You've probably done a Google search to figure out how to solve a problem and then been directed to a YouTube video. On Youtube, there are guides on everything from how to use a certain program to how to cook. Youtube has become a place for knowledge in everyday life, but what do we have to watch out for and how does it work with using Youtube at work?

Youtube and its frustrating moments

There are several things to keep in mind when using Youtube.

For example, the video may be out of date. After a software update, menus in different programs may look completely different, functions may have changed location, or have changed so much that they lose their previous usability.

We also often do not know how correct the guide is, or how good the creator's competence for the guide is. The only source of criticism we can make is to look at how many comments the video has received or how many "thumbs up" it has received.

There may also be things that make it difficult to use the guide. The information you are looking for can sometimes be difficult to find. For example, it can appear several minutes into the video. If the video is not divided into chapters, you need to spend a lot of time looking for, or watching, very irrelevant information.

Sometimes the guide you find may not be available in the correct language, or it may be difficult to understand the speaker. The person who created the video may be talking too fast and incoherently, making jerky movements with the mouse so that it goes too fast and you constantly have to pause or go back to keep up.

Youtube videos are usually general

In our work, it is often required that we work in a certain way in the systems we use to reflect the organization's mapped processes. The fact that Youtube videos are usually generic guides that are meant to be useful to as many people as possible can therefore make it difficult to use them, and sometimes it can even lead to doing something wrong. It may also be that they are made according to another organization's way of working.

The same can apply to system vendors' guides for their systems (which can also sometimes be found on Youtube). Often, their system support may need to be supplemented with internal information to provide benefits and to prevent people from working in the wrong way according to the organization's workflow.

Creating Youtube guides yourself can be resource-intensive

If you want to create a guide for your organization on Youtube, you are faced with several challenges. First, it has to be recorded, because it needs its hardware and software. The software can be time-consuming to learn and is a profession in itself. Files need to be in the right format and you also need to follow common standards. The files also need to be made available so that others can edit them afterwards so that the guide is kept up to date.

These are some of the reasons why many organizations today have opted out of this form of learning and instead run on as they always did, with courses, text guides in PDF, or similar. Even though they often know that this is not the ultimate way to teach their employees.

This is what you can do instead

Although there are many reasons not to use Youtube or Google for in-house learning, it is important to keep these programs in mind as we learn. The reason why we turn to these programs to learn and why they are popular has a natural explanation. In the learning industry, concepts such as “Workflow Learning” and “Performance Support” as concepts for these ways of learning. They are about helping and supporting each other directly during the working day. When we have to perform a task and are unsure of how it is done, it is most effective that we have help available right there and then. Just like we do all the time when we wonder about something outside of daily work.

What is important to think about?

• Gather everything in one place. There must be internal support for this way of searching for information (googling).

• It should be easy to create content, maintain, share and find the information.

• Ally yourself with knowledge bearers within the organization and get them to create and take responsibility for their material (they will quickly realize that it saves them many questions and a lot of time).

• Make the content relevant to how you work in your business, according to your routines and processes.

• Inform well about the solution and refer to it when employees have questions.

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