The biggest challenge faced by South Africa’s HR and operations managers tasked with training employees is making sure that content makes an impact – and that it makes enough of an impact to inspire employees to change their behaviour or improve their performance.
Thirty-nine percent of business leaders already use enterprise video on demand (EVoD) , with a further 24% intending to adopt this method of content delivery in the near future. Fifty-five percent said that they saw the service as being able to increase the impact of communications and training, to make it possible to measure engagement, as well as to reduce the time taken to deliver content or do training.
These were the headline findings of a study commissioned by Internet Solutions, a pan-African communications service provider, conducted by an independent research company during July and August 2015.
The study sought to determine whether enterprises understood the potential that EVoD offers to help them communicate efficiently and cost-effectively with employees, whether it be for training purposes, or to achieve broader communications objectives such as communicating new strategies within the company.
Setting up and curating their own EVoD channel gives enterprises the ability to create their own private, secure video communication, making it possible for more engaging communication, as well as removing many of the costs and obstacles to internal training.
“Video on demand combines the best of what humans like most when they’re engaging with the world around them,” says Andrew Aitken, executive for cloud at Internet Solutions. “It combines moving images, live sound and real people with the power of modern computing technology: the ability to create and manage captivating content, send it anywhere in the world at low cost, mix and match old and new to create something fresh, and very tightly and securely manage its delivery.”
The 39% of respondents who already use EVoD for training see it as an efficient way to remedy the skills shortage challenges faced by so many South African businesses. EVoD gives HR, operations and marketing departments a single platform on which they can store and manage their video content securely, without risking the rights and security issues often synonymous with ‘free’ video streaming services.
HR managers surveyed in the study found particular value in the fact that training offered via EVoD is delivered consistently, with everyone exposed to the content – wherever they may be in the world – viewing the same content and being trained in the same way. This is particularly important in legal situations, such as cases before the CCMA, where businesses need to prove that they provided the correct and relevant information to empower their employees to do their jobs efficiently and safely.
Enterprises can use the EVoD platform to share content via a variety of devices, including televisions, computers, display screens, mobile phones and tablets. It also ensures that content is only seen where it is meant to be – within the company network, or on authorised devices – offering peace of mind that sensitive information is kept safe from competitive eyes. The nature of digital video also means that content can be viewed many times, giving employees the opportunity to review it at any time that they feel the need to refresh their skills, or remind themselves of core elements of executive communication.
Importantly, it is possible to insert interactivity and management mechanisms into content served by EVoD. These include short Q&As to test whether viewers have absorbed content, or the content could include a text chat facility where employees can ask questions. It is also possible to check who is engaging with the content, and how frequently they do so.
“At Internet Solutions, we expect to see rapid growth in demand for custom content, curated within organisations in partnership with specialist content providers, as South African enterprises increasingly choose EVoD as their primary way to educate and communicate,” says Aitken.
“We are investing in technology solutions for enterprises who want to use the power of streaming video, in anticipation of a visionary ecosystem of enterprises that will partner with us and specialist content creators like Antfarm, an Internet Solutions company. These leaders in creating the future world of work will lead their sectors with engaged, well-trained and efficient workforces, at every level and at every location.”