When you hire new employees, it’s important to get them up to speed on the ins and outs of your company as quickly and efficiently as possible. Traditionally, a supervisor or seasoned employee will show new hires around, explaining things and relating essential info as they go. This works for certain situations, but it can also prove ineffective, if the person training forgets to mention something, or doesn’t explain it as well as they could. In order to make sure everyone learns everything they need in the same way, you should incorporate some kind of video training. Here are a few types of videos that you can use for effective onboarding.
- Welcome Video. The first thing you need to do when hiring a new employee is to welcome them to the family. It’s a simple gesture, but it can help to make them feel like they are, in fact, part of a family, rather than just a cog in a machine, especially when the welcome comes from someone high up the corporate ladder. Of course, the CEO of your company is probably pretty busy, and can’t afford to drop in and say hi every time there’s a new employee. But if they make a simple video, telling new hires what the company is all about, the mission statement, business objectives, and what the company means to them personally, it can go a long way towards helping employees feel like they’re a part of something bigger.
- About Us. What’s the company’s history? Who founded it and why? How has it evolved over the years, or if it’s a new company, how do you hope to grow and evolve in years to come? How does the company help its employees? How does it help the community? What does it stand for? Much like the welcome video, this will show new employees what the company is all about and inspire a sense of kinship and belonging. By helping them connect with your company and its leadership right from the start, you increase the chances that they’ll stay with you longer.
- Departmental Videos. Each department in your company should have a video to show new hires what to expect on a day to day basis. This can include a basic job description, team goals, a brief look into company culture, and more.
- Employee Directory. A list of names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses is boring. Really help your employees get to know one another by having each one make a video introducing themselves. They can tell a little bit about what they do in the company, their background, and a couple of things about themselves. Upload these to the company database, with appropriate meta tags (employee name, department, e-mail address, etc.) so that you can search for a person easily and have a better idea of whom you’re talking to before asking someone a question or embarking on a collaboration. Each new hire should shoot one of these videos too, as they join the company. Update them all once a year, so they stay current.
- IT Policies. How do people in your company prefer to communicate? Is there a specific policy or procedure to know for e-mails and e-mail chains? Does your company use a software platform like Hubspot or SAP? Do you utilize video conference calls, or prefer communication to be logged in a certain way? An IT video can get employees up to speed on everything they need to know to communicate effectively and do their jobs properly with regards to the technology you use on a daily basis within your company.
- Employee Generated Content. There’s a big difference between how management and executives see a company and how the lower level employees see it. If all of your videos are being commissioned and created higher up the ladder, it might not cover everything that those at entry level need to know. So get employees to make their own videos, showing a day in their lives at your company. These can cover things like the best things to order at the company cafeteria, where to find more hand soap if the bathroom runs out, and how to participate in the office’s fantasy football league. These are important things for employees to know to help them fit in, but they won’t usually be covered by training.
Videos are a great way of getting your message across clearly and effectively. Using them to train your employees helps get them up to speed more quickly, so that they can become integrated into your company culture and begin doing their job sooner, without as many mistakes or bumps in the road. How will you use videos to help onboard your employees? Let us know in the comments below!