HRchat Podcast
Listen to the HRchat Podcast by HR Gazette to get insights and tips from HR leaders, influencers and tech experts. Topics covered include HR Tech, HR, AI, Leadership, Talent, Recruitment, Employee Engagement, Recognition, Wellness, DEI, and Company Culture.
Hosted by Bill Banham, Bob Goodwin, Pauline James, and other HR enthusiasts, the HRchat show publishes interviews with influencers, leaders, analysts, and those in the HR trenches 2-4 times each week.
The show is approaching 1000 episodes and past guests are from organizations including ADP, SAP, Ceridian, IBM, UPS, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Simon Sinek Inc, NASA, Gartner, SHRM, Government of Canada, Hacking HR, McLean & Company, UPS, Microsoft, Shopify, DisruptHR, McKinsey and Co, Virgin Pulse, Salesforce, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Coca-Cola Beverages Company.
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Podcast Music Credit"Funky One"Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
HRchat Podcast
Why Your HR Needs Video with Amy Casciotti, TechSmith
Discover the game-changing potential of video within human resources in this insightful episode. Join us as we speak with Amy Casciotti, Vice President of HR at TechSmith, who shares her valuable experiences on leveraging video to enhance HR efficiency, employee onboarding, and training. Amy emphasizes the critical role video plays in fostering engagement, particularly in the modern landscape of hybrid work environments. With a focus on creating efficient communication methods, she discusses how HR can implement video for onboarding, making essential benefits information more accessible and understandable through visual aids.
The conversation also delves into some challenges HR faces in engaging remote teams and how personalizing video messages can put a face to the name, helping employees feel more connected. Learn about best practices for producing high-quality videos that capture attention and promote interaction, ensuring that training materials are effective and engaging. Amy’s insights into utilizing AI for localized training suggest that the future of HR lies in adaptable, inclusive communication methods.
Whether you’re an HR professional seeking innovative solutions or a business leader interested in effective employee engagement strategies, this episode is packed with actionable takeaways that can elevate your HR practices. Tune in now to implement the transformative power of video in your organization and keep your workforce connected! Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave us a review!
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Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talent execs, tech enthusiasts and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit hrgazettecom and visit HRGazettecom.
Speaker 2:Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show. Hello listeners, this is your host today, bill Bannam, and in this episode we're going to consider how HR can be more efficient with video. And joining me on the episode today is Amy Cassioti, vice President of HR over at TechSmith, a market leader in screen capture software and productivity solutions for in-person, remote or hybrid workplace communication about five and is responsible for all facets of HR for the company, including talent acquisition, performance management and improvement, training and development, workforce and space planning, compliance, employee relations and culture building. My goodness me, she's a busy person. Prior to becoming VP, amy held multiple HR roles at TechSmith since joining the company all the way back in 1995. Amy, welcome to the show. How are you doing?
Speaker 3:Good Thanks for having me, Bill. I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 2:So, beyond my wee introduction, then, amy, why don't you start by giving our listeners a little bit of context? Can you share your career journey in HR and what brought you to TechSmith?
Speaker 3:I kind of began my path down HR actually in high school when I worked retail.
Speaker 3:I somehow ended up reporting into the HR department and worked for them and didn't think things were run the way that they should to encourage employees to want to do their best at work every day, and so that set me on my journey to learn more about HR and kind of enter into a career of HR to show that things could be better for employees.
Speaker 3:So I actually started interning at TechSmith during my time at Michigan State University doing administrative things and just kind of learning how a startup software company runs. I was fortunate enough that they offered me a full-time role actually in our accounting department and then from there HR happened to be in accounting at the time. I was interested and so I made time to start helping out in those tasks and one thing led to another and it was taking up more than half of my time helping out with HR. So I proposed to our president at the time to start our HR department and he took a chance on me and kind of you know, as they say that now for the rest of the story, that I've been doing HR ever since here at TechSmith.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat Podcast. If you enjoy the audio content we produce, you'll love our articles on the HR Gazette. Learn more at HRGazettecom. And now back to the show. Okay, so you are a seasoned pro. You're an HR expert. In your opinion, as we record this episode, near the beginning of 2025, what are some of the top areas of HR that require improvement over the next year?
