How to Create an Employee Onboarding Video that Inspires New Hires
Struggling to facilitate a learning process for new employees? Spin the wheels by creating an engaging onboarding video.
“Why would I need a training video when I’ve already provided a detailed onboarding document?”
You might wonder.
The onboarding process should serve as a memorable experience that allows employees to consume relevant information rather than drown in a set of cliche documents.
According to a study, visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text- a major reason why video content is widely used for marketing as well.
An orientation video is a tool that helps communicate a company’s core values and culture, provides a glimpse of a regular workday, tailors educational content, and helps fosters a welcoming culture.
Employee onboarding videos adds a personalized touch and enhances learning and retention.
However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, orientation videos have become critical tools to facilitate a smooth and welcoming remote onboarding for employees.
Here are a few benefits of adding videos to your existing onboarding kit:
- Express rather than tell your story.
- Speed up the onboarding process, and ensure comprehension.
- Avoid overwhelming your employees with big chunks of information by delivering them crisply.
- Inspire new hires.
In this article, we’ll discuss how you can upgrade your onboarding process by creating an engaging orientation video that inspires and educates new hires about your company.
Let’s dive in!
1) Aim at Answering Company FAQs
A video that depicts your company’s culture can give real insights and make the candidate excited to join the workplace.
Being honest about your typical workday at the office and what your company stands for will allow the new joiner to make more informed decisions.
Answering some frequently asked questions about the video will clear doubts, engage the new members, and bring them closer to your core values.
You can also post a snippet of this video on Instagram to share a more human side of your brand with your community online.
This video is a great example. It shows Zappos as a company with a strong culture that focuses on service and teamwork as its core values. They depict their fun work culture and share their company values in the form of a compelling video.
2) Simplify the Video and Make It Interesting
This 3 minutes and 27 seconds, striking yet straightforward video from Zendesk will surely make you smile.
While the tone of your video depends on the message you want to convey, you don’t have to use fancy words to make it enjoyable.
You can achieve it with your simplicity, and Zendesk proves that.
The video takes you through their experiences on and off work and introduces you to their teams and a little fish who’s part of their marketing team.
The video also walks you to your potential work desk and a chair that’s sad without you.
It’s a simple video that can charm the new employees and ensure an easy-going onboarding reflective of the brand’s personality.
So, start by creating a simple onboarding video that builds an emotional connection while going heavy on the values and culture you want to depict.
Related Article: Create Short Videos
3) Use Storytelling to Make It Engaging
A compelling story can communicate a brand’s character in less than 3 minutes, and video storytelling can be highly persuasive.
Stories elicit emotion.
They influence trust and bring back fond memories.
Moreover, they help break down complex information for better comprehension.
The design go-to for everyone today, Canva, surely knows how to tell a story. The video introduces Co-founder and CEO, Melanie Perkins who shares her visionary story behind Canva.
The video introduces their diverse employees that appreciate the millennial-driven values and the family-type work environment at the company.
Here are some quick video storytelling tips:
- Look beyond the ordinary and find the “why” of what your brand does.
- Narrate a story that’s relatable and emotional.
- Don’t leave them hanging-have a beginning, middle, and end.
- Keep your story short and snappy.
Related article: Storytelling with Videos
4) Talk About Learning and Growth Opportunities
Employee retention is the pillar of a successful business.
One way for companies to keep new and existing employees satisfied is by offering personal development opportunities-exposure to explore and grow.
An onboarding video that focuses on employee growth can strengthen long-term relationships, increase employee morale, and build a strong company culture.
Check out Intuit’s onboarding video that shows Brad Smith, the CEO, talk about bringing fresh talent and encouraging them with new learning and growth opportunities.
A few things you can talk about in your orientation video:
- How you prioritize skill development and make it a regular part of your working year.
- The way you focus and foster upward mobility.
- How your company’s training schedules look like, and what kind of opportunities they provide.
- Show you support knowledge sharing and have created an inclusive environment that encourages transparency and growth.
- Let existing employees talk about their experiences for a more personal touch.
5) Give a Motivational Ending to the Video
As a hiring manager, motivating your new hire is an integral part of the onboarding process.
Someone who’s joining your company can end up feeling pressured to prove their abilities in a new work environment. An inspiring video can be a game-changer in this situation.
Here’s an orientation video from Google that focuses on students who join Google in internships or full-time roles working on exciting and meaningful projects.
They are expected to create an impact from the start. But, the video ends on a statement made by an intern saying, “If this is what being an intern feels like, I’d love to be an intern for the rest of my life.”
Working at a big company like Google can be intimidating. But the company made sure not to make them feel like that.
That’s the kind of motivation we’re looking at!
Final Thoughts
Effective onboarding is more than distributing black ink on white papers or sending them a link to your company blog that explains everything.
It’s about welcoming with emotions, expressing belongingness, and taking a step towards establishing a solid relationship.
Think about what your brand wants to reflect and what someone joining your company would like to know.
Communicate your goals or vision, work culture, or how employees bond over lunch. It could be as complex as business values or as simple as food, drinks, or cultural activities.
Your video should make the new hires say, “I can’t wait to start working here.” So, start working on your onboarding video-make it an experience they’ll never forget.
Author: Adela Belin is an independent content strategist and marketer with a love for the written word. Find her on Twitter and LinkedIn.
