Unfortunately the New Year ushered in trying economic times. The plunging stock market and endless doomsday news reports are enough to scare anyone out of spending. Businesses of all size are scrutinizing costs with specific attention to Human Resources and their orientation and training expenses. As a result, companies are seeking out technology and video solutions to help reduce costs associated with employee orientation/training and further support cutbacks in training staff. All the while improving the bottom line.

THE ISSUE | There’s no denying that training and employee retention is a worthy undertaking. According to both the American Management Association and the Department of Labor, the total costs of training a new employee range from 30 percent of an hourly worker’s yearly salary to 150 percent of salaried employees. In real terms, taking conservative estimates across the board, if a 5,000-person company with an average salary of $40,000 and a turnover rate of 15 percent, the cost of that turnover to the bottom line equals $30 million. $30 million! This fact puts great emphasis on investing in employee retention programs and there’s no one better in the business than Diamond H Personal Recognition (www.diamondh.com).

And we haven’t even scratched the surface of the costs to continually train and educate your existing employees, which on the low side is estimated at $1500 per employee/per year, according to the American Society for Training and Development. In our example of a 5,000-person company, we’re looking at an additional $7.5 million.

As a result, companies wishing to train and maintain their valuable workforce are becoming more efficient throughout all activities, but specifically on the cost side of the equation.

THE SOLUTION | Gone are the days of large orientation and training teams that, on top of salaries and benefits, require a host of costs associated with travel and materials. Innovative companies are turning to video and technology solutions that allow them to deploy orientation and training materials at a fraction of the cost.

The ability to distribute orientation and training programs through web, DVD, or content delivery systems such as Ignite (www.ignitetech.com), eliminates the high cost of a traveling training force. Videos also allow companies to better integrate training into the current workflow of their employees, while minimizing the down time of lengthy and often ineffective training sessions.

“We’ve found that orientation and training content can actually be more engaging and dynamic through video. The same type of excitement and energy that engages audiences in commercial pieces can be easily applied to subjects that are thought to be less interesting, and our clients are really pleased with that reality,” says Red Sanders, President of Red Productions. He’s referring to how his team uses impacting music, creative motion graphics, and interactive content to engage the trainee and make sure the content hits home.

Last year, Coca-Cola called upon Red Productions to produce an interactive and scalable orientation video to welcome and educate roughly 25,000 employees that turnover each year. The DVD was deployed to business units across the U.S. and can be easily updated as policies and information change.

“The harsh reality is that we all have to be lean in our approach to maintain our most valuable resource and quickly ramp up during the on-boarding process. Smart companies are turning to media and technology to meet those needs at a much lower cost than traditional methods,” said Greg Beauchamp, a Producer with Red Productions.

Red Productions is a full service, script to screen video production company with offices in Texas and New York.