Bored of health and safety? Vodafone now educates staff by gaming

Health and safety education is often put on the same 'boring level' as things like slow Internet, watching paint dry and the deliberations of the NZ election.

But Vodafone Retail has set a new standard with an award-winning interactive video that uses gamification to teach staff.

The concept was developed and produced by Auckland-based Omnicron Productions and since being implemented, Vodafone's Retail division has increased safety engagement and believe it has digitally transformed the way it trains staff.

Traditionally (and as I'm sure most of you are completely and utterly aware), health and safety training is conducted by trainers face-to-face or staff are subjected to sit through incredibly dry videos.

"While we have always taken the health and safety of staff and customers seriously, recent changes in health and safety law mean it is now a business imperative to ensure staff know the rules inside out," says Max Riley, Health, Safety and Wellbeing manager of Vodafone.

"At Vodafone, we were looking for a different way of doing things that were both fun and engaging. Omnicron's solution ticked all the boxes.

How the training video works is users can navigate through various health and safety scenarios to make in-video decisions – all with consequences – to learn company policies in virtual environments that resemble real-life scenarios.

"This interactive method of teaching shows that using innovation can help reduce business risk," says Ondrej Havas, executive producer of Omnicron.

"We have many years' experience producing corporate videos, and saw an opportunity to create a new form of video communication that engages audiences and reduces the number of training man-hours.

And the result? Well, in response to Vodafone gamifying its health and safety process, the company says simply 'it has worked'.

Since its implementation with Vodafone's Retail employees, the gaming video has allowed a 60 percent increase in engagement across all retail channels compared to before, while the number of man hours involved in onboarding has condensed by nearly 70 percent.

"The feedback on our new induction video has overwhelmingly reflected this mentality, with our staff reporting that our health and safety training is the best and most enjoyable that they've ever completed," says Riley.

And the idea of gaming your way through health and safety is making waves around the world too, with the video from Omincron recently awarded the Gold Camera Award for internal and Corporate Communications at the US International Film and Television Festival.

"This video is the first cab off the ranks. This tool has huge potential; it can be tailored to any New Zealand or global business," Havas concludes.