Health & Safety Client Story
Empowering safety through video
The University of Alabama SafeState Program needed to communicate asbestos floor maintenance best practices to schools in Alabama on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). They collaborated with simpleshow to create easy-to-understand explainer videos, which were successfully shared through email, social media, and YouTube. The videos were so well received, the SafeState Program now uses them as the go-to communication tool for educational content.
About The University of Alabama SafeState Program
This program has brought together experts since 1978, to work with many companies, municipalities and organizations to find effective solutions to challenging environmental and occupational safety and health problems. The program’s goals are to help workers return home safely at the end of the day, help companies be more productive with fewer health, safety and environmental issues, and support families to live and learn in a cleaner safer and healthier environment.
Challenge: Making overly complex information digestible
The University of Alabama SafeState Program monitors asbestos compliance across schools in Alabama on behalf of the EPA. The program’s primary objective was communicate school’s responsibilities regarding asbestos management to school administrators and custodial staff.
The University of Alabama would typically communicate this type of information by sharing bulleted lists and other PDF resources online. They often found that engagement was extremely low and it was clear that the presentation of the information was the problem.
Due to the crucial nature of this topic and the complex regulatory aspects, they knew they had to do something differently. They needed to find a way to get people engaged and improve their retention of this important information.
The University of Alabama would typically communicate this type of information by sharing bulleted lists and other PDF resources online. They often found that engagement was extremely low and it was clear that the presentation of the information was the problem.
Due to the crucial nature of this topic and the complex regulatory aspects, they knew they had to do something differently. They needed to find a way to get people engaged and improve their retention of this important information.
Solution: Simplifying information with video
The team at the University of Alabama knew they needed to make the information easier to understand and more engaging. After consulting with simpleshow, they decided to focus on simplifying their content and communicating it more effectively. Instead of focusing on all the complex details, they would identify the main messages they needed to get across and create a series of concise explainer videos outlining the most information related to asbestos management activities in schools.
The videos were created in a way that made even the most complex information easy to understand, and the short length made the information much more digestible than in the past.
The videos were created in a way that made even the most complex information easy to understand, and the short length made the information much more digestible than in the past.
Impact: Asbestos information reaching a significantly larger audience
The University of Alabama was successful in quickly reaching its target audience with this important information. The simpleshow videos provided easy-to-understand and user-friendly information, making them accessible and usable by schools even outside of the original target audience. The team was thrilled to see their YouTube views exceed 2,000+ on a single video very quickly – which is more than they could have imagined.
Due to the success of the asbestos training video series, the Safe State program now uses simpleshow videos to explain many other environmental health topics, like mold and lead safety. With the help of simpleshow, more people than ever can access and understand important safety information.
Due to the success of the asbestos training video series, the Safe State program now uses simpleshow videos to explain many other environmental health topics, like mold and lead safety. With the help of simpleshow, more people than ever can access and understand important safety information.
“I very much enjoy working with simpleshow! It is a great platform for developing bite-sized microlearning videos. simpleshow videos makes the technical topics we need to communicate about much easier to understand.”
Kalyn Tew
Environmental Services Manager at The University of Alabama