From our last article on the benefits of investing in occupational health and safety training, it is obvious that continual OHS training can lead to a safer, more productive, and all-around better workplace environment for employees as well as the company. Still, there is the question of the training itself: which format or blend of formats works best for your company? Logically, considering that most training materials come in a text format, this is the obvious choice; however, it may not be the best choice. Since we are essentially attempting to market the concept of understanding and following occupational health and safety standards, perhaps it would make sense to assess marketing data.
As mentioned previously, video content accounted for nearly 70% of the global Internet traffic last year and viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text. Largely, this is due to how our brains process information: a whopping 90% of all information transmitted to our brain is through visual data; moreover, visual data is processed 60,000 times faster compared to reading text. According to a study from Diode Digital, video promotion is roughly 600% more effective when compared to simple combined text and print media. Considering this, the data that our brain processes from a single minute of video is the equivalent of about 1.8 million words. Additionally, as virtually anyone can attest, it is far easier to watch a minute of video than read 1.8 million words about a topic.
Though visuals may be better to communicate ideas in general, this concept doesn’t fully apply to international companies who have multilingual and multicultural employees. Think of it like trying to watch a documentary in a foreign language: while you may have a reasonable understanding of the main topic, many of the important and intricate details will be lost to you. In the world of occupational health and safety, where proper knowledge and procedure are key, this simply isn’t good enough. On the other hand, attempting to produce individualised videos based on language and culture can easily and quickly become cost prohibitive.
Offering the best of both worlds, the solution is producing a single video and translating the information in the video itself. For example, the spoken content can be translated and applied via voiceover, with both lipsyncing and narration possible. As for onscreen text, it can be handled by video captioning and overlay, so as not to clutter the screen. Theoretically, with tools such as these, a single video could be used to translate policy and procedure into any language or culture.
The benefits of video training for OHS speak for themselves both in understanding and retention; furthermore, the ability to use this tool in an economically applicable across borders and languages format definitely provides a good ROI.
But don’t fall into the trap of using multiple providers or targeting different audiences with a single video, instead find a LSP that can offer you a complete translation engineering and localisation solution for all your video content and language needs.
EVS Translations can guide your company through the process, and work to meet your needs and deadlines, so that your customised OHS video message to global employees creates impact.
EVS Translations offers dedicated professional translators to translate your script, broadcast-standard voiceover artists to convey your message in style and substance, subtitling services for polished visual communication, in-house translation engineers to professionally handle all the strings extraction, integration and post-production, and dedicated project managers to guarantee customer-tailored solutions and that your OHS video projects will be completed on time and on budget.