Speaker 3:I think all of us are still in the world of figuring outperson. Remote hybrid employees all receive a really great experience that allows them to feel connected and a part of the organization from day one, so that they don't continue their job search looking elsewhere and that they are able to quickly be productive members of the teams that they're joining. Ensuring we have effective training, not just in our jobs, but also on all of the technology that we're using. Ensuring we have effective training not just in our jobs, but also on all of the technology that we're using, so we're making the most of the spend we're all putting into our technology within our companies. And then I think, just the third one is creating better employee engagement, including HR, connecting more with staff and establishing those relationships. That is a lot harder in this hybrid remote world, and I think that's super important to us helping ensure we have engaged employees that are willing to share what's going on in our organizations with us.
Speaker 2:Okay, very good, Thank you very much. So, as I mentioned in the intro, in this episode we are considering how human resources can be more efficient with video. In this episode, we are considering how human resources can be more efficient with video. So my next question for you is how do you believe that video can be used to help out in those areas you just mentioned?
Speaker 3:Sure, I think, starting with onboarding, that video can be used to ensure we're making the most of the time that we have live, whether that be in person or, say, on a Zoom call with our employees make sure that that time is meaningful and things that maybe don't require that in-person time. We move those things to video. So for us at TechSmith, we've actually moved our benefits information and enrolling into benefits into videos where we help ensure that our new hires understand the value of our benefits and they're able to re-watch things. If it doesn't make sense to them at the time, or in a month from now when they actually need that benefit, they can refer back to that video or share it with their partner to make sure that they're all on the same page and it's not requiring us in HR to have that conversation multiple times. Instead, we're answering more directed, specific questions that the employee has on those benefits instead of just the general understanding of those benefits. So, finding ways to use video to help make our time more efficient and effective in how we're spending it with each other.
Speaker 3:I think looking at training, using video to help our staff ensure that they're using all of the different technology that we have and that they're comfortable with it. So for us, with our HRAS system, ensuring an employee knows how to put in time off instead of asking us each time they need to do that. Instead they can watch a quick 20 second video that walks them right through the steps they need to do to do that. So that's another way that I think video can help out in the training area as well. And then just with helping with connections and employees getting to know us. Instead of sending out a long email to our employees, doing a quick video so they get to see us, they get to hear us in the tone and help to show a little bit of our personality, so maybe they feel a little more comfortable with us and get to know a little bit about us, instead of just seeing us as a name on the screen that they know nothing about and don't see as a person just a quick follow-up to that.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's commentary, maybe there's another question here, but I guess also, video is quite an inclusive way of communicating, right? So so you know, if you've got employees who've got, you know, a hard of hearing or we've got visual impairments, you know you've got the closed captioning that can be on videos or employees can listen to videos. This is an opportunity compared to, say, written content on a website that wouldn't be available, right?
Speaker 3:Correct, and even for myself, I find that even when I'm hearing the video, I tend to read along with all of the closed captions, because it helps me to retain the information better. I ensure what I heard is what I'm seeing on the screen, and so for me, it just increases my understanding of the material as well, and I've heard from several of our employees that they find that to be very helpful and ensure that they're paying attention and their mind isn't wandering to an email.
Speaker 2:TechSmith specializes in visual communication software. Of course, For HR pros trying to embrace video more, what would you suggest are the most important factors when creating videos?
Speaker 3:I think the two most important factors are going to be ensure you have good audio and video quality. It doesn't need to be a professional video, like something you would watch at the movie theater, but it does need to be good enough so that it's not distracting them from the content you're trying to give them. If they can't hear or they're having trouble seeing what's on the screen, they're going to have a harder time paying attention and listening to the content that you're trying to deliver to them. So those would be my two things. That I would say is most important and just don't be intimidated to start creating videos. Start where you're comfortable and then, as you get more comfortable, you can add to the kind of videos that you're doing.
