Your employees’ first few days with your organization are crucial. Employees who have positive experiences in their first 90 days at a company are 10 times more likely to stay.
What a shame that they have to sit through hours of dull onboarding presentations and work through a stack of new-hire paperwork, right? Think again–it doesn’t have to be this way!
Video is a dynamic and accessible way to deliver essential information in an engaging way. It makes dense information easier to understand, livens up your onboarding process, and takes work off your HR team’s plate.
You don’t have to start from scratch. If you already have onboarding docs, PDFs, or PowerPoints, you can easily transform them into video using AI and Animoto. Let us show you how!
TLDR: Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to just 10% from text. Use AI and Animoto to turn your existing documents into engaging videos.
Here are the steps:
- Input your materials: Upload your docs or presentations to an AI tool.
- Generate script and visuals: The AI will create a video script with visual ideas.
- Bring it to life: Use Animoto's drag-and-drop editing tools and video templates to quickly build your video.
By making this shift, you can improve employee engagement and knowledge retention from day one.
The onboarding challenge and the video solution
Effective employee onboarding is paramount for fostering a committed, productive, and long-lasting workforce. A well-structured employee onboarding process has been shown to boost employee retention by 82%.
You have a lot of information to share, but dense PowerPoints, lengthy guidebooks, and stale presentations can be overwhelming. That’s where video can shake everything up.
Why video wins in learning and onboarding
- Enhanced engagement: With a variety of visuals, sound, and motion, video captures and keeps attention more effectively than text. We see this preference played out on social media platforms and in the workforce too!
- Improved retention: Don’t leave need-to-know info to docs! Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% through text.
- Consistency and scalability: With a robust video onboarding program at your side, you can deliver a consistent, high-quality experience to all new hires.
- Accessibility: Video makes the onboarding experience more personalized by catering to different learning styles, setting everyone up for success.
- Emotional connection: Imagine the impact of a personal message from your CEO alongside dynamic footage of company events and vibrant employee testimonials. These aren't just visuals; they're experiences that truly convey the spirit of your organization.
Here are some examples of onboarding videos in action:
And here's one that includes screen recordings:
AI: Your Secret Weapon for Content Transformation
No video-making skills? Not a member of the marketing team? No time? No problem!
Even if you're not a video pro or are short on time, you can still revolutionize your onboarding. Thanks to AI-powered tools and beginner-friendly video platforms, creating and transforming your program into an engaging experience is now quick and easy.
Consider the onboarding materials you already have, or the ones you need to create. If you’re not sure what you’ll need, check out the recommended materials in this blog. We’ve even included a template for an employee handbook that contains videos!
Compare this list to the onboarding materials you may already have. Then, we’ll set out to transform a doc, PowerPoint, or PDF into a video using AI.
Learn how to create engaging onboarding videos from scratch here.
How to use AI to transform onboarding materials
Step 1: Input your materials
First up, find your source material. For our example, we’re going to be transforming a benefits presentation into a video, so we’ll just download the .pptx file and upload it into Gemini. You can do the same thing by downloading content from your website, presentations, documents, blogs, or just pasting the raw text into the AI tool of your choice.
Step 2: AI generates video outlines
Next up, we’re going to do a two-phase process to first distill and summarize the information from your presentation into a bulleted list. This will help ensure that nothing gets left behind. After that, we’ll turn it into a video script.
Here’s a prompt you can give AI to analyze your text and turn it into a bulleted list summary:
Act as an expert content analyst specializing in corporate training and instructional design. Your task is to meticulously read the provided onboarding material (document, PDF, or slideshow presentation) and extract only the most critical information for new hires.
Your summary should be presented as a concise, scannable, and actionable bulleted list. Focus on key concepts, essential procedures, important policies, and practical tips that a new employee absolutely needs to know about their role and responsibilities.
Exclude extraneous details, lengthy anecdotes, or information that would be better suited for an in-depth policy manual rather than an initial overview. The goal is to create a 'need-to-know' summary that is easy to digest.
[Insert the full text of your document, PDF, or slideshow presentation here.]
Take a minute to review your list and make sure that nothing was left out before we head to the next step.
Step 3: AI crafts video scripts
Now let’s turn that list into a script. This script will tell you exactly what text to use in every part of your video. It will be more concise, memorable, and engaging than a regular list. IT will even include recommendations for your visuals!
Here’s the prompt to make that happen:
You are now a highly creative video scriptwriter and instructional designer. Your goal is to transform the provided bulleted summary of onboarding material into an engaging and visually-driven video script. This script will appear as on-screen text (no voiceover), so clarity, conciseness, and visual storytelling are paramount.
For each bullet point from the summary, create a corresponding video segment. Each segment should include:
- On-Screen Text: The exact words that will appear on the screen. Keep this concise and impactful. Use clear, direct language.
