Kroll's Security Concepts Podcast

Kroll's always been heavily involved in training our clients’ workforces, ranging from active assailant training and threat management team training, to travel safety training. Kroll has worked with clients to provide training that is integral to the overall security program and still greatly needed regardless of the work location or travel frequency of our clients. Kroll has recently worked with a company that produces high-level training programs with an emphasis on the video-based programs that are easy to digest and access.

Kroll's has work with Video Nitch on providing training throughout COVID-19. In deploying Kroll's knowledge and personnel with the video production and infrastructure capabilities provided by Video Nitch, we have been able to provide our clients with the exact type of training called for in today's changing business environment.

Pete Cronan is vice president of business development for Video Nitch and a former executive in the financial print industry. Prior to all of that, Pete spent nine seasons in the NFL playing for the Seattle Seahawks and the Washington Redskins. Our first super bowl champion on the podcast.

Passages from the Episode

Video-Based Employee Training

“What kind of offsite video-based training are you seeing the biggest demand for?” – Jeff Kernohan

“We have discovered a great deal of interest in industries that tend to be regulated. When you're dealing with industries where like, utilities for example, a lot of risks, training and certifications are necessary. We've seen a tremendous amount of interest in what I would loosely deem as regulated industries. However, we've also had a great deal of success by the nature of this what I'm calling is the current reality. The need for training doesn't go away, the need for ongoing education doesn't go away. Companies have really struggled with how to deal with this and it's required them to rethink their respective strategies.” – Pete Cronan

“Traditional education and training on a corporate level, small classroom setting, larger auditorium settings, live presentations, interactions with audiences, they were all commonplace—for the time being are gone. Yet the demand for training and education certifications is beginning to backlog. We have seen a tremendous amount of interest in those industries that require that you do a very specific task and you do it right the first time. There's risk related whether it be personal risks or otherwise and the administrative body needs to monitor the behavior of that person executing that task.” – Pete Cronan

“We've seen a lot of the companies trying to figure out how they go from traditional training to this new environment of training. We've seen a lot of people have some slip ups where the training obviously didn't work well, the training didn't provide the content they needed or it wasn't provided in a format that allowed all these work from home people to actually absorb it, use it and get what they needed out of it.” – Jeff Kernohan

Remote vs. In-Person Training

“What kind of issues are you seeing trying to move from a classroom or amphitheater setting into more of the work from home, everybody's looking at it on their computers, everybody's getting the same training and we're making sure they all get it but we're not doing that group training sessions anymore?” – Jeff Kernohan

“It's really interesting because we're in this business now for almost 10 years and we always looked at what we provided the video production capabilities and our technology was a want to have in many cases versus a must have. The want to have people tend to be the tip of the spear, those were the people through with their innovators, who were really embracing change and this in lending in that environment had some degree of change involved in it how people deal with change.” – Pete Cronan

“When COVID-19 hit, it flipped. It turned from a want to have to an absolutely must have. With it, the degree of interest that resulted as an integrated part of this current reality. There was a time when you think back to when we're all just starting to use tools like Zoom and it was clunky. It was hard to work in that environment. Well, now everybody knows how to use zoom now or an equivalent technology. To call a virtual meeting was odd. It was again uncomfortable and clunky and it's very commonplace now. The environment has really forced the need for a solution like the one that we provide.” – Pete Cronan

“As a result, people will become much more receptive to the differences between what was and what is. They're also now realizing that the effectiveness of remote training using video as a primary medium is now beginning to show some significant positive results. Especially when it comes back to measuring the training that you're providing and making sure that people are not only are getting the training, but they're retaining the information that they have been exposed to. And that there is the science behind of all this. There's a great part when you do any kind of training even the old-fashioned kind.” – Pete Cronan

“It's really important that space repetition is incorporated. All that is as you learn something and a couple of days later, you're reminded of it, and a few more days later you're reminded again. All the technology that we provide in the medium being video, allows companies to provide this space repetition strategy where retention levels if not incorporate drop to a near zero, after about 60 days, but using the concept to the technique of space repetition the retention level and recall it elevates into the 80 percentile. This is all science that backs up the behavior and so companies are finally realizing or seeing the benefits of having this type of strategy using this type of a technique.” – Pete Cronan

“What we have found is the best buy-in from employees and from management for our clients is really the content that is a bit above and beyond. People come to Kroll for the best. When we're giving them the best it requires that we have something that's a little bit more than your standard, what people have gotten used to for their certifications and the different trainings that they might've gotten. They want to see something that's a little bit more interesting. That's where I think I've seen a lot on your part and some of the ones that we've worked on with you. Where you use everything from green screen and put people on location where they're actually talking in the location of the people's offices those kinds of things.” – Jeff Kernohan

“If you make training interesting people will learn. They're going to pay attention. That's the doorway to using video content educational tools. Today we say content is king—it's all about the content. That little statement there can be kind of intimidating for a company who's never had to create content. Well, how the heck do I get content, where do I go to find it, what are my options? There are three basic options you create, partner or you purchase. Each one of them brings in a whole element of learning in so whichever path you choose it could be anyone, any combination of the three. Whichever path you choose, it's always good to have a smart partner in your corner. That's how we try to position ourselves as a smart partner help the company determine which path they want to follow. Simple on a create standpoint. Identify subject of interest, start small, one brick at a time so to speak.” – Pete Cronan