Speaker 3:And I would say, like for my team here at TechSmith, none of us were really that comfortable with video going, you know, and over the last few years all of our staff went remote. And now we're in this hybrid world and we have been immersed into video and had to get comfortable with it. And you know I had mentioned the 20 second, you know walkthrough for how to put in for time off. That was how we started getting comfortable with video. And now we're to the point where we're making 20 minute videos to help our employees learn new concepts and things, but it was definitely a progression for us to get there and we didn't start there at the beginning.
Speaker 2:By the way, you seem very comfortable on camera. This is an audio podcast, isn't it? So you're missing out here, but amy does seem very comfortable on video. So, for organizations new to using video for training purposes, what tips, amy, do you have to ensure that their content is engaging? So here we're talking about the connection, perhaps, between hr and marketing, which we talk about a lot on this show. So what are, what are some of those hooks to make it engaging and, of course, to make it effective for employees, and maybe that's around. Uh, what are some of those key kpis or competencies that have got to be ticked off?
Speaker 3:yeah, I I think in addition to, again, the audio and video quality being table stakes for just creating video, trying to ensure you're helping them to know what to focus on in the video, so little things like maybe a cursor enhancement so that the cursor is easy to follow, especially if you're showing technology in the video that you're creating. But I've seen videos where people are trying to do using video editing software but they're doing lots of transitions and very busy things on the screen and I would say don't do that. That gets very distracting and makes it hard to listen to the content. One of the things that I found for me to be very helpful is we have an internal version of like chat GPT. That is a closed system, so what we put in is not going into the general chat GPT, so I can feel more comfortable putting my content in there and not worrying about that it might be leaking out somewhere, and so I will put what I want to be, what content I'm trying to cover, and ask the AI to help me either with an outline for a video or even a script to start from. That then I edit from, and I have found that that is very helpful with cutting out some of the.
Speaker 3:You know I know a lot of things about the topic I'm trying to share, but my employees don't necessarily need to know all of those deep pieces that maybe I think I'm sharing, and so it does help me think through the content I'm sharing in the video. So that is something that I found to be helpful. Probably another thing to share is we did do a video viewer study with an international audience and one of the things we found in that study was video length is incredibly important and the 10 to 19 minute long instructional or informational video is kind of where people prefer and was the most popular, unless you have a very deep concept you're trying to cover and then a longer video would be appropriate and employees are open to listening to that. But if you're just trying to cover a general topic or get people to on, you know, into an intro to the topic, no more than 19 minutes for a video once in a while, an event series is born that shakes things up, it makes you think differently and it leaves you inspired.
Speaker 4:That event is Disrupt HR. The format is 14 speakers, 5 minutes each and slides rotate every 15 seconds. If you're an HR professional, a CEO, a technologist or a community leader and you've got something to say about talent, culture or technology, disrupt is the place. It's coming soon to a city near you.
Speaker 2:Learn more at disrupthrco to a city near you. Learn more at disrupthrco. I guess that feeds into the idea of bite-sized learning. Right? Yeah, the 10 to 19 minutes. Do you guys often create shorter content as well, Maybe two to five minutes, depending on what the nature of that content is?
Speaker 3:Yeah, in our HR team we kind of call we have a series we call benefit bites that they're two to five minute pieces and if you add them all together they probably are 20 minutes. But we try to take little bite size pieces to ensure that employees will actually watch the videos instead of them looking and going. I have to find 20 minutes to get this content. It's no, we're asking for two to three minutes and then, as you watch all of them, you will cover what we are hoping you will learn.
Speaker 2:On a related note, I think YouTube shorts are ruining my family life. It's so easy to watch those and they just come thick and fast.
Speaker 3:I wonder how many of us do that where it's like I don't have 20 minutes, but then 20 minutes later we've watched five of those YouTube shorts and could have watched a 20-minute video right.
Speaker 2:So we live in a globalized world. Many companies have global workforces In that context, when it comes to localized training, that's pretty important, breaking it down for different local teams. How do you see AI playing a role in making training more accessible and culturally relevant for diverse teams?
Speaker 3:I think AI is making it a lot easier to localize training content. You start off with AI translation. That's making it easier to take For me it would be an English translation or, you know, recording and help to not just translate the audio using an AI generated voice, but also the closed captions, taking those from English, say, into Germany, because we do have German employees. The thing I would caution everyone, though, is it's not a perfect solution. You know, as with anything in AI, you always still are going to want to have a human that understands that language to review it to ensure that it is actually translating appropriately and fits into cultural expectations, because not everything from how I would share them necessarily translates the way I would want to say German.
