Do people really want AI avatars, or to understand why their compliance videos are important? Amy Cassciotti explains

In this insightful interview, Amy Casciotti, Vice President of HR at TechSmith, shares her expert perspective on creating engaging and effective training videos. Drawing from nearly 30 years of HR experience in the tech industry, Amy discusses how video content can transform workplace learning and development.

🔹 Key Topics Covered:

• The unique challenges and opportunities of working in HR at a tech company like TechSmith
• Essential elements of high-quality training videos: length, clarity, and production value
• The importance of human connection in video learning versus AI avatars
• Common mistakes in instructional videos and how to avoid them
• Accessibility and inclusivity in video content for diverse learner needs
• Strategies for keeping employees engaged in mandatory training sessions
• Balancing compliance training with other workplace priorities

Whether you’re an HR professional, L&D leader, or content creator, this conversation is full of actionable insights to help you produce training videos that truly engage and educate.

📌 Connect with Amy Casciotti on LinkedIn

📌 Video Viewer Trends Report 2024

Transcript from TechSmith Audiate:

Amy Casciotti: I’m Amy Casciotti I’m the VP of HR here at Tech Smith and we’re a software company that makes SnagIt and Camtasia that you might have heard of And I’ve been in HR for almost thirty years now.

Jo Cook: Wow Amazing Thank you And from an HR perspective, what’s interesting about working for a tech company that does things like video and audio editing and and all of this kind of stuff It’s about training videos information videos.

Amy: Yeah I think being HR at a software company like TechSmith, like there’s no two days that are the same because we we’ve always been on kind of the cutting edge of technology and our engineers expect us in HR to kind of be on the cutting edge and keep up as well And so I have to keep refreshing and figuring out new ways of attacking things. Excuse me just like our engineers are having to do in our software for our customers. I love that

Jo: And and speaking of new things and attacking things in different ways video it’s not necessarily new but it’s definitely come of age I would say. And and a lot of people love watching video I mean YouTube is huge It’s so think the biggest search engine in the world maybe Don’t quote me on that Might have to look up my stats afterwards [It’s not -Ed] Um but tell me a little bit about what makes a really good quality video especially when we’re thinking about training and that kind of stuff.

Amy: I mean I think the first thing is being conscious of the length, depending on what you’re trying to give be really conscious of the time the viewers having to spend, so be efficient and effective in getting that across but also ensure that you’re audio and video are of quality that they’re not having to try to focus on paying attention to that instead of the content Like the video shouldn’t be a distraction from the content you’re trying to give And then as you increase in length of the video like pull in some more, you know professional zooming in on an area of the screen that you want them to have attention to Like those kind of things matter in your training content as well.

Jo: Yeah Especially when you’ve got a longer video you’ve got more content in there You just need to highlight that That’s something, you know I’ve I’ve not always been um the first advocate for video being you know I studied print I studied print journalism a magazine journalism I’m not became a little later to video I’ll be honest. Um but what I find the the things that distract me in videos is when like you don’t get to the point. And it’s like I’ve searched for this content and where is it in the video and you just have to wade through all of this stuff to get to it And then as you say there’s nineties graphics and you know nineties PowerPoint stuff going on, and and that’s all quite distracting.

Amy: And I think like you know I was guilty of when I first started making videos of just having a PowerPoint and then reading the PowerPoint I didn’t even have myself up on the video. You know, whether it be Camtasia or other video products that are out there they allow you to do picture and picture So even when you have slides shows up you be showing yourself to bring like a little bit of human element and interactivity so they’re not just zoning out looking at a slide of text on the screen.

Jo: Absolutely And that’s one of the things that your video report really highlighted well. Is we want to see a person And actually we don’t really want to see an AI avatar. It’s about that human connection Even though it’s in a video, we still want that human connection I remember many years ago I went on a virtual one day conference, and this was way before COVID, and nobody came on video. And so like great slides great interaction great chat, but I just felt I hadn’t seen anyone all day And it felt so strange to connect to people but not to connect with them visually.

