four tips for educating your team remotely via video
Small-sized businesses must adapt to the virtual world of working is vital. But it doesn't come without its challenges: reimagining how to onboard and train employees.
How do you welcome anyone to your company without having to walk through the hallways? Can you communicate a culture of autonomy and trust while not actually making trust fall? And how will they learn how to be great at their job without having to be shadowed by the best employees?
Here's how you can use video to remove the barrier to remote education and let company comms stick the landing, all while saving the time and energy.
1. Keep it private and remain honest
Can't meet in person? It's fine, so the meeting is personal. You don't need to look through another school handbook or one-size-fits-all instruction manual. They want honest and authentic stories of the humble beginnings of their careers and an idea for what you'll be building together. In order to help the new employees get to know the culture of your company in person the video-first method is essential. (Not to mention, it's a lot better than long hours of reading alone.)
However, here's the thing Don't over script yourself when you're doing it. If you were working in person, you likely didn't script your own the lines. So why should you now? Video is most effective in a way that feels authentic. Because it is!
2. Let it be explained step-by-step.
The main reason you should use videos for your training is because it makes you (and the things you already know!) scalable. Instead of having to repeat your message over and over for every member of the team that you need to explain or demonstrate something just once. Once it's recorded you can reuse it indefinitely.
3. Systematize and arrange
Ultimately, you're trying to make sure that every member of the team understands what they need to do and how to accomplish it, regardless of whether you're present to assist or not. This may sound strange, but the goal here is to make yourself replaceable by the most efficient way through sharing your expertise.
However, you shouldn't assume that your team is reviewing every article that comes through their inbox. This is why it's crucial to arrange and manage the content you use for training videos. How can you be sure the content was consumed and retained? In the event that someone wants to reference that process again then where do they go to find the information on demand?
4. Don't get too caught up in production
Repeat after me: don't overthink your video. This is the essence of it! Just speak towards the camera in the same way as you would talking to a person, and tell them what they should know.