Today we are in an era where technology redefines every feature of bussiness including the Human Resources (HR) Department. The traditional method of training employees and their engagement, which was once done by seminars length handbooks are now done by PowerPoint presentations. The employees are welcomed with an animated video which introduces the company’s mission, values and expectations from the employees.
This not only leads to less time consumption, but within a short time, the employee feels more connected and gets the required information. In the generation of Millennials and Gen-Z employees, this can be the best method to grab their attention. Employees find it less engaging in long documents and files this leads to a more receptive than an interactive session. As this generation likes interactive visual content first.
Where do we get this information? When we look around, we find that whether it’s streaming educational video or mobile apps, they are mostly indulged in quick, engaging formats. For this reason, the role of animation plays a very important role in today’s HR field. Animation offers easy understanding of complex concepts, as well as making them in an interactive and entertaining way.
This format helps in capturing attention as well as in improving knowledge, giving satisfaction to learners. This shift has created a unique opportunity for animation. Whether it is onboarding, policy training or any other HR function, the animation helps to present the information that has to be provided by the employer in such a way that it enhances internal communication. From a study, it is discovered that there is an increase in employees’ overall performance by 46%.
This research paper is about the role of animation in human resources, in workplace training and employee engagement in the HR department. It will help us get more information about how promising the new technology field is and why we are using the new technology.
Need For The Study
Before the digitalisation era, the HR department was bound to use the traditional methods, which were very time-consuming and non- interactive. Some of the traditional methods used are mentioned below-
- In- person Workshop, Seminars
The HR person would have to give a live session in front of all the trainees. This can be considered as an interactive approach, which helps even the trainees to have answers to all their questions/queries, and a smooth group discussion can be conducted. But this requires a lot of setups, resulting in an increase in cost, and these are time-consuming as well.
- Printed Manuals and Handbooks
In the non- digital era, employees were handed thick manuals and handbooks which had the complete details of the company’s policy. It’s rule regualtion and everything employees need to know about the company. Undoubtedly, it gives a detailed analysis, but reading all this made the employee feel bored, and the will to read it thoroughly was directly proportional to it. The updated information would require a lot of time to reach the employees.
- On-Job Training
It was an idea used by everyone. It was assumed that if new employees observed the experienced workers and learn by observing them. The new ones understand the work very well. But since not all new employees can have quick catching ability, it may be time-consuming for slow-paced learners, hence time-consuming, but this idea also makes the new employees dependent on the experienced ones, which can be a trouble in futuristic goal.
Core Analysis
Human Resource (HR)
HR stands for Human Resource it is part of an organization which takes care of the personnel of the organisation and the management of the organisation. Its function is to manage the human resources, starting from their recruitment, observing their performance, as well as to check on them that all their all needs are satisfied.
Objectives-
- HR are responsible for finding the most compatible employee for the organisation.
- HR helps in enhancing the skills of an employee, which will be required by the organisation.
- HR also checks on the satisfaction of the employee’s needs so that they don’t quit the job.
Function-
- Recruitment and Selection– HR of a company are the ones who are responsible for recruiting suitable candidate for the required job according to their skills matching with the organisation’s needs.
- Training– The suitably selected candidates are then well-trained to enhance their skills and knowledge.
- Performance Evaluation– It is the duty of HR to keep an eye on the performance of the employees to check whether the employees are doing their job upto the mark or whether they need to improve.
- Compensation and Benefits- After the performance evaluation, if the employee has a good performance, then according to their performance, they are rewarded, which is again checked by HR.
- Employee Relations– HR of an organisation does everything possible to make employees feel motivated and maintains a positive, non-toxic environment to achieve the company’s goal without any dispute.
- Legal Affairs– HR keeps an eye on whether the labour laws are followed or not. This promotes fairness in any dispute without being under any pressure.
- Workplace Planning– HR manages human resources and makes strategies and plans to help achieve the company’s goals.
