A thoughtful and well-planned mentoring program boosts trust, personal connection, and professional growth. Organizations can think of multiple ways to use videos for mentoring their employees and new recruits.
Nine out of 10 employees with career mentors said that they are happier in their jobs. People with mentors are more likely to excel in their careers than those who don’t. In fact, our 2022 State of Coaching and Mentoring Report found that mentoring leads to improved organizational performance and individual development.
What’s more?
86% of the CEOs surveyed in the Vistage CEO Confidence Index survey said that mentors have played a critical part in their career accomplishments.
It’s evident that workplace mentorship is essential not only for your employees' talent management lifecycle but for your organization too.
But to design an effective mentoring program, you need to look beyond the traditional methods. When employees work in a hybrid or remote work environment, you need to think of virtual mentoring techniques. That's where videos come into the picture.
So, start to think of ways to use videos and technology for an impactful and inclusive mentoring program.
Wondering how to do that?
Take a look at these 5 creative ways to use videos for mentoring professionals in your organization.
Let’s get rolling.
Benefits of using videos for mentoring
As the hybrid workplace is becoming the new normal, you can think of multiple ways to use videos for mentoring and coaching sessions. Including videos in your mentoring techniques can yield various benefits.
These include:
1. Better engagement and retention
Video content is more enjoyable and can engage people in a better way than other forms of content.
When creative videos are included in your mentoring program, the mentees can learn concepts in a better way and retain a lot more than they would by reading or listening to a mentor. This is especially true as they can go back to the videos whenever they want.
For example, if you’re mentoring marketing and sales interns, you can create a library of demo videos on how to use software for lead generation, CRM, email marketing platforms and so on. Mentees can watch those videos several times and develop new skills.
2. Easily accessible
The use of videos for mentoring makes knowledge easily accessible. As mentees might prefer to learn at different paces and at different times, you can provide them with recorded lessons. They can watch the videos on their preferred devices and understand the concepts well.
3. Good experience for mentors
Using videos for mentoring will help not only in boosting experience management for mentees but the mentors as well. Recording videos and taking virtual live sessions can help them fine-tune their presentation skills and boost their confidence. They only need to create lessons once and don’t need to keep revisiting them regularly.
4. Cost effective
Using videos for mentoring programs can bring down the time-cost for mentors considerably as multiple users can access and learn from the same virtual lessons. Mentors can step in only for the crucial sessions and address the questions that the mentees may have.
5 Effective ways to use videos for mentoring
There are several ways to use videos for mentoring new recruits, interns, and young professionals.
Here are 5 actionable ways you can incorporate video content in modern mentoring.
1. Create instructional videos
To create well-structured mentoring programs, you need to lay down specific instructions. These will act as guidelines for both mentors and mentees to have the right approach toward the mentoring sessions.
One of the best ways to use videos for mentoring is to create instructional videos for specific programs. You can have a seasoned HR leader or manager walk the viewers through the relevant instructions.
You can also use instructional videos for successful onboarding, using new ecommerce tools, and so on. Instead of sharing written instructions or repeating them orally, you can share the pre-recorded videos and set a solid foundation for your mentoring program.
2. Marketing videos for your mentoring program
Should you market your mentoring program?
Yes, for mentoring programs to be successful, they need to be marketed. You need to give your employees solid reasons why they should enroll in these programs and how they can benefit from them.
And one of the best ways to market your mentoring program is via videos. You probably use marketing videos to build your brand presence or showcase the uniqueness of your products to your customers. Now it's time to use video content internally to propagate the value of your mentoring program.
You can create explainer videos to explain the USPs of your mentoring and coaching program in a quirky way. You can even take help of tools like an AI video generator to create videos effortlessly. A good idea is to record keynotes from your CEO, CHRO, CFO, and other leaders sharing their thoughts on how these programs can help employees grow collectively.
It’s a great way to get your employees onboard your programs.
3. Pre-recorded mentoring sessions
One of the most effective ways to use videos to simplify and streamline mentoring programs is through pre-recorded sessions. These can be in the form of pre-recorded presentations, demos, concept-based KT sessions, and so on.
You can ask your in-house mentors as well as external mentors to pre-record a series of sessions and create a library. The mentees can then access this library whenever they want. You can also put up a schedule for them to watch these videos.
At the end of every series, the mentor can clarify the doubts of a mentee and evaluate their progress.
This not only reduces the burden on the mentors but also saves you a good deal of time and money.
4. Live one-on-one sessions
Thanks to online conferencing platforms, now mentors and mentees can connect with each other across different regions. Live one-on-one video sessions are one of the most effective ways to use videos for mentoring.
This helps both to choose a convenient time to connect and learn outside the four walls of your workspace. But as an organization, you should specify which platform they should use and the protocols to be followed.
Let’s say you have a mentoring program to explain the difficulties of using CRMs. First, you can share a series of videos with your team and then utilize the live one-on-one sessions to address questions that they may have.
5. Host podcasts and webinars with expert mentors
Multidimensional mentoring programs are the need of the hour. To create impactful mentoring programs, you should look beyond the obvious techniques.
In recent years, podcasts and webinars have become immensely popular means of gaining knowledge. They are definitely one of the most successful ways of using videos for mentoring.
You can host webinars featuring internal mentors from different verticals sharing their valuable inputs about their expertise. You can also collaborate with podcasters to create exclusive podcast episodes for your employees.
Think out of the box to use videos for mentoring
What I have shared above are just a few ways to use videos for mentoring. Your team can think of several other ways to do so in an innovative way.
As an increasing number of organizations adopt hybrid work culture, virtual mentoring is the way forward. Videos can be effectively used to integrate coaching and mentoring in a future-ready workplace.
Go ahead and adopt the above-shared ways to use videos for mentoring your employees at different levels and setting the stage for quality growth.