How to Make The Most of Employee Onboarding With Explainer Videos
Table of Contents
Introduction
As life returns to something resembling normality, plenty of us are gratefully flocking back to our offices. However, remote working has proven itself to be an effective alternative.
Loads of brands are embracing the newfound flexibility, productivity and morale-boosting reality of a hybrid, if not fully remote working model.
There’s also a significant upturn in companies hiring right now, which will continue to grow as the economy recovers. The catchment area of job listings have also expanded massively, with a huge variety of roles becoming nationwide or even worldwide in scope to find the best applicants.
In this environment, virtual onboarding is fast becoming the most effective and engaging way to get new recruits started quickly.
Read on to find out how video and animation can be used to optimise the virtual onboarding process.
Virtual onboarding process
Onboarding is more than just training up a new starter. It’s the process of welcoming them into the business, introducing them to your brand’s values, and encouraging them to get to know the members of your team.
This can be tricky when we’re all sitting in different places, so translating this process into a remote one hasn’t always been easy for businesses.
Most virtual onboarding looks something like this:
- An orientation email linking to important documents
- Guides on how to get set up on systems, logins and tools
- Presentations covering brand values, mission and culture
- Introductory team calls and one-to-ones with key colleagues
- Training modules and sometimes a period of shadowing via screen share
Sounds good on paper, but it doesn’t always go smoothly, especially for companies used to doing things in the same office. Your business may have already had to cobble together a rushed virtual onboarding model thanks to the pandemic.
Perhaps a few emails with links to scattered documents and a round of calls where team members do a meet and greet, each with varying levels of energy and optimism. And it doesn’t matter how many jazzy transitions you use, a presentation isn’t anyone’s idea of an engaging process.
Sound familiar?
Thankfully there are far more engaging ways to onboard your staff, it just takes a bit of creativity. Adding video to the mix can take an unimaginative, disjointed onboarding process, and make it memorable.
Onboarding videos
As more businesses continue to operate remotely, HR teams and talent acquisition managers need to broaden the range of tools they use to streamline the onboarding process for new hires.
A series of high-quality, consistent, on-demand videos to get new recruits up to speed quickly are a perfect accompaniment to your virtual onboarding plan.
Onboarding videos can save a significant amount of time, especially in smaller organisations with limited bandwidth. And for bigger teams or global brands, they can be used repeatedly and without the need for a dedicated trainer or HR person to be available.
Seems like a no-brainer doesn’t it? Well before you start recording your screen or ordering in the video production crew, you might want to consider another video option.
Animated onboarding explainer videos
Animated onboarding videos are one of the most effective ways of prepping new employees for their role. They’re an excellent tool to communicate the company’s culture and policies, providing them with a glimpse of what to expect.
Here’s why animation is so effective:
- It’s memorable – Thanks to colourful illustrations, relatable characters and engaging narratives, animated onboarding videos are more likely to resonate with your viewers than live action.
- It’s clear and simple – Explainer videos play an essential role in business storytelling because they explain complex or abstract topics in an easy-to-follow way. With styles like motion infographics and whiteboard animation, the potential to communicate large, detailed information becomes much more manageable.
- It can be used for remote onboarding – Whether at home or in another time zone, with animated onboarding videos you can communicate your key messages remotely and with confidence that they will be engaging.
- It’s customisable – Because they use bespoke images rather than live footage, animated onboarding videos can be easily tailored to meet different requirements such as the narrator language (which can be beneficial for international corporations) and brand guidelines.
- It’s cost-effective – Using animation to produce onboarding videos can be more cost-effective than having filmed footage or a live trainer. This is especially true for businesses that operate internationally (a single animation can be easily translated to foreign languages).
By incorporating animation into the onboarding process, you make the journey more engaging, more memorable and more flexible.
To make a big impact and get your new hires up to effectiveness fast, consider how these versatile types of animated video can slot into your onboarding mix.
At Nibble, we create personalised, animated onboarding videos for brands big and small. We’ve got the best technical and creative technology to produce animated training and educational videos that can make the process more fun and interesting. Get in touch for a no-obligation chat today!
