As an employer, you want to ensure that new hire training and retention go as smoothly as possible. You want all of your new hires to be set up for success from the moment they walk through the door on their first day. You’re not alone. An increasing number of organizations have come to realize that effective new employee training — otherwise known as employee onboarding — is a crucial factor in unlocking the full potential of your new recruits.

But did you know that an effective employee onboarding practice also has a positive impact on employee retention?

What the research tells us

Research has shown that good employee onboarding practices lead to higher job satisfaction, better job performance, and have stronger commitments to their organizations. According to the Aberdeen Group, companies that offer an onboarding program have an average employee retention rate of 86%. In contrast, companies without onboarding programs experienced an average retention rate of 56%. That’s a jarring difference, especially when, according to BambooHR, re-filling a position made vacant due to poor onboarding techniques costs companies an average of nearly $11,000.

Despite this evidence, some HR departments continue to struggle with putting together impactful and scalable employee onboarding programs. Often, these organizations are spending large portions of their yearly budgets on in-person training events and their associated travel and logistics expenses.

How does video enhance new hire training and retention?

The use of internal video platforms or “corporate YouTubes” has enabled forward-thinking companies to deliver engaging, effective new hire training and retention programs at scale without breaking the bank.

• Reduction in training costs. The costs of providing live training events and meetings can add up, from transportation and meals to booking speakers and activities. Before moving much of its training to an e-learning format, IBM was spending 40% of its classroom training costs on travel and lodging alone. By remotely delivering video training, companies can reduce the need for multiple live training events and meetings. Employees, in turn, can receive training on-demand, searching videos for specific content and replaying important points as needed.
• Improved knowledge retention. Studies have shown that 30 minutes after a training session, people retain just 58% of the material covered. That number drops to 35% in 7 days and dips even further to just 10% six months later. However, according to researchers Rusted & Coltheart, presentations that include visual elements, such as video, along with text improve the ability to remember information more effectively. Video helps your training content become more memorable through a much more engaging medium than text alone.
• Enables fresh content updates. Nothing spoils an onboarding experience more than outdated content. Modern video platforms make it easy to update training videos without having to start from scratch. Look for a video platform that allows content creators to easily splice in updated presentations, web pages, or PDFs to existing training videos so that your training content is always fresh and up-to-date.
• Improved employee engagement and connectedness. Employee onboarding isn’t just about training — it’s also about introducing your new hires to the culture and values of your company. Video can be used to help introduce your team members to each other, deliver personalized messages from your executive team, and familiarize themselves with the names and faces they’ll interact with every day — whether they’re 5 feet or 5,000 miles away.

How to develop a video onboarding process that works

Asynchronous video onboarding offers an optimized, scalable solution to improving the new hire training and retention experience. Video onboarding is attainable for any organization and doesn’t need to be difficult. There are seven core steps to follow to plan and execute an effective video employee onboarding program. 

7 Steps to designing a video-based onboarding process

1. Identify a set of core onboarding training activities for every new employee.
2. Determine which of the onboarding activities can be optimized with on-demand video training.
3. Map out a weekly onboarding schedule for each new employee’s first 60 or 90 days.
4. Repeat the above steps with role-, department-, and location-specific videos.
5. Document the process and share it with other departments so they can add additional content.
6. Make the onboarding experience consistent with automated messages.
7. Use video analytics to monitor viewing activity.

Interested in learning how video can help you train new employees?

Learn more ways that Panopto’s employee onboarding software can improve new hire training and retention at your company by downloading our white paper, 5 Strategies to Optimize and Accelerate Onboarding.

If you’re ready to try video onboarding for your company, contact our team for a demo of our video platform.