It doesn’t.
Some of the most useful training content your company could create is probably walking around your workplace right now, wearing a hard hat, answering customer calls, managing a crew or fixing a problem for the hundredth time.
Your employees already know the shortcuts, techniques, processes and little details that help them do their jobs well. The challenge is getting that knowledge out of their heads and into the hands of everyone else.
Creating a useful training video doesn’t have to become another project. With a smartphone, a clear topic and a simple structure, any team member can capture what they know and quickly turn it into practical training.
Here’s how to do it in under five minutes.
First, Lower Your Production Standards (Yes, Really)
Before we get into the how-to, we need to address the giant ring light in the room: Your training videos do NOT need to be perfect.
In fact, trying to make every training video highly polished can defeat one of the biggest advantages of user-generated content. Employees are learning from people who actually do the work. The people on screen don’t need to be actors, they just need to know what they’re talking about.
Obviously, if you can’t see or hear what the team member is saying, the training is worthless. So prioritize clear audio, good lighting and a clear view of the task rather than worrying about perfection. If editing is necessary, keep it minimal.
Production quality and training quality aren’t the same thing. A beautifully produced 8-minute video that dances around the point isn’t better than a slightly imperfect 90-second video in which your best technician shows exactly how to solve a common problem.
The goal is useful, not Oscar-worthy.
Minute 1: Pick One Thing Worth Teaching
The fastest way to turn a 2-minute video into a 20-minute production is trying to teach too much. Don’t start with a topic like “customer service,” “leadership” or “equipment maintenance.” Those are categories, not individual lessons.
Instead, find one specific question an employee needs answered, like:
- How do I handle this customer objection?
- What’s the fastest way to complete this process correctly?
- How do I perform this inspection?
- What’s one mistake new hires frequently make?
- How should I respond when this happens?
Don’t create training simply because you need “more content.” Create it because someone needs to know something. This is especially important with user-generated content because your teams are surrounded by potential training topics every day. The trick is learning to spot them.
If an employee asks a great question, that’s a video. If a manager explains the same process three times this week, that’s a video. If your top performer has a tip that saves everyone 15 minutes, that’s definitely a video.
Minute 2: Use the Four-Step Formula
Okay, you have your topic. Please resist the urge to open a blank Word document and write a 900-word script. You don’t need one.
Instead focus on this four-step formula designed specifically for short, user-generated content:
Question → Answer → The Why → Result
The Question establishes when the employee would use this information. The Answer explains what to do. The Why gives the reasoning behind the action. Finally, the Result tells employees what they should remember or what will happen when they apply the lesson correctly. The structure is designed for practical videos lasting just one to two minutes.
Suppose one of your salespeople has a great technique for following up with a prospect who has gone radio silent. The outline could look something like this:
- Question: What should you do when a promising prospect suddenly stops responding?
- Answer: Instead of sending another generic “just checking in” email, send a short message with one useful piece of information related to the problem she’s trying to solve.
- The Why: You’re giving the prospect a reason to reopen the conversation instead of simply asking her to do something for you.
- Result: Lead with value when restarting a stalled conversation.
Minute 3: Choose a Format That Fits the Lesson
Not every training video needs to feature a talking head explaining something. Actually, please don’t do that every time.
The format should fit the information you’re trying to teach. For example:
- “Watch Me Do It,” where the employee demonstrates a task while explaining it
- “One Tip That Changes Everything,” built around a particularly useful technique
- “The Mistake Everyone Makes,” showing an error and how to correct it
- “Three Things You Should Know,” organizing information into a quick list
- “Before and After,” showing the problem followed by the solution
These formats work because they’re built around the way employees actually share information with one another.
Minute 4: Grab Your Phone and Record
Now for the part that makes people nervous. Hit record.
Your smartphone is enough. Hold it at or slightly above eye level, use a tripod if one is available or ask a coworker to film. If you’re demonstrating a physical task, position the camera so employees can clearly see what you’re doing.
Then talk like a regular person. One of the strengths of user-generated content is that it sounds like the people employees already work with. Don’t edit that authenticity out.
Video also has an inherent advantage for learning. Our brains process images 60,000 times faster than text, and learners remember 80% of what they see compared with 20% of what they read. For hands-on tasks, showing can communicate something that would take paragraphs to explain.
When recording, try to capture the entire video in one take and keep the finished lesson to two minutes or less.
Did you stumble over a word? That’s okay! Keep going. Did the forklift beep in the background? No biggie.
Unless the mistake makes the lesson confusing or inaccurate, don’t scrap a perfectly useful training video over a few blemishes.
Minute 5: Edit Only What You Need, Then Share It
You’ve recorded the video. Now comes the dangerous part: Editing. This is where a five-minute project can suddenly eat your entire afternoon. Don’t let it!
Trim dead space from the beginning or end. Add simple on-screen text if it helps reinforce an important point. Fix anything that makes the lesson difficult to understand.
Then stop. Unfiltered peer perspectives build trust. The quirks that make user-generated content feel less “professional” can also be what makes it feel believable.
Then, once the video is ready, share it. With Tyfoom, employees can upload a video in two clicks (although organizational approval may be required before it goes live). Done and done!
One Video Isn’t Much, But Hundreds of Them Are
The real value of user-generated content isn’t any single video. Instead, it’s what happens when knowledge sharing becomes normal.
Individually, the videos may only be 60 to 120 seconds long, but collectively, they become an internal library built from the actual experience of your workforce.
And unlike a traditional training course developed once and left untouched for three years, user-generated content can evolve with the business.
When a process changes, someone records the new version. When a team discovers a better technique, they share it. When a recurring problem emerges, the employee who knows how to solve it demonstrates the answer.
Training starts moving at the speed of work, as it should.
Your Content is Already There
Companies spend a lot of time asking, “What training do we need to create?” Maybe the better question is, “What does our team already know?”
There are years, sometimes decades, of knowledge spread across your workforce. Your employees know how to solve problems. They’ve figured out what customers respond to. They’ve discovered which mistakes waste time and which small changes produce better results.
You don’t need to manufacture all that expertise into a giant course. Give team members five minutes and a phone.
User-generated content turns employees from training consumers into contributors and transforms the knowledge already inside your organization into something everyone can use.
See how you can put user-generated content to work and take your people to the next level by scheduling a meeting to speak with a Tyfoom training consultant today.