Don’t Make these 5 Mistakes with Your Employee Onboarding Videos
You finally found the right person for the role, after several weeks of back and forth, resume reading and working with HR to jump through the hiring hoops. Finally, it’s time to onboard the perfect employee for the role.
But wait, you need employee onboarding videos to help you finish the process! Before you create those videos, make sure you don’t make these mistakes when creating employee orientation content.
Ending the Video without a List of Resources
You created an onboarding video series, the employee is good to go right? What more could they possibly want? Please don’t make the mistake of ending the employee onboarding process without providing a list of resources and helpful people that the employee can reach out to if he or she has any questions.
Just as traditional onboarding would usually begin with phone numbers or email addresses of those that are in charge should the employee have questions, the onboarding videos should end with these contact details. Make it easy for the employee to get help IF such help is needed.
You Created a Single, 2 Hour Video
If your employee onboarding video is a single, long lesson–you’ve failed your employee! The worst thing you can do is create a single onboarding video that details all of the important elements and training details in a single setting without any period of wait, question answering or assistance in between.
The best employee onboarding videos are relatively short (about 5-10 minutes each), direct the employee from one subject to the next, and allow for time in between that the employee can discuss the process with his or her manager or team lead as needed.
You Avoided the Use of Corporate Culture
Do your employee onboarding videos neglect to include any form of corporate culture? One of the best benefits of this form of video training and onboarding comes from the fact that videos allow trainees to see and get a feel for corporate culture so that they can begin to understand what day-to-day processes are like.
Without corporate culture and visual understanding of what to expect here, employees are left in the dark. Make sure your onboarding videos share corporate norms, values, and ideas in a consistent pattern — don’t eliminate the genuineness of the company from the video!
You Only Onboard Lower Level Employees
Do you corporate onboarding videos only offer guidance for lower level employees? If you’re onboarding program does not take senior-level employees into account, you’re failing your team in a big way.
Employees, even managers, that go through a video structured onboarding program are more likely to stick around with the position for at least 3 years.
Can you afford to be on the lookout for another CEO in a year? If not, plan on including upper level management in the onboarding process.
There’s No Video Agenda or Training Guide
Just because you have produced an employee training onboarding process that includes videos this does not mean that you should expect the new employee to know what you want them to DO with the videos.
Should they watch one a day? Should they watch them all in one sitting? Is it best to watch all onboarding content before getting started?
When you create your onboarding videos, make sure you are also creating a training guide or list of desired actions for the new employee for the first days or weeks on the job.
Training videos and onboarding are great, but they will only take employees as far as the training is allowed. Don’t forget the agenda!