Employee Onboarding Video: What to Include
Why do companies use onboarding videos?
Every new hire goes through the same first few weeks: meet the team, learn the tools, understand how things work. Without video, this process depends on whoever happens to be available to explain things. The quality varies. Key details get missed. And someone on the team loses a week playing tour guide.
Onboarding videos fix the consistency problem. Every new hire gets the same introduction to the company, the same walkthrough of the tools, the same explanation of how things work. It doesn't matter if they start on a Monday in Sydney or a Friday in London - the experience is the same.
Companies with structured onboarding video programs report faster time to productivity for new hires. The reason is simple: new employees can watch videos at their own pace, rewatch sections they didn't catch the first time, and focus their live meetings on questions rather than basic information transfer.
What should an onboarding video program include?
Don't try to put everything into one long video. Build a series of short modules that cover the key areas. Here's a practical structure.
Welcome and company overview (1 video, 3-5 min)
A message from the CEO or senior leader welcoming the new hire. Cover the company's mission, history, and what makes it different. Keep it personal - a talking-head video from the CEO is more impactful than a corporate montage. This is also a natural piece of internal communications video that sets the tone for the employee experience.
Culture and values (1-2 videos, 2-3 min each)
Show what your values look like in practice. Employee testimonials work well here - let team members describe what the culture actually feels like day to day. Avoid scripted, corporate-speak versions. Authenticity matters more than polish.
Team introductions (1 video per department, 1-2 min each)
Each department head records a short introduction: who they are, what their team does, and how new hires will interact with them. This helps new employees put faces to names before they meet everyone in person.
Tools and systems walkthrough (2-4 videos, 3-5 min each)
Screen recordings showing how to use your key tools - email, project management, time tracking, HR systems, communication platforms. These are the videos new hires will rewatch most often. Keep them updated when tools change.
Policies and compliance (2-3 videos, 2-4 min each)
Cover the mandatory stuff: code of conduct, data privacy, security policies, expense procedures. See our compliance training video guide for detailed advice on making this content engaging.
Role-specific training (varies)
This is where the generic onboarding program branches into role-specific content. Sales teams get product training. Engineers get architecture overviews. Customer success teams get process walkthroughs. These videos are usually produced by the team lead or subject matter expert.
How many onboarding videos do you need?
A solid onboarding program typically includes 8-15 videos totaling 30-60 minutes of content. That sounds like a lot, but most new hires consume it over their first 1-2 weeks, not in one sitting.
Start with 5 videos covering the most common questions new hires ask in their first week. Add more modules over time based on feedback. Ask recent hires: "What do you wish someone had told you in your first week?" Those answers become your next videos.
How do you produce onboarding videos efficiently?
The biggest mistake is trying to make onboarding videos too polished. New hires want useful information, not a corporate documentary.
CEO welcome: Film on a phone or webcam in their actual office. 3 minutes, no script, just talking naturally. Authenticity matters more than production quality here.
Team introductions: Each team lead records a short video. Provide a simple template: "Hi, I'm [name], I lead [team]. We do [what]. You'll work with us when [context]. If you have questions, reach out on [channel]." Done in 5 minutes per person.
Systems walkthroughs: Screen recordings with narration. The person who knows the system best records their screen while walking through the key workflows. Tools like Loom make this trivial.
Professional editing: Upload all the raw footage to Shootsta. Your editors add branded intros, consistent lower thirds, captions, and a professional finish. You get polished videos back within 48 hours without any of your team learning editing software.
With a video production subscription, producing the full onboarding series costs a fraction of what a single agency-produced video would cost. And updating individual modules when things change is quick and inexpensive.
How do you keep onboarding videos up to date?
Onboarding content goes stale fast. Tools change, policies update, teams restructure. Set a quarterly review cycle where someone on the L&D or HR team watches through the entire onboarding series and flags anything that's outdated.
Because the videos are modular, updating one module doesn't affect the rest. Re-film the changed section, send it for editing, and swap it into your LMS. The rest of the program stays live the entire time.
How do you measure onboarding video effectiveness?
The metric that matters most is time to productivity - how quickly new hires become self-sufficient in their role. Compare this metric before and after implementing video onboarding.
Other useful metrics:
- Video completion rates: Are new hires watching all the modules? Low completion on specific videos might mean they're too long or not relevant.
- Time spent in live onboarding sessions: This should decrease as video takes over the information transfer. Live sessions can then focus on Q&A and relationship building.
- New hire survey scores: Ask recent hires to rate their onboarding experience. Include specific questions about the video content.
- 90-day retention: Strong onboarding correlates with better early retention. Track whether video onboarding moves this number.
How do you get started?
Start with the CEO welcome video and one systems walkthrough. Film both this week - they don't need to be perfect. Deploy them to your next new hire cohort and collect feedback. Use that feedback to decide what to produce next.
For the full picture on building a video program for your team, see our guide to video for L&D teams or explore corporate training video production at Shootsta.