type of video format best suits your training content. For example:
- Animated explainer videos work well for breaking down complex topics, particularly when visuals like graphics and animations can simplify the material. For example, r educating employees on data security best practices.
- Screen recordings are perfect for demonstrating processes or providing software tutorials on a computer screen. For example, videos explaining your SaaS app features to customer-facing and marketing teams.
- Role-play/Scenario videos are ideal for soft skills or leadership training as they involve real-world scenarios where personal interaction is key. For example, videos educating customer service teams on the dos and don’ts of handling a difficult customer situation.
Step 3: Write a clear and engaging script
Scripting your videos, when done right, ensures your content stays focused on a core idea and is able to effectively engage your audience.
You’ll want to avoid overly technical explanations or jargon and stick with simple, direct language to make your content easy to understand.
Instead of boring lecture-style videos, build story-driven narratives with real scenarios to further make the information easier to follow.
Dig deeper: Emotional Engagement: Crafting Corporate Stories That Resonate.
Above all, keep your videos short — aim for 3-7 minutes per topic to improve knowledge retention.
Step 4: Ensure professional production quality
Use proper lighting to enhance video quality and improve comprehension.
Nailing audio quality is equally important — muffled, static, or inconsistent audio can quickly cause viewers to stop watching, no matter how good the video itself is.
Record in a quiet, soundproof room using a high-quality microphone to ensure crisp, clear audio.
Dig deeper: A Beginner’s Guide to Video Equipment: Get the Best Product Recommendations and Tips from Our Pros.
For animated explainer tutorials, use professional voice actors. On a tight budget? Use AI to clone your voice or select a natural-sounding stock voiceover.
Step 5: Make training videos interactive
Interactive elements like quizzes in your videos not only encourage participation to reinforce learning but also personalize training.
68% of employees feel corporate training often takes a one-size-fits-all approach, not meeting their individual needs. 54% also say they don’t trust HR to cater to their learning interests. Interactive content addresses these concerns by tailoring the training experience.
Depending on the type of training you’re creating, use the following in your videos:
- Quizzes to test knowledge retention
- Clickable links to provide additional learning resources and related videos
- Branched chapters to navigate content based on training needs
Step 6: Optimize training videos for accessibility
Finally, take the following steps to make your videos more accessible:
- Add subtitles to make it easy for those who are hard of hearing to follow the narrative.
- Auto-translate videos into employees' native languages to reduce learning barriers.
- Include keywords employees commonly use to search for topics to make it easy to find videos.
For a global workforce, consider using video localization methods like versioning (recreating specific parts of a video) or transcreation (completely redoing content) to ensure technical training videos are accurately understood across different languages and cultures.
[#TOC4]Best practices for distributing corporate training videos[#TOC4]
Host training videos in an easy-to-use learning hub
Use a Learning Management System (LMS) like SAP Litmos, Docebo, or LearnUpon to centralize your online training videos, provide a structured learning experience, and track your program’s effectiveness.
If you're a smaller team, a cloud-based tool like Google Drive, Box, or SharePoint can work just fine for storing and sharing training content. Just keep in mind though, cloud-based tools don’t support content interactivity or progress tracking.
Tip: You can also use VEED to store your videos, and directly embed them to your LMS. Any changes or edits you make to your videos will automatically be synced and reflected onto the LMS, which means you won’t need to re-upload your videos over and over again.
Use email and internal communications for distribution
Have a distribution plan in place to encourage employees to watch training videos.
For example, share relevant training material in your company newsletter and onboarding emails. Embed videos in HR portals and knowledge bases and use internal communication channels like Slack to send reminders.
Encourage engagement and completion rates
Gamify learning with reward points, completion badges, and certificates to motivate employees to complete their training.
You can also foster friendly peer competition by showcasing top learners based on engagement or scores. To further encourage consistency, use completion streaks and reinforce accountability with manager check-ins.
Measure training effectiveness
Track video views, completion rates, and quiz scores to assess employee engagement and performance.
Embed short polls in videos to gather immediate feedback on content usefulness. For deeper insights, regularly survey employees on ways to improve the training program. Recognizing employees who actively engage with training content through employee recognition software can motivate others to participate and reinforce a culture of continuous learning.
[#TOC5]5 common mistakes to avoid in corporate training videos[#TOC5]
1. Overloading videos with too much information
Information overload makes training videos hard to follow and retain. Aim to create bite-sized videos with 1-3 key takeaways on a specific topic to make learning easier.
2. Lack of interactivity
Interactive video elements reduce passive watching and boost learning by encouraging participation. For example, including polls helps employees test their knowledge and lets you track their performance.
3. Poor production quality
Poor video and audio quality frustrates viewers, compromising their learning experience. Prioritize high-quality production to get the most out of your training investment and create a dynamic learning culture.
4. Not keeping content up to date
Neglecting to regularly update your content diminishes your training videos’ relevance — increasing the risk of sharing inaccurate information and undermining your initial investment.
Block time in your calendar to revise sections or entire videos to reflect new policies, technologies, and best practices.
5. Ignoring accessibility
Inaccessible videos limit training content to a specific group of employees, compromising the very purpose of using video for employee learning.
Whether your training plan targets a local or global workforce, ensure all videos include captions and transcripts to support diverse learning styles. For a remote workforce across multiple countries, translate your videos to overcome language barriers.
[#TOC6]Future trends in corporate training videos[#TOC6]
Microlearning and just-in-time content
Short, focused videos that employees can watch on-demand are replacing long training sessions, enabling in-the-moment learning and better knowledge application.
AI-powered personalized training
In 2023, companies that used AI for training saw a 20.41% time savings and a 15% improvement in offering personalized learning experiences. They also saw an 18.87% boost in cost-effectiveness. Thanks to these benefits and AI’s effectiveness in analyzing employee progress and suggesting relevant training, AI-powered training is on the rise.
Interactive video experiences
Clickable, decision-based videos allow viewers to engage directly with the content by answering questions, making choices, or navigating different scenarios. Such an immersive learning approach offers a personalized training experience, enhancing information retention.
Level up your corporate training program with engaging videos
Although a full-fledged corporate training video program may sound overwhelming, it’s easier to build than it seems. Just focus on two things:
- Start small. After outlining your learning outcomes, choose one training topic and record a playlist of short videos on it.
- Leverage video editing tools that make it easy to create, record, edit (add transitions, subtitles, branding, etc), and optimize videos. Tools like VEED also offer templates to get your video creation plan off the ground.
We’ll leave you with additional resources to help you get started:
✅ The Complete Guide to Corporate Video Production
✅ How to Easily Create Training Videos (With Examples)
✅ Talking Head Videos: The Ultimate Guide to Making Engaging Talking Head Videos