Role of Animation in Human Resources
It is a creative technique which involves giving motion to static images as they display rapidly, a sequence of static images giving the illusion that the static object is moving. So it is also called a visual communication gadget. It was used as a source of animation, but now everything evolved so animation is now used in many fields, including education, communication, and corporate.
In this research paper, we are discussing the role of animation in Human Resources. So, according to that Animation is the use of motion, interactive videos which actually enhance employee training, onboarding, etc. It breaks down complex information into simple from such that it does not bore the employees but grabs their attention, and with full enthusiasm employee takes the information, which is beneficial for both the employee and the organisation.
The technological development has led to increased employee engagement and less confusion among employees about the company’s policies, rules regulationms and other required information.
Types-
- 2D Animation- It is the oldest of all types of animation, which is created by the rapid display of static objects frame by frame.
- 3D Animation– It is the same as 2D animation, but the object has depth, which makes it more real; it is more visually enjoyable than 2D.
- Stop Motion Animation– Every object used is created by clicking them one by one and then creating a motion by displaying them in rapid motion. It is more like a handmade thing.
- Motion Graphics – In this, motion is added to the text, icon, etc. It makes the boring texts fun interactive manner.
- Whiteboard Animation– In this animation, here, like a teacher draws on a whiteboard and then explains a diagram to the student same thing happens here, an object is drawn, and a voiceover is added
How Animation Is Used In HUMAN RESOURCE
- 2D Animation- It is used to generate onboarding videos, which afre simple and friendly way from the company’s perspective, with the help of which new employees are made to feel comfortable. It gives the company’s policy rules and regulations in an eye-catching manner.
- 3D Animation– It is used to give new employees/hires a good tour of the company so that they don’t have to ask their queries to someone else.
Example-In case of fire, what are the exit pathways, and how should they be tackled? In case of an earthquake, what are the emergency exits and how to tackle the emergency situation?
- Stop-motion Animation– It is the type of animation that uses photographs. Since it uses photographs, it can be used to represent anything with pictures.
Example- Sharing the achievements of the employees
- Motion Graphics Animation– It can be used in the analysis of employees’ overall performance and comapny’s overall performance. Example- Budget of a company in a Year, sales of a company/ profit and loss of a company in a year.
- Whiteboard Animation– It can be useful during a presentation or for new hires to understand the goals they have to achieve pathways they have to follow. Example- Steps to achieve goals.
Why Animation is Used In Human Resources
HR Department handles the most important part of any organization i.e. the human workforce or employees. These are the foundation of any organisation. These are the deciding factors which decide whether the goal of the company can be achieved or not.
The traditional methods are not the sources which can cope with the fast-evolving corporate world. In this case, we require a powerful solution which can grab attention, resulting in employee engagement. The best solution that comes to mind is Animation. There are various theories which have proved that it is easy and fast to learn when we visualise.
According to Dual Coding Theory, given by Allan Paivio in 1971, he stated that if information is shared verbally and visually, then this improves the understanding capacity and recall power of a person.
According to the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia learning given by Richard Mayer 2001, he stated that people learn better and faster from visuals than from texts.
According to Fleming’s VARK Model in 2006, this study involved Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing and Kinesthetic. This led to the observation that the persons learning visually can better retain the information as compared to others.
Visualising helps in a better understanding of the situation and the logical thinking ability. Visualisation reduces load as complex data of 2-3 pages can be easily illustrated in a 30 second- 1minute video. Enhances problem-solving skills, decision-making skills, etc. Visualising complex ideas can help to simplify them. Visualisation unlocks the creativity of a person, which unlocks many soft skills.
Animation in HR is used because-
Enhances Employee Engagement-
Employee engagement is very necessary for any organisation. It is the work of HR to make sure employee does not looses his/her interest. If here in today’s generation, where are the employees of generation Millenial and Gen-Z? We provide them with long, heavy content, handbooks containing the company’s policy rules and regulations.
