"How much does a safety induction video cost?" is the first question most health and safety managers ask, and the honest answer is that it depends on the site. But "it depends" isn't much use when you're putting a number in a budget request, so here's what moves the price, in the order it usually matters.

1. How much of the site needs covering

A single workshop with one entry point is a morning's filming. A power station with multiple areas, each with its own hazards and access rules, is a shoot day or more, plus the planning to get a crew into each area safely and at the right time. The number of locations drives the shoot days, and the shoot days drive most of the cost.

2. Pre-production

This is the part people forget to budget for, and it's the part that makes the video work. Someone has to read your existing induction, walk the site with your safety team, work out which hazards need showing rather than telling, and write a script in the words your crews use. Skip it and you find out in the edit that the isolation procedure was filmed from the wrong side. Every honest quote has a pre-production line in it.

3. Who's on camera

A presenter-led induction with one of your own supervisors talking to camera takes more set-up time than a voiceover over footage, but it carries far more weight with a crew. Most inductions use a mix: a familiar face for the welcome and the rules, voiceover for the walk-through.

4. Versions

One video is rarely enough. You'll usually want a full contractor induction, a shorter visitor version, and captions as standard. Each extra version is an edit, not a new shoot, so they're cheaper than the first, but they're not free.

5. LMS packaging

If the video just needs to play, an MP4 and a caption file load into any learning system. If you need the LMS to record who watched it, whether they finished, and a quiz score, that's a SCORM package with comprehension questions, built by an e-learning specialist. It's a separate line, and worth asking your LMS administrator whether you need it before you ask for it.

6. Updates

Sites change. Ask how the production company handles updates. If they keep the project files, a changed procedure is a small edit. If they don't, you're paying for a new video every time the gate moves.

What you're really paying for

An induction video that every contractor sees the same way, that still works at 5am, that your safety team doesn't have to re-deliver every week, and that you can show an auditor with a date on it. Against the cost of one incident, or one safety manager's time over a year, it's usually the cheapest thing on the safety budget.

Every site is different, so we quote after a discovery call, as a fixed price, and we'll say early if the budget and the brief don't fit. See how we make health and safety videos or get in touch.