Let’s face it: Traditional employee onboarding is broken. Sitting through hours of monotonous PowerPoint presentations, reading handbooks, or watching static training videos is enough to make any new hire’s excitement evaporate. And the result? Disengaged employees from day one. In fact, 33% of new hires quit in their first 90 days due to lackluster onboarding experiences. That’s a staggering number, considering the resources spent on hiring and training.
If your onboarding program feels like it’s stuck in the past, it’s time to rethink your approach. The secret weapon? Engaging videos that captivate attention, build connections, and empower your employees right from the start.
Why Traditional Onboarding Videos Aren’t Working
Many companies make the mistake of thinking that slapping together a generic “Welcome to the Team” video will suffice. However, with attention spans shrinking, new hires can easily tune out if the content isn’t dynamic or interactive.
The pain lies in wasted time, energy, and money. Traditional onboarding can lead to:
- Low engagement: Static, one-way communication in onboarding videos leaves new hires passive and uninterested.
- Poor knowledge retention: Research suggest that people forget 90% of what they learned within a week if they aren’t actively engaged.
- Higher turnover rates: Bored and unengaged employees are more likely to leave within the first few months. Large organization with poor onboarding process face 16% attrition rate in the first six months of joining.
Agitation builds when you realize that every disengaged new hire is not just a potential exit but also a slow burn on your company’s productivity and morale.
So, how do you fix it? The solution is diverse video content that pulls employees in and keeps them engaged from day one. But not just any video—the right types of videos can make all the difference.
7 Types of Videos to Transform Your Employee Onboarding Experience
1. Welcome Videos Featuring Leadership
The first step in creating a memorable onboarding experience is fostering a connection between new hires and your company’s leadership. A simple “Welcome to the Team” video isn’t enough. You need something that stands out.
When executives or managers take the time to personally welcome new hires in a video, it shows they’re valued from the start. This type of video humanizes leadership and sets a warm, approachable tone for the rest of the onboarding process.
Pro tip: Keep it short—around 2-3 minutes. Focus on the company’s mission, vision, and how new employees can contribute to its success. Make it personal, and consider including a heartfelt message from the CEO.
2. Company Culture Videos
The most important aspect of onboarding is making sure your new hires understand the company culture. This isn’t something they can fully absorb through a manual or a brief mention during orientation.
Video is the perfect medium for showcasing company values, day-to-day work life, and behind-the-scenes glimpses into what makes your organization unique. It gives new hires a real sense of what they’re stepping into.
Pro tip: Highlight real employees in different roles sharing their experiences, and include fun elements like workplace events, team-building activities, and company traditions.
3. Role-Specific Training Videos
Generic training doesn’t cut it. Employees want to know how their specific role fits into the bigger picture and what they’ll be doing daily. That’s where role-specific training videos come into play. They're efficient, accessible, repeatable, cost-effective, customizable, and engaging, and can help to ensure that all new employees have the skills and knowledge they need to be successful in their roles.
Instead of throwing a mountain of text at new hires, use video to walk them through processes, tools, and expectations. It’s much easier to retain information when it’s delivered visually and contextually.
Pro tip: Break down complex tasks into micro-videos, allowing employees to absorb content in digestible pieces. Include on-screen annotations, diagrams, or software walk-throughs to enhance clarity.
4. Interactive Videos with Quizzes
Let’s face it, passive consumption of videos can only go so far. To truly engage your employees, interactive elements like quizzes and decision-making scenarios are key.
Interactive videos keep new hires actively involved, turning them from passive viewers into engaged participants. This leads to higher information retention and deeper understanding.
Pro tip: Embed quizzes at key moments throughout the video to check comprehension. Use branching scenarios to simulate real-world situations that new hires might face in their roles.
5. Compliance and Safety Training Videos
Compliance training tends to be the least exciting part of onboarding, but it’s often the most critical. The challenge is to make it engaging without losing the seriousness of the content.
Videos can transform dull, text-heavy compliance topics into something much more engaging. You can use animations, real-life examples, and clear explanations to help employees better understand safety protocols, regulations, or legal requirements.
Pro tip: Use storytelling to explain compliance. For example, create a short, fictional scenario that highlights the importance of following protocols, followed by a quiz to reinforce the key takeaways.
6. Team Introduction Videos
Joining a new company can feel isolating, especially if new hires don’t know who to turn to for help. Team introduction videos solve this problem by letting employees meet their colleagues from day one.
These videos help new employees put faces to names, feel more comfortable asking for assistance, and understand team dynamics before they’ve even stepped foot into the office or logged onto their first meeting.
Pro tip: Make these videos fun and informal. Encourage team members to share a little about themselves—favorite hobbies, what they’re working on, or even a fun fact. This breaks down barriers and fosters a welcoming environment.
7. Virtual Office Tour Videos
With more companies adopting remote or hybrid work models, many employees may never see the inside of your office. Virtual office tours provide a visual way to orient remote employees to your workspaces.
It helps remote hires feel connected to the physical workplace and the people who work there, even if they’re miles away.
Pro tip: Take the viewer on a guided tour of your office, stopping by key areas like the break room, conference rooms, or even team desks. Include team members waving or doing something fun to add personality to the tour.
Conclusion: The Power of Video in Employee Onboarding
Employee onboarding is no longer about handing out manuals or running through bullet-point presentations. Today’s employees expect engaging, personalized experiences from the start. Business with smooth onboarding process improve their retention rate by 52%. The right types of videos not only make onboarding more enjoyable but also improve retention, foster a sense of belonging, and ensure your new hires hit the ground running. Employees with a better onboarding experience are 2.6x more likely to feel satisfied at work.
With videos that engage, educate, and excite, you can transform your onboarding program into something your employees actually look forward to—and that’s where the real magic happens.
People Also Ask
What are the key benefits of using videos in onboarding?
Videos engage employees better, improve retention rates, allow for more consistent messaging, and can be easily updated or scaled.
How long should onboarding videos be?
Keep videos between 2-5 minutes. If the content is more in-depth, break it into shorter, digestible segments.
What types of onboarding videos are most effective?
Welcome videos, role-specific training, company culture insights, interactive quizzes, compliance training, and team introductions tend to be the most engaging.
How can interactive elements improve onboarding videos?
Interactive elements like quizzes or branching scenarios keep employees actively engaged and ensure better knowledge retention.
Can onboarding videos be used for remote employees?
Absolutely! Virtual office tours and team introduction videos are perfect for onboarding remote or hybrid employees.
How often should onboarding videos be updated?
It’s a good idea to review and update onboarding videos annually or whenever significant changes occur in company policies or procedures.
What tools can I use to create onboarding videos?
Many video platforms offer features like recording, live streaming, and interactivity that make it easy to create high-quality onboarding videos.
How can I measure the effectiveness of my onboarding videos?
You can track metrics such as completion rates, quiz scores, and engagement heatmaps to see how new hires are interacting with your content.
What is the ROI of video onboarding?
A well-executed video onboarding program can lead to lower turnover rates, faster productivity ramp-up times, and improved employee satisfaction, leading to significant long-term ROI.
Posted by Malaika Batool
As a Product Marketing Executive at VIDIZMO, I craft content that simplifies complex tech solutions, focusing on data privacy and compliances. My goal is to help businesses understand and leverage cutting-edge redaction tools to enhance their redaction processes.