Your employee onboarding process is one of the most important aspects of your business.
In fact, onboarding statistics from Glassdoor reveal that a strong onboarding experience can improve retention by 82% and performance by 70% for new hires. Put simply, delivering an exceptional new employee experience is a worthwhile investment for the business.
So what does successful onboarding look like? How do you set new hires up to grow into strong team members?
People need to feel welcomed by peers, bought into the organization, informed on their responsibilities and equipped to contribute.
The faster you can do this, the better. Checking these boxes requires having a structured onboarding experience that everyone follows. A simple new employee onboarding checklist like this can help everyone stay in lockstep.
But there’s one often overlooked tactic that helps with both onboarding and retention – sending timely video messages. (here’s a dedicated post on using video to improve retention)
Adding video messages to onboarding flows completely transforms your organization’s first impression. It makes new hires feel seen and valued from the beginning. Remote and hybrid companies, especially, need video messaging for their digital employee onboarding.
In this post, we share employee onboarding video ideas and examples to take your onboarding experience to the next level. By implementing these ideas, you’ll help new team members ramp up quickly.
Pre-Day 1: Logistics and Opportunities
In this post, we covered all the types of videos you can send during the recruitment process, including celebratory videos after an offer is accepted.
Occasionally, it makes sense to communicate logistics or share opportunities with new hires before their first day. Some people like getting a head start or meeting new colleagues in advance.
Here’s an example of what this could look like…
Notice her enthusiasm and warmth. This a fantastic way to sustain momentum and positive energy between the emotional high of accepting an offer and the excitement of the first day.
Day 1: Introductions & Administration
Several types of videos are helpful on Day 1:
- Individual introductory videos
- Company introductory videos
- Explanatory videos
Don’t worry about overwhelming people. New hires can watch your videos when they have time and refer back to them as needed, just like they would with plain-text onboarding emails.
Individual Introductory Videos
Finding time to introduce everyone on the team to a new hire can be hard, especially at remote or hybrid companies. A great solution is to have team members record introductory video messages.
(btw, check out this post for a deeper discussion on how to engage remote employees)
New hires can start to become familiar with new peers, even before meeting them officially. These videos are particularly useful for introducing senior leaders and executives.
Check out this example of one director’s welcome video for new hires…
These video messages can be “evergreen videos” – clips you that work in many situations because they don’t reference specific people.
If you want to go this route, instruct your team members to film an introductory video without mentioning the name of a new hire. Here’s an example script:
“Hey there! My name is Jolie, and I’m so excited you’re joining the team. I am one of the business analysts in the group and spend most of my time exploring potential growth opportunities. Can’t wait to learn more about you in person or over a call soon!”
See how this would work for anybody joining the team?
Ideally, you’d send personalized videos anytime someone new comes aboard. But evergreen videos also work and are still a step up from email introductions. And they work well in automated employee onboarding systems for companies that try to streamline as much as possible.
Company Introductory Videos
You can also introduce people to the organization as a whole on Day 1. For instance, you can share a video explaining your company’s mission, core values and culture. You could share stories about fun team events or annual off-sites.
This type of video is great for helping people connect to the organization as a whole.
Explanatory Videos
A third type of video that is useful on someone’s first day is one that talks through administrative issues.
For instance, a screen recording of a benefits package or complicated tax forms can clear up frequently asked questions or concerns. You could also use these videos to remind new team members what you need from them.
Here’s an example of this:
With these video messages, your new hire will feel much more confident, comfortable and excited during the employee onboarding process.
After Day 1: Training New Hires
With basic introductions and administration out of the way, it’s time to train your new hire. Again, having this person meet with team leads and key employees can take a long time.
Rather than wait for schedules to line up, why not use video messages again?
Team members can record themselves talking through important concepts or using key technology platforms. They can share knowledge and skills asynchronously so the new hire has things to work on immediately.
At BombBomb, every new hire gets a crash course on our product and services through BombBomb Studios. They can watch videos as many times as they need to, and the content is always available.
Creating a “video academy” or video course for new employees is a great way to get them up to speed. You can create general courses for all new hires and then additional role- or department-specific courses.
That way, everyone gets an overview of the organization and education that is specific to their work.
Integrating New Hires into Everyday Rhythms
Video messages are also great for explaining day-to-day routines, the office space, unique practices, and anything else that isn’t covered during training.
Does your floor have an awesome break area? Is your fancy espresso machine hard to figure out?
These are great answers to share over fun videos! You could go further and create a series of videos explaining office or remote etiquette.
We also suggest using video messages when team members transition to new companies or roles. This is a great way to transfer knowledge and help the next team member ramp up quickly.
To summarize, using video is an easy way to elevate your onboarding experience. Your videos can equip people to start adding value sooner and make them feel a part of the team much faster.
This is a crucial piece of the puzzle for establishing a thriving company with happy employees.
Interested in using video messaging in your employee onboarding and training process?
