How to improve your employee onboarding with video

At VIBBIO, we want to bring attention to the many ways a company can — and should — use video for internal communication. Asynchronous videos can provide a better way for organisations to interact with new and existing employees.

In this article, we’ll be looking at how video can benefit the onboarding process of new employees to your company, and how to set them up for success.

Using onboarding videos to improve the employee experience

The employee onboarding process has changed drastically in the past few years. Hiring remotely has posed new challenges to HR departments, and the onboarding process has evolved as a result. Organisations are more reliant on technology to provide first-class onboarding experiences, so is it worth creating onboarding videos to make your new team members’ experience one to remember.

1. Onboarding new employees

You’ve hired a new person to your team, and the contract is signed, sealed, and delivered. The next step is onboarding. How well the onboarding process is set up can determine whether the new employee fumbles around during their first few months can work independently and immediately add value to the team.

Surveys have revealed that when employees went through a structured onboarding program, they were 58% more likely to be with the organisation three years later. This clearly shows how a considered approach to onboarding is beneficial for the entire company. A great way to make the process more efficient and enjoyable is by using onboarding videos.

When hiring new employees, your HR department probably finds themselves conveying the same information repeatedly to new employees, even those familiar with the company’s practices. With onboarding videos, you can take your new employees through a demonstration — or give them important information — easily and engagingly, saving your HR department countless hours.

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2. Welcome videos for new hires

When hiring a new employee, it’s good practice to give them a warm welcome before their official start date. A survey conducted by Kaltura shows that “80% of respondents believe that video would have a positive impact on making the onboarding process of new employees smoother.” So why not make a welcome video the first of the onboarding videos?

Send new employees a welcome video where the CEO and other employees say a few words about the company, what the new employee can expect when starting their new role, and how thrilled you are for having them as part of your team. There's nothing better than starting a job as a new employee feeling like you’re already part of the family.

Here is a great example of a welcome video created for new employees at Adobe.

3. Training new team members

Another way you can make use of video for onboarding new employees is by creating “how-to” videos. In these videos, you can explain or demonstrate how a process or a product works. You might have created “how-to” videos for external use before, and creating them for internal purposes is no different.

These onboarding videos can be particularly useful if you often experience problems setting up software or using specific programs on work computers — something that’s been exacerbated by the new hybrid working environment. These issues aren’t uncommon, but it’s often the same person who’s required to solve the problems. If your company has many employees, this can fastly become a full-time job for your in-house expert.

By creating “how-to” onboarding videos, all employees can easily get the help they need when they need it independently. Gather all these videos in an easily accessible library or intranet, and you’ll have a fantastic online resource for new and existing employees alike — a great example of how onboarding videos can make tricky processes far more efficient.

4. Leadership training

You can create videos for new employees, but you can also use onboarding videos to introduce existing team members to leadership training programs. If your workplace offers leadership or management courses, you can create videos to introduce these to make them more appealing and engaging. These videos shouldn’t replace face-to-face leadership training altogether. Instead, you should create videos to introduce and supplement each course.

If you have several training videos, you can create a video library that is easily accessible for all relevant employees. If necessary, sort the videos into different topics so it’s easy for everyone — including new employees — to find the videos they’re looking for whenever they need them.

According to Bugle, creating shorter videos for a video course can help with retention:

“Don’t struggle with people's limited attention spans. Content can be short and to the point, while complex information can be simplified and presented in a format that’s easier to digest.”

5. Divide onboarding videos into episodes

If you have a lot of information to convey in your training videos, consider creating several episodes within the same topic. Instead of creating one 15-minute long tutorial, divide it into three five-minute-long videos instead. That way, people watching your videos are much more likely to pay attention and take in more information.

Whenever appropriate, you should try to add a person to your video. If you, for example, are creating a “how-to” video on mastering a particular software system, you can start with a video that shows the viewer what you will take them through. To keep your audience’s attention, switch between showing the person explaining and the system, software or program they’re demonstrating. This adds a much more personal touch, resulting in higher engagement.

The benefits of using onboarding videos

Onboarding is one of the most crucial parts of the employee experience. A carefully planned onboarding process can help new team members fit into your organisation seamlessly. Using professional-looking onboarding videos could be the difference between them staying for years and sharing in your company’s success or leaving after a few months, never to achieve their full potential.

You can easily create onboarding videos on your own with VIBBIO and instantly improve your new employees’ experience by highlighting your company's work culture, introducing new people. Set up your new employees for success with branded videos that make your new hires feel right at home.