Amy: Yeah I would rather do a video where I am not seeing people on the other side but like try to still talk out to them than be live with nobody’s video on And then I’m not like getting anything back from anyone.

Jo: Yeah. It’s a real challenge And speaking of challenges I loved one of the graphs in your report So the question asked was which elements keep you interested in watching instructional or informational videos? And there was this really distinct banding in the graph And I love the top three was easy to follow along. Content is relatable and current, and the speaker or presenter is engaging and knowledgeable. How do we develop that in our people Amy?

Amy: Great question. Um I mean I think one of the things is we need to know what we’re talking about. Other when we’re not as comfortable with the content I feel like most of us that’s when we become more verbose and kind of don’t get to the point pretty quick But I also think it’s you can’t just go in and make a video without planning in your head what you’re going to say Like it’s just like doing a live training Like all of those things I would say are true of lectures I was in in college to training corporate trainings that I’ve been in that you need to plan out what you’re going to say so that you one you’re comfortable with it So that’s not comp so you are being more engaging than uncomfortable with the content You know we all have different learning preferences And if you’re just giving the information one way others might not be paying as close of attention as you want them to So like things like closed captions really help me and help me to ensure that I’m continuing to pay attention to your video and instead of like my mind’s getting pulled over in some other direction on the screen And so just keep in mind.

Jo: And that accessibility is really important as well isn’t it. So…what is it that people can do in terms of one their product knowledge, but also more importantly their approach to things like videos to make sure that anybody who has any kind of, working knowledge or difference or or educational need can access video because otherwise that could be quite limiting for a lot of people.

Amy: Yeah I mean I think that’s why it’s important to keep those not just preferences but also needs pop of mind Like if you have a hard time hearing those closed captions are gonna be super important for that. So I think… starting with just having those different, um, perspectives in mind when you’re thinking about what you’re even going to do for the training is super important And then ensuring whatever tool you’re using to create that video that they have options available that help you to do those things And then Like we have an accessibility group here at TechSmith and so I will sometimes go to them and be like Hey, here’s what I need to do Here are my concerns that I wanna make sure I’m looking out for Do you have advice for me So it’s you know using other people not just yourself ensure that you’re hitting…on all of those different preferences and needs.

Jo: Absolutely And I think also it’s you know we can get very kind of into this thing of uh oh it’s people who have a hearing need or a visual need. But actually there are so many instances for instance I watch a lot of video with the sound off just because I’m in an environment where the sound isn’t appropriate where I don’t have my headphones or whatever reason it is. And even on something like Facebook like the captions come up brilliant, but then it’s overwritten by the text on Facebook So so understanding where our videos are sitting the context of whether that’s YouTube or Facebook or an internal learning management system, I think those things are really important as well. And that was something that was also in your report about where people are consuming their video But obviously if we’re talking um
kind of about training and instructional videos, um, tell me a little bit from that perspective about people who have to watch a video because that came up a couple of times in your report.

Amy: I mean I think one of the things with when they have to watch it is being cognisant of when you’re asking them to watch it If they have three different deadlines for things you need to get out to customers, and you have this compliance training is what I do a lot of in HR. The compliance training is probably taking the back door as it should to those customer things So one ensuring you’re giving them enough time to complete a something that they have to watch But also like building things into that is there any kind of interactivity in that or a way for them to have discussions that… you know are gonna help ensure they’re staying engaged And again their eyes aren’t moving over to an email or something else But, also how do you…ensure that they know why it’s important that they watch that Like that’s one of the big things for us with our staff is like why is this compliance training important Like what does it mean for us, for you as an employee for our customers Like ensuring they understand all that and then even though they might still not want to take the training they’re willing to take it because they understand why it’s important And I think we forget that piece a lot on many things Like, why does it matter Why is it important Like yeah…

Jo: I love that Great place to end Amy if people want to get in touch or follow you where can they find you?

Amy: Um they can find me on LinkedIn just Amy Casciotti.

Jo: Fantastic Thank you so much…