Speaker 2:Wunderbar, sehr gut, okay. So on a related note, standardized training. If you've got employees who are around the world, I'm guessing that standardized training is still important, that there's got to be recognition of different cultural values and different ways that folks perhaps learn and communicate in different locales. But standardized training structures across an organization can, of course, drive consistency, but it's not always easy. In your experience, amy, what strategies do you recommend for optimizing and standardizing training programs?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think, first, recognizing the different types of training there are to make sure that the standards you're giving fit into that bucket. So, whether it be processes that are part of your org or job, specific training or software training, one, making sure that's clear. For us, it's ensuring that we have templates in place that make it really easy for our subject matter experts to just add the content they need to, without needing to do those introductions, create those on their own. You know lots of them are doing the job in addition to helping us train others on it, so I want to ensure we're maximizing their time in the way that makes the most sense for them and the rest of us. So putting those standards in place where they're just kind of filling in the content in the middle but not having to create the intros and outros for the training. It also helps our employees to know what exactly it is that they should be expecting out of the training that they're receiving.
Speaker 2:And I guess it's the role of the HR department to always offer opportunities for dedicated training if needs be. The videos are great, but there needs to be reinforcement that you know what. If you've got particular needs based on your locale, based on your particular job, based on your learning habits there, there are resources available to you to be able to communicate directly, is that?
Speaker 3:fair, correct. Yes, yeah, not. Videos are not great for every kind of training and are not, oh, one size fits all. It all depends on the goal and what you need the outcome to be but it's certainly an accessible form of learning.
Speaker 2:It can it can streamline a lot of processes as well. Um, and we all use video. That that's the reality. Right, we all learn these days. Okay, very good, thank you. So the shift to hybrid work has changed the way that we approach training. We saw hybrid work become a thing during the pandemic and now it's part of whatever the new normal is. What's the value of blended learning in this environment, and how can HR teams balance digital and in-person training in effective ways?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think we hit on that just a second ago that it really depends on what you're trying to accomplish out of the training. You know it's no blanket one size fits all for anything and even though we're a software company, I'd say if you are a paramedic and needing to learn how to do an IV draw, maybe a video could help you to get the basic concepts and the steps of what you need to do. But at some point you are going to need to be in person and actually try out an IV on a person that you can't do that in video. So it really just depends on what the outcome is.
Speaker 3:The other thing I would call out too is sometimes staff say that they want video learning, but that doesn't mean that's the best way for them to learn that for things that maybe there needs to be interactions with others. Sometimes, maybe that's when you really do need that in-person training. Or, in addition to the training, you're trying to build connections between groups so you want them talking to each other in the breaks between classes, and so we do a lot of video training, but we still have in-person trainings where we will bring our staff in from. You know all the different places where they work, to come into the office for those trainings because, after assessing our goals, that is what makes the most sense, not the video training excellent, amy, you're not going to believe this, but we are already almost at the end of this particular conversation.
Speaker 2:Um, what bill? I could do this all day. Keep throwing the questions at me. No, no, I'm sorry. Well, I've just had to get you on again in the future, but before we do wrap up for today, how can our listeners connect with you and learn more about you? Is that linkedin? Do you want to share your email address? Given that we've been speaking about videos today, maybe tiktok, who knows? And course, how can folks learn more about TechSmith?
Speaker 3:For me personally, you can follow me on LinkedIn. Just Amy Cassiotti and I do sometimes share videos that my team and I are working on. As far as TechSmith, you can find us at techsmithcom. We are also on YouTube, instagram, linkedin all of the places you could expect others to be. You can find TechSmith and learn more about Snagit and Camtasia.
Speaker 2:Wonderful. Well, that just leaves me to say for today Amy, thank you very much for being my guest.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:And listeners as always. Until next time, happy working.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show. If you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe and listen to some of the hundreds of episodes published by HR Gazette and remember for what's new in the world of work? Subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit hrgazettecom.
