Onboarding video series: topics, order and length

An onboarding video series should run across the first ninety days, not the first morning. Map it to the moments a new starter meets something for the first time: the paperwork before they start, their first login, the first weekly task, the check in conversations at 30, 60 and 90 days, and the second system they pick up in month two. Each video covers one of those moments, runs under two minutes, and arrives on the day it is needed.

The case for spreading it out is in the research on how long onboarding really takes. Gallup reports that new employees typically take around twelve months to reach their peak performance, and that only 12 percent of US employees say their company does a good job of onboarding. SHRM describes onboarding at some companies as one or two days of activities and at others as a series spanning months, up to twelve. A single induction video only serves the first of those, and it serves it badly, because a new starter on day one has no idea which of the forty things they have just watched they will need on day twenty.

Why the calendar matters more than the content

Most onboarding video advice is about what to put in. The harder decision is when each piece arrives. A video about submitting an expense claim, watched on day one, is forgotten by the first claim. The same video sent on the afternoon of day three, when the first receipt is in someone’s wallet, gets watched because it answers a question they already have.

Cynthia Brame’s 2016 review of educational video research in CBE Life Sciences Education makes the design case. Segmenting, breaking content into small pieces, lets learners engage with small pieces of new information and gives them control over the flow. The same review reports median engagement close to 100 percent for videos under six minutes and about half for nine to twelve minute videos. An onboarding series takes that further: not only short videos, but short videos released on a schedule.

Map the series to the first ninety days

The table at the end of this article is a ten video plan for a fictional 40 person logistics firm, Gannet Freight, with a length, a topic and a send moment for each. Build yours the same way. List every task a new hire will do alone for the first time in their first quarter, add the three check in conversations, and put a date against each one.

Then cut. If two videos go out on the same day, merge them or move one. If a video has no send moment, it is a reference video, and it belongs on the page for that tool rather than in anyone’s inbox.

Before day one and the first login

Two videos go out before the first morning. The first arrives with the signed offer and does one job: it points at the single form a new starter completes before they begin. The employee onboarding form example shows what that form collects, from right to work evidence to bank and superannuation details, and the video only needs to say what to have ready and roughly how long it takes.

The second arrives the evening before day one and walks through the first login. The onboarding tool video example is that video for a fictional HR portal called Wren. It runs 50 seconds across eight scenes: a five second welcome, four steps of seven or eight seconds covering profile, bank details, policies and the first week plan, a checklist of what to finish by Friday, a scene saying questions go to the buddy first and then the People team, and a four second sign off.

Week one: the tasks people repeat

Week one videos cover tasks that recur, because a recurring task done wrong the first time is done wrong every time afterwards. The expense claim video example is 48 seconds and five steps, ending on a checklist of what to attach. That checklist scene is the part that saves the finance team a week of returned claims.

Some videos are never sent. The password reset example runs 34 seconds and four steps, and it belongs on the IT help page where someone locked out in month four will find it. Putting it in the day one email wastes it.

The 30, 60 and 90 day check ins

Each check in gets a thirty second preview sent a few days ahead, saying what the manager will ask and what to bring. The three conversations follow the structure of a 30 60 90 day plan: learning in the first month, contributing in the second, owning something in the third. The video sets expectations; the conversation does the work.

This is where the manager matters most. Gallup found employees are 3.4 times as likely to say their onboarding was successful when their manager takes an active role, and only 29 percent of new hires feel fully prepared and supported after onboarding. A preview video makes the conversation better. It cannot replace it.

Between the check ins, add the second system. Most roles meet a new tool in month two, and a video sent the day access is granted beats a slot in the day one induction. The CRM pipeline video example opens with a drawn overview of three stages before any screenshot, which is the right shape for a system someone is seeing cold.

Pair each video with its record

A video explains. It does not record that anything happened. Where a step needs evidence, such as a policy acknowledged or bank details supplied, the video points to the form or document that captures it, and the form holds the record. Keep that split visible in your plan: every row that implies an obligation should name the form or signed document beside the video.

The same goes for the words. Narration for a step is short, so the policy itself lives in the document and the video says where to find it. The existing guide on how to write a tutorial video script covers how to write each step so it fits.

Common mistakes

One long welcome film. It front loads everything and dates the moment any screen changes.

Sending everything in the first week. Videos about month two tools, sent on day two, are read as noise.

Mixing a task and a policy in one video. The task needs updating when software changes, the policy when the law does, and they rarely change together.

No owner for the series. Each video needs a named person who checks it against the live system twice a year.

Treating a view as an acknowledgement. A new starter watching the policy video has not agreed to anything; the form or the signed document is the record.

Build it

Most of this series is tutorial videos, and the how-to video guide walks through making one. Tutorial videos are a paid feature, available from the Starter plan. They use five scene roles, intro, tutorial, how it works, checklist and outro, with each step running five to nine seconds and narration of ten to twenty five words, and the intro and wrap up three to five seconds. AI tutorials come back at the Calm pace, crossfades and one slow push in, and the voice is never the energetic style; it is forced to instructional.

Screens come from screenshots or from screen capture in a desktop browser, which snaps a still frame each time you press Capture step or the Space bar, with a zoom choice per shot of No zoom, Zoom in at 1.5x or Close up at 2.1x. Captions are on by default. Nothing tracks who watched, so the forms and check ins carry the record. For why onboarding video should be split by topic in the first place, see the onboarding video maker page.