Boosting Employee Engagement and Retention with Video Onboarding

One of the biggest challenges small businesses face when adding new team members is implementing a quality onboarding and training program that helps employees start quickly and ensures long-term retention. Traditionally, new employee onboarding and training varied from a “trial by fire” approach (more kindly referred to as “on-the-job training”), to several weeks with a professional trainer in a classroom setting.

While the “trial by fire” approach is not recommended, training programs with an experienced instructor can be costly and inconsistent. Enter video onboarding – a powerful strategy that changes how companies welcome and train their newest team members. Let's explore how incorporating video into your onboarding process can increase engagement and improve retention rates, especially in this day and age of hybrid work environments.

The Power of Visual Learning

As you probably know, we human beings are visual creatures. All you have to do is look at the success of YouTube and other social media platforms. According to MedTech Intelligence, We process visual information 60,000 times faster than text and retain 65% of visual information compared to just 10% of textual data. By leveraging video in your onboarding process, you're tapping into this natural preference for visual learning, making the information more engaging and memorable for new hires.

Flexibility and Accessibility

In this day and age of hybrid or flex work environments, the advantages of video onboarding are amplified. Video onboarding allows new employees to access training materials at their own pace and on their schedule. This flexibility is particularly beneficial for companies with a diverse workforce, including remote employees or those in different time zones. New hires can revisit complex topics, ensuring they fully grasp important concepts. Of course, you’ll want to have time parameters that spell out deadlines for aspects of training, but providing the employee the opportunity to learn when they are at their best is also valuable.

Increased Engagement

Simply watching a trainer present PowerPoint slides in a video isn’t enough. Consider incorporating additional components to ensure new hires are learning the requisite information. Interactive video content, such as quizzes, clickable hotspots, and branching scenarios, can transform passive viewing into an active learning experience. This interactivity boosts engagement and helps new employees retain information more effectively. According to a study by Forrester Research, one minute of video is as powerful as 1.8 million words.

Showcasing Company Culture

As discussed in previous blog posts, video is an excellent medium for conveying your company's culture, values, and personality. By featuring real employees and workplace scenarios in your onboarding videos, you can give new hires a genuine feel for what it's like to work at your organization. This authentic representation helps new employees connect with the company on a deeper level, fostering a sense of connection from day one.

Cost-Effective Solution

Let’s face it, hiring and onboarding new employees is expensive. If you’re not spending real dollars throughout the process, you’re investing co-workers’ time to get someone onboarded. This is wonderful when it works, but should that new employee not work out, the time of your team has been wasted. Yes, creating high-quality video content requires an initial investment. However, it can significantly reduce long-term onboarding costs. By replacing or supplementing in-person training with video content, organizations can save on trainer salaries, travel expenses, and printed materials. Additionally, the reusable nature of video content means you'll continue to see returns on your investment with each new hire.

Improved Information Retention

If you’re familiar with corporate training, you’ll be familiar with this truth: people often become distracted, or worse, fall asleep during corporate training. Especially the training segments that follow lunch! With video, the combination of visual and auditory stimuli in video content enhances information retention. According to a study by the SAVO Group, the use of video in training can improve knowledge retention by up to 60%. This improved retention translates to better-prepared employees who can hit the ground running in their new roles. You also may have a better chance of keeping those newbies awake!

Measurable Results

If the idea of independent learning and remote training makes you nervous for reasons of accountability, modern Learning Management Systems (LMS) can help. A quality LMS today will allow you to track engagement with video content, quiz results, and overall progress through the onboarding process. This data provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of your onboarding program and helps identify areas for improvement.

The Impact on Retention Rates

Ultimately, we would all like to hire top talent and never have to replace them. Unfortunately, that’s not realistic. However, if you’re able to retain your top people well after their initial onboarding, you’ll be ahead of the game. In fact, a strong onboarding process is directly linked to improved employee retention. According to a study by Glassdoor, organizations with an effective onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82% and productivity by over 70%. By leveraging the engaging and effective nature of video onboarding, companies can significantly reduce turnover rates and the associated costs of recruiting and training replacements.

Video Onboarding is More Than a Trend

Incorporating video into your employee onboarding process is more than just a trend – it's a strategic move that can dramatically improve engagement, information retention, and ultimately, employee retention rates. By creating a more engaging, consistent, and flexible onboarding experience, you're setting your new hires up for success from day one. As we continue to navigate the evolving landscape of work, video onboarding stands out as a powerful tool for building a more connected, informed, and loyal workforce.

Remember, the key to successful video onboarding lies in creating content that's not only informative but also engaging and aligned with your company's culture. Invest the time and resources to develop high-quality video content, and you'll reap the rewards of a more engaged and committed workforce for years to come.