- Visual Cues/Ideas: Describe suggested visuals that would accompany the on-screen text. These should be concrete and help illustrate the point being made (e.g., "Animation of a welcoming handshake," "Split screen showing task management software," "Graphic displaying company values"). Think beyond static images – consider simple animations, icons, or short video clips.
- Engagement Prompts: Integrate opportunities for viewer interaction. These should encourage active learning. Examples include:
- "PAUSE & REFLECT:" Suggest a moment for the viewer to pause the video and consider a question or recall information.
- "TRY THIS:" Suggest a small, actionable exercise for the viewer to attempt (e.g., "Open [Software Name] and find X").
- "DOWNLOAD/ACCESS:" Indicate where the viewer can find more detailed information or relevant documents (e.g., "Link to HR Portal in description").
- "COPY & SAVE:" Suggest a key piece of information (e.g., a link, a contact email) that the viewer should save.
Maintain an encouraging, welcoming, and slightly informal yet professional tone. Ensure a logical flow between segments. Conclude with a clear call to action for the new hire's next steps.
Here is the bulleted summary from the previous phase:
[Insert the bulleted summary generated in Phase 1 here.]
Step 4: Review and refine
Last but not least, make sure your fingerprints are all over this video by editing the script. AI provides the draft, but you can review for accuracy, tone, brand consistency, and the human touch!
And here’s the final script that we’ll be using for our video!
Bringing Your Script to Life with Animoto
Script in hand, it’s time to turn it into a video. If you don’t have experience with video editing, no worries! We’re going to use AI and Animoto’s drag-and-drop video editor to create videos effortlessly.
Here's a video that we made and the steps we took to make it:
Step 1: Start a project
One of Animoto’s best time-saving features is templates. There are tons of onboarding templates to give you a running start. Remember, you can always change the font, color, animations, photos, and more.
We’ll be customizing the template below, but you can always start from scratch if you have something more specific in mind.
Step 2: Add your script
Your script will serve as the outline for your entire video. Since our script was broken into multiple segments, we’re going to use those as guides for our video blocks.
Just copy and paste the “On-Screen Text” provided by your script into a block. Duplicate or add as many blocks as you need to create your video.
Don’t worry about getting the placement, font, or size just right yet–we’ll do that later.
Pro-tip: Use bold and italics for headings and key takeaways so your video is easier to scan and read.
Step 3: Swap the media with your photos
Now that our text is in our video, let’s add the visual cues to make it hit home. We’ll be using the suggestions that were included in our script, but you can always switch it up!
Upload media from your phone or device, then just drag it into your video. You can also import directly from any cloud storage platform like Drive or OneDrive,
If you’re running low, pull from the licensed Getty Images media library to fill in any gaps.
Step 4: Add your brand
Bringing your video on brand is easy with Animoto! Head over to the design tab to choose or upload a new font, pick your background and accent colors, and even apply a logo watermark.
To save time, you can also create a Saved Brand that applies all of these unique elements with a single click.
Step 5: Edit as needed
Time to customize! Experiment with different accent colors, trim your media, and drag and drop to reposition your photos and video clips.
For simple animations and designs, check out our animated elements. Get creative with it!
Pro tip: Dip into your secondary color palette to add some visual variety and fun to your video.
Optional step: Collect feedback
Want to run your video by other team members before you publish? Professional Plus users can generate custom feedback links that can be shared wherever you like! Then the rest of the team can leave time-stamped comments so you can perfect and finalize your video.
Step 6: Add music and/or voice-overs
Background music and voice-over tracks can really tie the video together and make it more engaging and memorable. Head over to the Audio tab to explore our music library, or click on the voice-over icon to record a custom message and add a personal touch to your video.
Step 7: Publish and share
Now it’s time to share away and engage your new hires! You can download your video in 1080p HD and upload it wherever you like, including Slack, Drive, Zoom, or even meeting rooms.
Best practices for onboarding videos
As you’re editing and fine-tuning your onboarding videos, keep these tips in mind:
- Keep it concise: Short, digestible videos are more effective.
- Focus on key takeaways: Don't try to cram too much information into one video.
- Visuals are key: Even simple graphics or text overlays enhance understanding.
- Call to action: What should the viewer do after watching? (e.g., "Complete the quiz," "Meet your mentor").
- Iterate and improve: Gather feedback and refine your video content over time.
- Human touch: While AI helps, ensure the final video reflects your company's unique voice and company culture.
The future of onboarding is video
Onboarding videos can boost engagement, improve knowledge retention, and ensure a consistent, high-quality experience for every new hire, no matter where they are. By using AI and Animoto, you can transform your existing documents, presentations, and guides into dynamic, visually-driven onboarding videos. This not only saves your HR team valuable time but also delivers a memorable and effective experience that sets new employees up for success from day one.
Ready to make your first onboarding video? Create a video online for free with Animoto.
