Improve New Hire Retention and Productivity Through Video Onboarding
The only thing more challenging than finding the right employees is keeping those employees. According to BambooHR, almost one-third of employees leave a job within the first six months, with over two-thirds of that group leaving within the first three months. Improving new hire retention rates isn’t impossible though! How? By enhancing new hires’ onboarding experience! In fact, research by Glassdoor has shown that enhanced onboarding processes can increase new hire retention rates by over 80% in addition to a 70% increase in productivity.
It’s more than just changing your process. Improving onboarding requires a shift in perspective. Employers are replacing the traditional “meeting with HR to fill out forms and review policies” with a presentation that engages new hires by immersing them in the company’s environment, engaging them with the company’s story, and then educating them about the company’s programs and policies. Employers interested in employee retention are improving their onboarding with the power of video!
It doesn’t take an array of studies to confirm that most of us prefer watching over reading, especially when the topic is dry (like, oh, let’s say dress code policies). Studies by Zabisco and 3M do, however, show that 90% of the information we take in is visual and that the human brain processes visual input approximately 60,000 times faster than other types. Additionally, messaging delivered through video is retained at a rate of up to 95%, while reading the same message results in only 10% retention. The benefits of applying video technology to the onboarding process also include:
- Access: video learning provides new hires the ability to reinforce training programs/information by viewing and reviewing the material at their convenience (i.e. outside of scheduled training sessions).
- Cost Savings: a single video can be shown again and again, and to groups of varying size, without consuming valuable HR administrators’ time.
- Time Savings: people read at different speeds, but watch a five-minute in five minutes, meaning a new hire could, in the time it takes to read an employee manual, watch multiple company videos that provide the same information in a more enjoyable and more recallable format.
- Consistency: programs, policies, and company branding are presented the same way regardless of company size, multiple locations, or changes in HR administrator.
- Versatility: videos allow employers to share various elements of a new hire’s role, responsibilities, and how their position “fits” into the company overall.
- Reach: using video, employees at one of several locations can experience the environments of all the company’s facilities without traveling to each and every one.
- Relatability: video messaging allows companies to tailor their messaging materials to convey the personal and cultural elements of the organization that can be lost, or worse – misinterpreted in written formats.
Another powerful feature of using video is the personal connection that it can create. Reading materials about the company is an action dictated by the employer and performed by the employee. Watching video presentations about the company provides an interaction between the employer and employee. Where documents present words on a page, video provides imagery and sound that illustrate the personal and emotional elements of the people and places they represent. Video creates a platform where your CEO is always available to welcome new hires; that your HR managers can always provide a clear consistent onboarding experience without impacting their schedules; and that program and process trainers can provide training and education without affecting productivity. And bonus: modern video technology allows for easy updates and additions that ensure that training materials are as current as possible.
Well-structured onboarding experiences don’t simply make new hires feel more welcome. They make new hires feel more engaged and become more productive employees. For any organization striving to improve employee performance and retention, there’s no better place to begin than onboarding with video.
Ready to create an onboarding video for your organization? We’d love to help! Schedule a time to chat with us to get started.
