L&D professionals, HR managers and corporate trainers spend time, money and resources on building corporate training. An inability to measure the impact of learning can affect the profitability of a business.
Return on investment (ROI) can be hard to measure because of all the variables involved. Improving the ROI of your video training requires either reducing costs or increasing gains. It’s about more than just measuring how many employees finish a course. It must show that these employees behave or perform differently than employees who didn’t complete the course. Businesses must understand the impact the training has on employee performance and overall business outcomes.
Investing in video-based corporate training requires clear metrics to measure its effectiveness. If L&D teams can show demonstrable gains from training, it can help to justify the training budget spend.
Tracking engagement, knowledge retention, and the overall impact of the training is essential. It is easier to track the ROI of video learning today thanks to advances in video analytics.
Key metrics to measure the ROI of video-based learning
It’s important to define the key metrics associated with expected outcomes and ways to measure them. A training video must serve a specific business goal. Defining this goal helps you to measure its effectiveness.
Engagement metrics
Engagement metrics help to track how employees interact with your corporate training videos. Higher watch times and completion rates suggest your employees find the content valuable and they are more likely to retain the information. Early drop-off suggests that a video isn’t engaging employees. High click-through rates indicate engagement with content and interest in learning more.
Analyzing engagement metrics helps you to identify which training videos are most effective and which ones need improving. Tracking engagement metrics and linking them to business outcomes helps you to determine the ROI of video learning.
Knowledge retention assessments
Quizzes in videos can help you to assess knowledge retention. Higher scores on quizzes indicate that learning is effective which means a positive return on your investment in training. Low performance on quizzes shows that employees are struggling. It is futile to expect that their productivity will improve. Instead, it’s a sign that the course may need to change for it to achieve its purpose.
Employee performance improvements after training
Observing and monitoring employee performance helps with assessing how they apply their new skills. Measuring learning impact can involve methods such as performance reviews, peer feedback, and supervisor evaluations. Customer feedback can also help if the training is tied to customer-facing roles.
How to track and analyze training video performance
Tracking and analyzing training video performance requires using a combination of methods.
Use video analytics tools to gain insights
Video analytic tools can offer in-depth insights into video performance. They can show you what devices employees use most to access learning materials. If the video platform you use isn’t mobile responsive, employees will find it hard to watch videos on their mobile devices. On a viewer screen information about a viewer will show data such as location, viewing time, average engagement, and IP address.
Cincopa’s video hosting platform offers advanced training program analytics. Engagement tracking, interactive learning tools, and reporting features allow businesses to measure the true impact of their video training.
Use pre-training and post-training assessments
Pre-training assessments can establish a baseline of knowledge and skills. Post-performance assessment can evaluate knowledge retention and application of skills after training. Employees must be able to apply their knowledge and skills on the job after training or it is worthless.
Collect employee feedback
Surveys, polls, interviews, and focus groups provide ways to gather employee feedback on a training program and how effective it is. Video messaging offers a way for employees to interact and is another way they can provide feedback. You can also monitor participation in forums or Q&A sessions. This qualitative approach works better for assessing soft skills like communication and persuasion.
Cost savings and efficiency benefits of video training
It’s important to measure financial metrics such as cost savings and productivity gains. An improvement in employee skills can help with increasing sales, customer retention, and much more. Some examples of metrics relevant to assessing the ROI of video learning include error rates, time to complete tasks, customer satisfaction scores, and cost savings.
Cost savings
Traditional training methods are costly because they often involve venue hire, instructors, travel, and printing costs. One of the gains of video training is a reduction in training costs. Online access to training materials is a cost-effective way to provide corporate training. Training can also impact employee retention and reduce hiring costs.
Scalability
Corporate training video effectiveness depends on scalability. Videos must be easy to access, edit, and re-use. You shouldn’t just use them once but reuse them across different channels in different ways. The more employees who can access and watch high-quality video content simultaneously, the more your ROI will improve.
A video hosting platform must offer efficient ways to store, manage, and distribute corporate video training content. This means your video-based training can accommodate your growing workforce and meet the needs of remote and hybrid employees.
When your employees can watch and engage with high-quality training videos it will ultimately benefit your business. Offering live streaming and video-on-demand (VOD) offers synchronous and asynchronous learning options to employees.
Time efficiency
Employees can benefit a great deal from flexible, on-demand video training. It enables them to fit continuous learning into their busy schedules. New employees can learn at their own pace instead of having to attend in-person training. Current employees can quickly access ‘bite-sized’ video content to brush up on their skills and apply their new knowledge immediately.
Microlearning videos deliver essential information in an efficient way. They are short in length and break complex topics down into more digestible units. Each unit will focus on a specific topic or skill. Employees can access them when they need them and apply the knowledge straight away. This is much more effective than traditional learning methods that take employees away from their desks. They have more time to focus on their jobs and become more efficient.
Examples of companies that use video-based training to improve ROI
The following examples show a clear relationship between the use of video-based training and better ROI.
Paychex is a provider of human capital management solutions. It had a high turnover of newly hired sales reps and unmet revenue goals. A new sales onboarding strategy was launched incorporating video role-play assignments and certifications. Employees could pick up specific skills, apply the knowledge immediately, and keep developing new competencies. The company saw an 8% increase in employee retention and a 10% increase in business revenue.
With more than 1,600 retail outlets across the U.S., Verizon wanted a scalable way to train its employees. It implemented video-based practice and coaching. Employees could engage in role-play scenarios and get feedback from managers. The result was an over 70% increase in customer acquisitions. Improvements in ROI from video-based training initiatives were significant.
Walmart uses live-action videos with step-by-step instructions to teach employees essential company details and role responsibilities. It has seen a noticeable decrease in employee turnover and reduced hiring and training costs over time.
How organizations track ROI using data-driven video strategies
Quantifying the ROI of video learning requires using hard data and analytics. Areas businesses may focus on include gains in productivity, higher employee retention, or selling more products.
There are many different ROI models. A model that measures the difference between training costs and training results can be effective when requesting more training resources. Training costs will include video production, software, the video platform or LMS, and time spent on training. Training results may include cost savings, time savings, productivity gains, and an increase in revenue. It’s important to allow a reasonable period for adjustment before you check for an increase in profit or revenue.
Conclusion
Measuring the ROI of video learning ensures that the money, time, and resources it eats up offer positive results. It determines whether the training contributes to better employee and business performance. Training must align with business goals such as increasing employee retention or improving productivity. Tracking metrics such as employee engagement, knowledge retention, and improvements in performance is critical. Access to in-depth insights from video analytics allows for continuous improvement of training courses. Using Cincopa’s video analytics can contribute to training success. Visit the home page to sign up for a free trial.
