Onboarding is the best way to welcome a new employee into your organization while introducing them to their new role. Successful onboarding motivates and ensures new hires have all the tools they need to jump in.
Let’s face it, no one likes to read a handbook and if your human resources team needs to onboard each new hire individually, this could take a lot of time and resources. Your best option is to create an onboarding video series that ensures all important onboarding information is available at any time and can easily be deployed as needed.
By watching employee onboarding videos, new hires can absorb information on their own time and go back if they missed something or need a refresher. It’s a great way to provide a low-pressure soft landing for new employees eager to get to work.
There’s a lot that goes into creating successful onboarding and HR training videos. If you want these videos to position new hires for success, you need to consider the following.
Onboarding videos: what HR needs to know
New hires can need a lot of guidance. Employee training videos can provide that guidance while freeing your HR team to focus on supporting employees and growing your organization. Not to mention, these videos can also provide a uniform, but also personalized onboarding process so each employee gets the support they need.
Audience
Great onboarding videos are tailored to their specific audience. You’ll need to map your audience to make sure your videos speak directly to them. Here are a few parameters to consider:
- Location: Where are employees located? This will depend on where your offices are or whether employees may work remotely.
- Language: Do all your employees speak the same language? If you have international offices, you might consider translating your onboarding videos into the local language at various locations.
- Department: Onboarding might change across different departments. You might find that what works when onboarding developers is less successful when onboarding sales managers.
Objectives
Quality onboarding resources achieve an objective. You’ll need to determine the objective of each of your videos. Here are a few example objectives:
- Company Culture: Showcasing the company’s values, mission, and culture can create a sense of belonging and loyalty among employees. When employees identify with the culture, they feel motivated and are more likely to stay long-term.
- Policies and procedures: Presenting company policies and procedures in a video ensures new hires know what’s expected of them. This improves compliance and limits liabilities.
- Benefits and perks: New hires may not be aware of the benefits you offer. A video can help employees understand so they can take advantage of their benefits, leading to improved morale.
- Product/service overviews: New employees need to understand the product or service your company offers. A detailed overview can teach new hires so they will understand how their job will support this offering.
- Tools and systems: New employees will need to learn the tools and systems you are using. For example, they might need to learn how to use your CRM, your scheduling system, or other software or equipment. A video overview can help hires get the hang of things quicker.
- Role-specific training: Each department has its own processes and responsibilities. Job-specific training can teach employees what is expected of them and how their work fits the company’s objectives.
- Interactive tours: New or remote employees will benefit from an interactive tour that will give them a sense of the new working environment. This can introduce them to the different departments and facilities they may encounter.
Your onboarding video script
A good onboarding video script is engaging and entertaining while getting your message across. Rather than just listing off information that new employees need to know, you should consider storytelling and presenting your information creatively.
For example, you might create a character to present your information or you might present your video as “a day in the life” of a specific employee.
These videos are a new employee’s first interaction with the company when they start the job. They must align with your organization’s values and culture and make the employee feel welcomed and excited about their new position.
Think about the tone you want to set. If it’s friendly and conversational, this should be reflected in your videos.
People tend to absorb information better from shorter videos. If you think your script is getting too long, think about how you could break it down into two shorter videos.
Visual elements of onboarding videos
The visuals of a video present just as much, if not more information than the script. You want to make sure your visuals support your script and keep viewers engaged. Here are a few options for you:
- Presentations: You might create a presentation to go along with the script to highlight important messages on screen. This might be great for an onboarding video about policies and procedures.
- Animations: Animations can be fun to watch and are great for story-driven narratives. You might consider this for a video on benefits and perks.
- Recordings: A recording of your facilities, product, or the tools and software you use will help viewers get a robust understanding.
- B-roll: If you’re trying to convey a feeling or support a broad concept, b-roll can help get your message across. This might be useful when discussing your company values and mission.
- Presenters: A presenter helps personalize the script. You can choose a presenter that your employees will identify with or someone they might look up to.
Onboarding video examples
The best onboarding videos are creative and fun while getting their point across. Many companies are jumping on the HR video trend and coming up with engaging ways to onboard new employees. Here are a few examples.
- Welcome video – Give employees a headstart with a welcome video they can watch before their first day. This will help settle first-day jitters and provide a smooth start.
- Product tutorial – New hires must get up to speed on your product or service. Help them out with an appealing tutorial that will teach them about the product and its value.
- Office safety – Safety is always a top priority. Make sure employees remember the protocols and can rewatch if they need a refresher.
How to make onboarding videos with Hour One
Hour One can help you automate onboarding video creation. You’ll have tons of onboarding video templates at your fingertips that you can customize and make them your own. Our AI training video generator helps you produce engaging training videos by transforming your scripts into stunning and engaging videos with AI avatars. All it takes is a few clicks.
Step 1: Start creating
Start on the homepage of your Hour One account. You can choose whether you’ll start with a template, our video wizard, a document, or a presentation. Your choice depends on how much time you want to invest in creating your video and what assets you already have prepared. If you’re on a tight schedule, you might want to start with a template. But if you already have a presentation ready, you’ll want to start here to showcase your hard work.
Step 2: Direct your video
Quiet on the set! You get to direct your video from top to bottom. If you used an onboarding video template, you can either keep much of the template the same, or you can make it your own. Here are a few things you can customize:
- AI avatar: Hour One has a huge collection of AI avatars that you can choose to narrate your video. The avatar will lip-sinc along to your script, making your video more personal. For onboarding videos, your avatar will be leading your HR training. Choose someone who new employees will connect with and trust.
- Voice: Hour One has more than 120 languages and 200 voices to narrate your script. You can choose whatever speaking style, tone, and accent will be best for training new hires.
- Visuals: Use one of Hour One’s templates or your own presentation. You can add your logo or other images and videos to make sure the visuals are aligned with your brand. You might also add videos of your product or your office to support the training you’re offering.
Step 3: Generate your video
You did it! Hour One will stitch together all the scenes to make an engaging onboarding video. Download it, share it, or embed it in your employee management system.
We recommend uploading the videos somewhere that employees can access throughout their careers. Even though your videos are for onboarding new hires, veteran employees can always use a refresher.
Ready to get started? Start a free trial or get in touch to see how easy it is to produce studio-quality videos with Hour One.
