Onboarding is one of the most critical types of employee training. According to a study mentioned by Work Institute, a structured onboarding program increases the likelihood of retaining new hires for at least 3 years by 60 percent.1 But in addition to being structured, an onboarding program should also be engaging.
To increase employee engagement during onboarding, companies should integrate video into their training courses for new hires. Here’s why:
These statistics are clear indicators that people generally prefer video to other learning mediums. By including eLearning videos in your onboarding course, you can promote employee engagement and reduce turnover.
Want to create the perfect eLearning video? These tips can help you get started:
When creating an eLearning video for an onboarding program, it’s essential to make it succinct. “...the longer the video, the less people will watch,” stated a contributor to Wistia.4 Single Grain summed up the findings of one of Wistia’s video analytics charts:
“...videos under 1 minute enjoy 80% viewer retention up to the 30-second mark, while videos 2-3 minutes in length still enjoy 60% retention. 5-10 minute videos...still see over 50% viewer retention halfway through.”5
The perfect eLearning video should be short enough to keep an employee’s attention. If you have a lot of information to relay, consider creating a series of microlearning videos that new hires can access in their onboarding learning path.
Screencasting is an eLearning video creation technique that allows you to record your computer screen while adding a voiceover. Screencasting is ideal for onboarding. TechSmith explained, “With screencasting, you don’t have to continually start and stop to answer questions. This allows you to focus on the material. The new hire can start, stop, and re-watch the screencast as many times as they need!”6
These online tools can help you get started with screencasting:
You can weave eLearning videos that you create via screencasting into your company’s online onboarding program to foster learner engagement and add variety to the course.
Helpful eLearning videos should include various annotations that add value to the video and the overall onboarding course. Annotations should feature training tips and techniques, as well as links to relevant resources.
Try offering online resources that relate to the subject matter contained in the eLearning videos. “For instance, articles or online forums that offer a unique perspective or explore related topics,” stated a contributor at mysimpleshow.com.7 “To keep things organized, create a microlearning online repository that features categorized links. For instance, a section for compliance online training resources and another for task-based online training.”
Adding annotations is an easy way to improve the quality of an eLearning video and make your onboarding program more appealing to new hires
Video learning can drastically increase the impact of employee training. For example, presentations that incorporate video with text are 9 percent more effective than text alone.8 By integrating eLearning videos into your company’s onboarding course, you can ensure new employees are engaged in training and that they get the most from their onboarding experience.
To learn more about how to optimize your onboarding program and increase new hire engagement, explore our blog, “Can LMS Software Make Your Employee Onboarding Program More Effective?”
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