Video Onboarding: 4 Ways to Shake Up Your Strategy

Video technology has played an increasingly important role in the day-to-day operations of countless businesses in recent years.

This trend was already underway before 2020, but really took off when COVID-19 came along and forced businesses to find ways to carry out some of their core functions remotely.

According to research by recruitment and HR consulting firm Randstad, 57% of global businesses said their investments in technologies like virtual onboarding and video interviewing enabled their remote workforces in 2020. Almost all respondents (96%) cited onboarding systems as one of the key innovations they would continue using after the pandemic.

If you've seen video onboarding grow in importance in recent years, it's worth taking the time to think about how you can optimize the process to ensure new recruits start their working life with you on the right foot.

1.    Make the most of the medium

Whether you've chosen to make video a central part of your onboarding process or circumstances gave you no choice in the matter, you can ensure you're benefiting from this approach by leveraging the inherently visual nature of the medium.

The instant impact you can achieve with video, as well as its potential to convey messages that people will engage with and remember, are big parts of what makes it such an effective form of marketing.

You can turn these traits to your advantage in HR as well by using video to make employee onboarding a more fun and memorable experience. Rather than simply utilizing the medium as a convenient way for people to have conversations from different locations, think about how you can really make the most of its potential. Could you produce custom-made onboarding videos that encapsulate your employer brand? Could videos give new hires an insight into the sort of experiences they can expect to have in their new job, for example?

2.    Make it personal and specific

It can be off-putting for employees to feel like they're going through a formulaic onboarding procedure that’s been completed by countless people before them, with no effort on the employer's part to tailor or tweak the process.

This can be particularly problematic when you're welcoming staff who are working remotely, and you're missing out on the sense of familiarity and personal connection that come more easily when you meet someone face-to-face.

It's crucial to be aware of this when you're onboarding via video and to approach the task in a way that makes it personal and relevant to each participant. One way to do this is by producing a visual breakdown of the various steps involved in every new employee's induction and the structure of the department they'll be working in.

You can also ensure your video onboarding is tailored to the individual by incorporating an element of job-specific training. To start with, this could be a fairly high-level overview of the role and what it involves, but you could also consider going further and building a detailed video training program that helps people thrive in their jobs.

3.    Provide a team tour

As well as supplying new recruits with the vital information they need to familiarize themselves with your organization and start working, a key priority of employee onboarding should be to help new arrivals settle into their teams.

Again, this is less straightforward when people are working remotely from one another. Video can help you solve this problem with activities like virtual team tours, which provide an opportunity for new employees to see and greet colleagues they'll be working with every day.

This can also be a good way to introduce workers to other departments that might not be directly related to their day-to-day work, but nevertheless play a crucial role in the company's performance and results.

4.    Make video tutorials available on-demand

One of the most appealing aspects of the video medium is the fact it's easy to consume and digest. Sitting down and watching a video that details key aspects of their job and responsibilities is likely to be a more inviting prospect for a new employee than reading through pages of written material.

Video tutorials can be a particularly effective part of the onboarding process if they're made available on-demand. This gives new employees the freedom to rewatch these resources as often as they like and to return to them whenever they need to.

Furthermore, the knowledge that they have access to videos providing important information they need to get on with their jobs will make your latest hires feel more confident and self-reliant, which is a positive outcome for the workforce and the business alike.