“Commit the appropriate resources to creation now. This requires a conversation, a dialogue, what are we going to need to put this together because you're talking about scripts, you're talking about talent, you're talking about equipment, you're talking about editing. There's some complexity to it. Most companies don't have these capabilities in-house but many of them are willing to develop them. The flexibility in future editing on core content is critical because once in a digital form you can do a lot. You're not limited to it is what it is. You can clean it up. You can edit content that you may not be satisfied with and add and subtract as you deem is necessary. Alternative number two partner, and engage a professional production company like us, like Video Nitch. To provide what's needed to produce a high-quality product, you still need to commit resources and individuals and a responsible party. Somebody in an authoritative position who basically mandates the execution of this part of the strategy. It's not something you just start and just walk away from it. It requires a commitment from all parties. But find a partner that's going to work within the budgetary constraints.” – Pete Cronan

“Proper planning, compartmentalizing content, so you can piece it together like a recipe so that you get the quality you're looking for without having to endure additional time and cost. The only drawback is production can be costly and requires COVID-19 safety protocol. This reality we're in right now you need to consider all of that which tends to add some level of complexity, some level of additional time and some level of additional costs. The third option is to buy. There is a lot of content out there right now that you can buy off the shelf. Offering a broad range of subjects that you can purchase from. The drawback is they tend to be expensive and also highly structured; they may not be exactly what you're looking for. In many cases, if you attempt to edit that content, copyright restrictions prevent you to customize it to meet your needs. You may not in many cases have an editing option. So you got some full range there. But it really is one size does not fit all feet, but you pick which one you want and we're in a company that's in a position to provide any in all of the above.” – Pete Cronan

“When you bring up the idea of being able to go back and edit, we see far too many corporations that have training materials that are outdated based on what they do and what today's environment is, so it’s great to have the ability to edit that out. When you talk about working with a partner or doing it in-house makes a lot of sense to me. Requirements change daily in some markets. As we're trying to develop new content for our training, having to go out and buy all new training. It's typically fairly generic to be able to spread across a whole market of people and makes that a bit more difficult.” – Jeff Kernohan

“It makes a lot of sense to me because it allows you to with the right technology that you provide, go in and do another green screen and put the person on the new location, or put the person in different areas or have them redo a certain part and put it right in there. Being able to do those and being able to create that content fairly efficiently keeps it fresh and makes an impact on the people that are actually getting the training.” – Jeff Kernohan

Challenges and Benefits With Video Training

“When it comes down to what we call the current, the normal of today, how everything's working? What are the biggest issues that you have to tackle to provide this level of training?” – Jeff Kernohan

“I think that's a great question because you're looking now with this from a holistic perspective. You touched on a couple of things there in what we call it compartmentalizing content. When you create content, when you create a curriculum. Anybody who's ever been a school teacher they put lesson plans together. It's kind of an executive summary approach. When you're designing a written representation of what you want to say, how you want to say it and by compartmentalizing everything. It allows you that flexibility to go in and if something changes. Again in a regulatory environment, or even just thinking about the how quickly the world is changing, now you may have had a training video that you're using across the company.” – Pete Cronan

“Something happens as a regulatory change or there's a global event through it, and all of a sudden what you've created has a degree of obsolescence in it. If you plan your production properly, you can isolate where that void exists, pull it out, record current information and put it back into that standing document on that standing content and all of a sudden it's occurring again. It's these little techniques that a partner allows you or provides you the ability to avoid having to redo these major events. I think there are a couple of things that you need to be given consideration is the benefits are it really is around the availability of technology it's fast. When you think about it you go ‘wow, how am I going to get all this information to my employees?’" – Pete Cronan

“Most people have smart phones; most people have computers. Armed with these devices you can provide digital content to these people on an ongoing basis. At a self-paced learning approach where you require them to go through these training programs and they can do it at their on their own time rather than watching television or reading a book. They go through a three or five or a 10-minute program that is required. It allows you to provide the content in a remote learning environment. Ideally if you're using a tool that allows you to monitor end user behavior, you can send out the content say, take a look at this and there's a couple of questions I want you to answer, and I want it done in a couple of days.” – Pete Cronan

“Breaking it into small consumable bites to make it easier for them to learn at their own pace and ultimately measure the learning at the back end and then be able to reinforce that learning online going basis. It's a highly effective learning experience.” – Pete Cronan

“I like it when we're talking about the whole partnership and how this all works—how it works when we work together with our clients is that you can bring together so many different topics into the single kind of repository of your training that sits on your private secured Video Nitch webpage. You can log in and you can get your training, edit it, do whatever you need. When you work with the partners you can have all of this content coming in so that we have a familiar platform. Whether it's cyber training on how to properly secure your computers or whether it's getting how to be security aware when you're traveling in high risk environments. All of these trainings come into a single platform. Everybody knows how to use it. Everybody knows where to get it. You have this content that can be edited and updated on a fairly regular basis to give us a training platform that I'm not getting five different types of training emails from the different parts of my company. It’s all together and uniform. You have that ability in this type of partnership to really make that happen. When it really comes down to the levels. The types of training that you guys are doing, how we use the video niche depository of training to get it out to the people.” – Jeff Kernohan

“I think most companies have learning management systems (LMS). However, they're not designed to be specifically geared towards training and certification assessments. Whereas Video Nitch’s is a unique design for a very specific purpose. Much less general than an LMS. So our technology does, it sits aside the LMS and allows companies to really address a very specific corporate need using that technology. It's really designed to facilitate a training education regardless of the subject, and provide a good learning quality environment especially in today's world where virtual learning has become a necessity rather than something that you want to have you actually have to have it." - Pete Cronan

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