They won’t be able to get the whole information because they are habituated to content whose visuals are good, interactive and attracting them, instead of some monotonous handbooks and documents, this will have a bad impact on employees. To solve this problem of employee uninterest HR department has taken steps to make onboarding, training and internal communication more attention-grabbing, which will lead to more and more employee engagement. Using animation, we turn passive learning into active learning.
For example, the HR department of ABC company decided to give information about the company’s achievements for the last month. So the department conducted a live meeting in the conference hall and just started verbally sharing all the information he has to share. But after the conference ended, only a few employees knew about the information, or we can say only a few employees can retain the information given because the meeting/ conference was held verbally, which resulted in loss of interest among all the employee’s all listen but could not retain it due top lack of interest.
So, the next time HR conducted the conference to share the achievement story of the company in the last 6 months, he used animation, specifically Stop-Motion- animation included all the charts, graphs needed photographs of the employees who have achieved goals or the pictures of goals achieved by the organization this time the session was very interactive employees retained and recalled the information very well. This proves the role of animation in Employee Engagement.
Enhances Workplace Training
In workplace training, any organisation gives employees the required information and knowledge to perform their specific job roles. It helps employees to develop their existing skills to match the skills required for the specific job role in the organisation. It not only enhances skills and knowledge but also enhances the behaviour of an employee as needed in the job role.
Workplace training takes place – onboarding new employees, enhancing skill sets, teaching/ training soft skills, leadership training for senior HR or technical skills, etc. This aims to improve employee performance, employee productivity, employee satisfaction and a safe work environment full of positivity. Animation in workplace training provides high-quality training to all employees, making the session more interactive and easy to recall. This boosts employees’ engagement and performance.
It converts complicated or complex content into simple and understandable content. It eradicates confusion and gives clarity of content in less time. This leads to higher participation rates and better retention of information. Animation allows employees to learn things easily at their own pace and comfort.
If they do not understand something, they can easily replay the part, they can pause and understand, make notes, etc. But it isn’t possible in live sessions, seminars and conferences. For example, A workplace training is conducted by XYZ company & ABC company.
In XYZ company, the new hires of the company were invited to a live conference. Most of the employees lost interest in the verbal way of getting information many had confusion.
But on the other hand, in the ABC company, the new hires of the company were provided with animated videos to understand the training and to achieve the goal of training. Employees can easily understood by the help of the animated videos without any confusion.
Challenges
Animation makes the learning process very fast and effective, but generating an animated video or adding animation requires a lot of skills. It consumes a lot of time to create animated videos. It can limit real-time interaction, as if training is given, then usual feedback or peer-to-peer feedback cannot be given. It has a production cost to have a good quality of animation. Animation cannot be used for every topic.
For example, if there is a conflict in organization we cannot make an animated video of that. It will require human intervention. The animation cannot satisfy the needs of every employee. They cannot provide real-time answers or responses. This may lead to overdependence on technology.
Conclusion
In a world like today, where everything is getting digitallized everyone is getting technologically advanced, the HR department has also evolved. It no longer uses any traditional methods, such as in-person workshops, seminars, printed manuals and handbooks or on-the-job training methods, but instead it uses different types of animation, such as 2D, 3D, Whiteboard animation, Stop-motion animation, etc.
This change has had a positive impact by enhancing employee engagement and workplace training. This made the workplace training interactive helped employees to understand easily with clarity without confusion. This also helps employees in better recalling. It improves employee communication and learning by adding creativity.
It is less time-consuming. It is irrespective of the location. It has certain negative aspects also, such as high cost requiees high time to prepare, limits real-time interaction, and cannot be used for every topic.
In future, if AI ( Artificial Intelligence) is combined with animation, then the learning of employees will be improved. It will turn out to be more personalised and engaging like real Japanese anime. In the future, VR( virtual reality) can also be used in workplace training, which will make it more effective.
In today’s world, animation helps HR to educate, train, communicate and inspire people in a very interactive manner, which directly makes a progressive step toward better functioning of an organisation.
