Simon Luckhurst explains the need for a good voiceover.
The virtual training industry grows at an astonishing pace every year. Walmart, the largest employer in the US, recently committed to delivering virtual reality training to its 140,000 associates. This form of training is also a favorite with NFL players thanks to its efficient, engaging and immersive nature.
At the same time, training firm Pathways has developed Canada’s first 360° virtual reality eLearning module, which it says can incorporate ‘an endless number of users in any location’ to complement real-world experiences.
Virtual training isn’t confined to headsets and the tech-savvy, though. The scope of virtual training can also include video training and interactive modules accessible online that can be completed at an employee’s desk.
Deliver powerful training messages with a strong voice over
These developments have become especially important for industries beyond retail, where the right training could be the difference between life and death. Virtual reality software is becoming increasingly essential in delivering training to people in the police, fire, health and military services. Nothing but the absolute best will do for workers in such high-pressure, high-risk industries.
A strong voice will aid in the digestion of material, bringing it to life in a way that encourages employee’s understanding and maintains their attention.
For training materials – video, virtual or otherwise – to be truly effective at keeping employees interested, it is important to use an engaging, relatable voice actor. A strong voice will aid in the digestion of material, bringing it to life in a way that encourages employee’s understanding and maintains their attention.
Ultimately, the right voice can improve overall workplace efficiency and employees’ attitudes to training. With less than a quarter of U.S. workers fully engaged in their jobs though, how can companies use audio to great effect in their training materials to improve engagement with employees?
Deliver powerful training messages with a strong voice over
Building an effective and creative audio strategy to complement your training materials is as important as the message you’re trying to promote within them.
This is where a lot of businesses – especially those who like to keep things in-house – can trip over themselves. Certain training materials and methods are indeed getting more technical, but some HR departments prefer to take screencaps and recordings through their PC or from online resources to create basic training materials.
The truth of the matter is, amateur recordings in an office space or at home can heavily detract from your overall message, and may only succeed in boring employees and switching them off.
In particular, there’s no substitute for a professional voiceover agency. Able to work with training specialists and individual companies alike, an experienced agency has access to a huge range of experienced voice artists.
This can help you to create powerful audio for your training solutions, enhancing the material’s message and giving employees a greater understanding of how to perform tasks, respond to HR issues and integrate with company culture.
Larger companies that employ staff in different regions across the globe can also find themselves with a unique problem when it comes to producing consistent training solutions. It can cost a lot of money to recreate existing training materials for companies with a global workforce.
However, a professional voice translation and localisation agency can help these brands to save money by repurposing training videos and virtual training materials into different languages. This can even take other cultures and their local semantics into account, helping multinationals to stay on the right side of employment law and ensure that cultural values are met.
Cutting costs on audio development in your training materials could cost you more than you think in the long run.
Recording audio in carefully-controlled, professional, isolated recording environments produces incredible results, enhancing the power and engagement potential of training materials whether they are shared in the form of videos, interactive virtual software, or any other solution designed to improve the productivity and wellbeing of your staff.
About the author
Simon Luckhurst is the owner of Voice Talent Online, a UK-based company that provides end-to-end voice over and audio localization. He has 14 years’ experience in audio production, localization and business ownership.
