5 videos every Human resources team should create to help with employee engagement

Day in, day out, HR teams across the world process millions of employee details – from new starter paperwork to leaver information and everything in between.?Thousands of questions are probably asked during the course of this information exchange and in all likelihood 90% of those questions are asked on a regular basis. I wonder, on average, how many phone calls or emails that equates to??

Savvy HR teams would have created a frequently asked questions page on their intranet or careers page and added a link on their email signature to this – or maybe they haven’t had the time as it gets pushed down the to-do list in favour of operational issues?

In today’s world of TikTok, YouTube, Instagram or Facebook, reels and stories, there are a plethora of companies reporting that video is the most consumed type of content.?

Have you or your team dipped your toes into creating explainer videos for employees or incorporated video into your recruitment strategy yet??If not, here are 5 videos you should start with that may help ease the burden of your overworked HR team:

1.???????????????Recruitment video

Who are you as an organisation and what makes you unique??More importantly, why should someone join your organisation?

From a more corporate perspective, like Dell’s culture video, something a little bit more fun, like Dropbox’s muppets video, or maybe something in between from Zendesk, the choice is yours in how you portray company life for applicants to get a real sense of the organisation.

Take a tour of the office, ask employees to talk about your organisation’s culture, show why applicants would want to work at your organisation.?

If you do create a recruitment video showcasing your organisation’s culture, ensure it stays relevant and up to date - there would be nothing worse than a new employee joining the organisation and finding out the video was 4 years old and the culture has changed, let alone not recognising most of the people.

2.???????????????Welcome video

First impressions count and welcoming your new employee is no exception.

Create a quick video the Friday before they start explaining what they should expect on day one and during their first week.?It may even be something simple like what time to arrive and where to park or a personalised message from your CEO welcoming them into the organisation, a message from their line manager or team.

Here’s a short script you could use if you are the hiring manager:

Hello [name], welcome to [company name].

I’m really happy you are joining our department and we can’t wait for you to start on [date starting]. If you arrive at [time] and ask for [me], I’ll get you settled into your desk.

During your first week, you’ll get to meet the team and start to learn about our policies and processes.?There’s also some training for you to complete.

You’ll be buddied up with [workplace buddy] and you’ll meet them and the rest of the team soon but if you have any questions beforehand, please get in touch.

See you on [start date/day]

Created in the right way, an employee welcome video can take you less than one minute to do and your new hire will feel welcomed immediately.?It does not have to be a costly, over produced video – just using your phone and a piece of software that is very cost effective gets you started.

Bonjoro is an excellent platform to create a short, snappy welcome video for your new starter. ?I have used this platform and it makes all the difference in creating that personal touch.?Click on the link for a free trial.

3.???????????????Employee onboarding videos

Again, these types of employee onboarding videos help your new starter understand the organisation’s culture and how things are done.?

BambooHR’s onboarding video shows their culture and their ethos on work/life balance in a great way.

Creating an employee onboarding video should be fun and could incorporate your CEO, the leadership team, or other pieces of information that are important to your organisation – for example culture, values, introduction to key members of the team.?

It could even be a series of employee onboarding videos dripped out over a number of days or weeks, setting out expectations or key pieces of information at each stage of the employee journey.?For example, you could create a video at week 10 explaining that there will be a review at week 12, setting out expectations, what that employee could do to prepare for it, together with a link to the appropriate paperwork.

By mapping your HR processes effectively, you could establish the key employee touchpoints throughout their career and create employee videos that align to your processes.?Plus, by mapping your HR processes, it sets you up nicely to start thinking about automation or how you can digitise some of your processes.?Find out more about my How to map your HR processes short course here.

4.???????????????Creating informational or training videos

You may already have a learning management system for your training videos, or mandatory training that is required for new starters.?It holds all the pre-recorded training you want your new employee to have, for example, health and safety, safeguarding, professional boundaries and the like but have you thought about creating videos on how to use your organisation’s specific software??

How about how to navigate your intranet or who to go to for that specialist help??

Create a list of all the things that are unique to your organisation – your tools, systems and processes, and then decide whether it would be helpful to create a short training video for each of them.

Another fabulous free tool where you could hold your videos if you don't have an intranet is Trello. Whilst it is typically used for project management, it could hold your employee handbook or act as your intranet site. I'll be writing about how to create a Trello board for employee handbook's soon.

5.???????????????Company handbook and how to access policies and procedures

Not everyone likes to read, and we all know that people learn things in different ways.?Have you thought about turning your employee handbook into a video – yes, it might be long and so you could split it out into sections and each week send a reminder video out – split your list into new employees and schedule those videos for them separately as they start to navigate the inner workings of your organisation. Start sending snippets out to existing employees too by way of a reminder and employee engagement tool.

It makes sense to ensure HR has information available to employees so they know what to do in each given situation and so taking each of your employee policies and creating those videos can really help with engagement.?

Canva is the perfect solution to create any type of employee video as it’s easy to use, has templates available for just about anything and is my go-to choice for creating content that looks good, quickly.?You can upload your own video recording, embed it into a Canva template and even do very simple editing within Canva.

Don’t have time to create those videos??Drop me an email or direct message me to help you with a bespoke package to create them for you.?

3 tips to get started

1.???????????????Have a plan prior to starting, write down key points you want to come across

2.???????????????Using a tool like Canva makes it a lot easier

3.???????????????Don’t over complicate and create highly produced, very costly videos

Regardless of what videos you might want to create, ensure every member of the HR team is involved and remember, you can easily create something with just your phone!

In today's tech world, what are you doing to up your game? Map your HR processes and start to spot opportunities to become more digital. Find out more about my short course here.

Do you have suggestions for videos?

In order to be transparent, this article contains affiliate links.