Making a great first impression as a company is just as important as on a first date.
A new hire video is a direct reflection of company values and company policies. So getting both the video and the whole onboarding process right is pretty damn important.
We have combined a few tips & tricks to help you create an awesome new hire video. To make the onboarding process even easier, we've created a free new employee video template for you. 🎁
But first, let's start with the basics.
Do people watch onboarding videos?
Let us answer this question with straight facts:
- People retain 95% of a message delivered through video vs. only 10% through text 🤯
- 69% of people believe more videos should be used to improve the onboarding process 🎥
So yes, it's safe to assume that new employees do watch onboarding videos. Provided, of course, that the video itself is actually good.
There are a few key differences between great onboarding videos and underwhelming ones.
Great vs. Ineffective Onboarding Videos
An onboarding video has the power to make or break an employee's first day. As a company, you want your new hires to be excited about working here and prepared to take on their new role. A long, visually boring, spoken-only video will do the opposite - instead of inspiring new hires, it will deter them from wanting to do their best, and make them struggle to fit in.
Because who wants to work for a company with no clearly-defined values, no company culture, a boring work environment and uninspiring leadership? We think you know the answer.
That's why nailing that first impression with a stand-out employee onboarding video is crucial for new hire retention.
So, what makes for a great onboarding video? Here are some key factors we thought you should know about. 👇
4 Tips for Creating Stunning Employee Onboarding Videos
Tip #1 Introduce the company culture 👋
Use employee onboarding videos to showcase your company's history and impressive culture, outline your company vision and values, and introduce the upper management to the new hires.
This is the time where you set the core values and principles of working for your organization. Let your new employees know what's important to you. Does your business value collaborative or independent thinking? What is the work environment like? What goals are you trying to achieve with the business?
Here's an example company culture video (that you can also duplicate and recreate):
Tip #2 Make it fun 🎉
Let's face it, sometimes practical information can be.... well, boring.
Don't lose the attention span of your new employees. Make the onboarding experience fun, light, and engaging. A few ways to do that:
- add graphic elements
- incorporate some personality and humor
- include testimonials/examples from various members of the team
Tip #3 Keep it short ✂️
An employee onboarding video is not the optimal medium for bombarding your hires with too much at once. In fact, videos longer than 2 minutes see a significant drop in engagement.
Information about their specific roles, the strategy of each department, product/process training should not be included in a welcome video. We recommend separating those topics into short separate videos, and include all of them in a well-formulated employee onboarding course.
Tip #4 Personalize! 💌
Few things can make a new employee feel more welcome than a personalized employee onboarding video from the CEO.
We know what you're thinking: filming new hire videos for all new employees, especially at a big company, is an impossible task. Just think of all the time it will take, and all the money that will be involved in the entire process.
And that is absolutely the case if you use a traditional video production company for the job. But there are tools on the market that allow you to make personalized professional videos from text in minutes with life-like AI avatars of your team members.
Here's how. 👇
How do you make an onboarding video?
You can approach making videos for new hires in two ways.
The first one involves reaching out to traditional video production companies and filming videos in a studio with costly equipment and a whole production team. Be prepared to spend the big bucks, as this can cost around $1,000-$5,000 per finished minute of video.
The other way uses an in-browser video maker like Synthesia, that allows you to create videos for new hires by simply typing in text. Choose to narrate your text with a preselected life-like AI avatar or a custom avatar of your team for a personalized touch.
This method allows you to create personalized professional videos on demand and at scale. You can edit the script and video as you please, and even automate the personalization part.
Oh, and you can create company culture videos in 120+ languages.
See how it works 👇
Ready to create a new hire video?
Use this orientation video template to get started.👇
Or try our free demo video instead.