Healthy and safety videos for the workplace, in the UK especially, are becoming increasingly important. With lockdown easing and the vast majority of the UK returning to work under the ‘new normal’ conditions, it’s important to communicate effectively and clearly.
Clear communication is no longer a ‘nice to have’ in this scenario, it’s a must for the wellbeing of your staff and customers. Unfortunately, even with the added danger, human nature remains the same. Most people won’t read a huge brochure on your latest health and safety policies. If you want proof, why not check ours out here. If you’ve just made it back, welcome! If you never left…told you so!
So how do you ensure people absorb, and most importantly remember, the new health and safety protocols when they do eventually return to the workplace? This is where an engaging video comes into play.
We already know that video is one of the best forms of communication when it comes to information actually being remembered. Figures suggest that people are 8 times more likely to remember something they watch vs something they read or hear. [Source]
With such staggering statistics, it’s just sensible for businesses in the UK to adopt video into their internal and external communication strategies.
But as with all types of videos, poor execution can be worse than no execution at all. So what should you be cognisant of when making your health and safety video?
Top Tips For a Winning Return-to-Workplace Health & Safety Video
Narration > text
Using a narrator with a well-rehearsed script is going to be crucial. Using lots of text on the screen is no different to just printing out a health and safety manual. In fact, it’s probably worse!
But the simple way to think about it is the dreaded death by Powerpoint. We’ve all sat in one of those awful presentations before, haven’t we? The one where each slide has reams of text on it and the presenter head-down ploughs through the whole thing, rarely lifting their head for air. Make sure your video doesn’t do that! Using a voice over artist or get someone from your team, who is great at public speaking, to do it.
It will help carry the video and will improve the overall pace. Which leads me to my next point….
Pace yourself
Want to know what makes a video boring? The wrong pace. Want to know what makes a video confusing? The wrong pace.
You need to be quick enough to remain engaging, and steady enough to ensure you are informative. Too fast and the message will be lost. Too slow and the viewers’ mind will wander. You can set the pace by using some common sense and knowing which parts of the video are relatively simple, e.g “wash your hands”, and which parts are slightly more complex e.g “pre-book meeting rooms, replace the sanitisers after use and then wipe down the tables”.
Mixing the pace within the video can also be a great way of keeping the content engaging throughout.
No cheese
Those old 80s and 90s health and safety videos might be funny in retrospect, but you don’t want that style for 2020.
Think about it; this is still a piece of communication, which means it’s technically still marketing even if no one outside the organisation is going to see it. And marketing is a reflection of your brand. How do you want your business or organisation to be perceived and represented? Furthermore, will your staff and customers take a cheesy video seriously? Or will it devalue the overall video and ensure it loses both its authority and meaning?
Stay away from cheesy lines, cheesy acting and cheesy presenting. If you can afford to get a presenter, do it. If someone in the office is an absolute boss at presenting, then maybe that’ll work. The vast majority of us are awful at presenting on camera, so either don’t bother and just use a voice over or ensure your script is super tight. Which leads me to my next point.
Write, rewrite and rewrite again
The script and the storyboard of your video needs to be lean, effective and slick. This ONLY happens through the process of writing, rewriting and rewriting again. Trust me on this. Your first attempt will be ok. But once you get to your third draft, it’ll make your first attempt look like wrote it after sinking half a bottle of gin on a boozy Wednesday. (It’s lockdown, we all drink on Wednesdays now, it’s ok!).
But seriously. Go back through the script and the storyboard and remove unnecessary language, read it out loud to make sure it’s structured correctly. Talk it through with a friend or family member; someone who has never been to your workplace. Because if they get it, then it definitely makes sense!
Conclusion
Health and safety videos to help staff and customers return to the workplace safely are essential. In the UK we have done a great job at supporting each other and helping within the community. See your video and your duty to create this video as more support for that community. It’s not a cost, it’s a real investment so either invest time or money to make sure it’s brilliant!
You can find out more about how a workplace safety video could work for your business here.
If you want some more advice, or if you want to chat about how we could do it for you, get in touch here.
