The way people work today is very different and onboarding has to keep evolving to accommodate this. Many employees now work in remote or hybrid positions. This means that traditional onboarding isn’t sufficient anymore. Onboarding today requires using digital tools and platforms.
A video-based employee onboarding program offers new hires one of the best ways to integrate into a new company. Videos are accessible, flexible, and customizable. You can use them to do everything from giving new hires a warm welcome to introducing them to what they need to know to hit the ground running.
Why use onboarding videos?
A video onboarding program offers many advantages, including the fact that it’s suitable for remote, hybrid, and in-person employees.
- It engages employees more than when using text-based materials on their own for onboarding. Employees prefer watching videos and retain more information as they offer a visual and auditory experience.
- Using videos for onboarding can create a connection with new hires. This is particularly important for remote new hires. They don’t have in-person interactions, so they may feel isolated and the right videos can create a sense of belonging.
- In-person onboarding can be expensive. Video-based employee onboarding reduces many of the costs.
- Offering the same messaging to new hires can be challenging when they are in different locations and time zones. Videos can solve this problem.
- Employee onboarding videos allow employees to learn at their own pace. An on-demand video allows them to rewatch information if necessary, and they can learn at any time that’s convenient to them.
- Animated onboarding videos are particularly helpful when conveying complex information like company policies and procedures.
Video offers scalability as you create videos once and use them over and over again. Many new hires can access videos at the same time without any loss in quality when using the right video hosting platform. You can scale to accommodate a growing number of new hires without needing extra staff or training materials.
Must-have videos for onboarding
You can use various types of videos to support the onboarding process. These may include everything from welcome messages to video tutorials.
Welcome message
An employee welcome video can create a memorable first impression. A personalized greeting from the CEO, manager, or team members can make new hires feel their value. It can alleviate nerves and demonstrate an inclusive culture that many employees want when they envision staying at a company over the long term.
Zendesk’s welcome video uses persona-focused storytelling. It introduces the culture, the CEO’s connection to the company, and the type of people the company hires. Viewers see shots of Zendesk’s CEO and the Zendesk office.
Company overview
A company overview video can introduce new hires to the history, mission, and values of your company. This can help to give them context and feel like they belong.
Dropbox has an onboarding video that welcomes new team members by getting them to understand the purpose and value of the product. It uses animation to guide the storytelling. It’s easy to relate to and gives a quick overview of the company and some fun facts about it.
Company culture
Amazon’s “Day One” video covers the basics of what a new hire should know about the company, from its history to its culture. It shares a glimpse into the lives of some of its employees to showcase the diverse range of people that work there.
Google’s video showing what new interns experience in their first week was very successful. New hires could understand more about Google culture as they saw what the first week on the job was like for interns from diverse backgrounds. They mention what they love about working for Google, including some of the many perks and benefits.
Meet the Team
A ‘meet the team’ video can showcase the faces of colleagues new hires will interact with.
A Canva video introduces its culture and team members in an arresting way. It starts with someone skateboarding in the Canva office and features an inspirational story about how the company began. It also features interviews with several employees, including the CEO.
Roles and responsibilities
- A “day in the life” video could show new hires typical tasks and responsibilities of new employees.
- New hire training can incorporate job description videos that provide an explanation of specific job duties and expectations.
- Step-by-step tutorial videos can help new hires to quickly learn specific tasks and workflows.
Corporate training videos can include product demos with interactive quizzes to help employees absorb and retain product information.
HR and policy information videos
Videos can introduce policies, benefits, and other HR-related information in a format that’s easy to digest. An experienced HR practitioner can use a video to outline a complex company policy in layman’s terms.
Cincopa provides you with an effective way to host, store, and distribute different types of onboarding videos. The platform facilitates live streaming and you can offer video-on-demand (VOD) in a video library. By having onboarding videos readily available as VOD, it is easy for employees to rewatch content if necessary. Cincopa integrates with other software you use, like an LMS or CRM. This makes your workflows more efficient.
Structuring content into a logical onboarding path
To structure your video content, you need to clearly define what new hires should know and be able to do after watching each video.
- Structure the content in a way that supports progressive learning. It should build from one step to another in a logical way. This makes it coherent and easy to follow.
- Divide complex subjects into small, more manageable units. Short, concise video modules make it easier for learners to digest and retain knowledge.
- Interactive videos with embedded quizzes or hotspots ensure active learning and assess understanding.
- Make sure that new hires receive consistent feedback throughout the onboarding process. If they don’t receive this, they could lose motivation. Video messaging provides a way to connect with them and offer support if they’re struggling.
- Encourage new hires to take action after watching the video. Get them to complete a task or watch another video.
Cincopa can help teams to create, host, and organize onboarding videos. Go to the home page to find out more about how its templates and galleries allow you to organize videos in a logical way. With its video channels, employees can have a centralized place to access onboarding videos. Cincopa also has many features that help to make onboarding videos interactive, such as quizzes, annotations, and calls to action.
Tracking engagement and progress with analytics
It’s essential to track the performance of videos and gather feedback to analyze the progress of employees. With data insights, you can make adjustments to improve the onboarding path over time.
An enterprise video hosting platform will allow you to see broad viewing trends and you will also know when and how often each employee watches any particular video. With in-depth insights like these, you can see how your individual onboarding videos perform. If some aren’t performing well, you need to figure out why and make improvements.
The Cincopa platform has advanced analytics that give you access to dashboards and heatmaps. On a heatmap you can observe how new hires interact with onboarding videos. You can observe where they drop off, rewatch, or skip content. This gives you useful insights you can use to improve your employee onboarding videos.
Conclusion
With the right video onboarding program and video hosting platform, employees can learn more, feel connected, and remain loyal. This can significantly reduce costs and help to ensure company success. Cincopa can help you with your video onboarding program. Sign up for a free trial and explore the options it offers.
