Onboarding with ease

By Maury Hanigan

Onboarding, while technically the last step in the candidate journey, it is often the one most overlooked by recruitment marketing and employer brand pros. It’s that point when we have achieved the mission of filling a requisition with a qualified, available, and interested person. It feels so good. The req is closed and you can move onto the next one. Well, mostly.

When people start a new job, there are two key things that you want to accomplish. These two things will meet the new hire’s informational needs as well as their emotional needs. From an informational standpoint, new hires expect to have all of their administrative questions answered. From how to fill out timesheets, and file expenses to open enrollment, security, and vacation policies. All of these informational needs are expected to be met by new hires very early in the onboarding period.

From an emotional standpoint, when people start a new job, they are full of hope. Hope is a great emotion to tap into. They are hopeful about the career they will build with you. They are hopeful that the values, and mission you’ve shared is true. They’re excited about their new team, and manager. It’s a wonderful time not only capitalize on this emotion, but to reinforce it for their entire tenure at your company. We want our new hires to come, make a significant impact and grow their careers with us. When we onboard them elegantly, they are much more likely to stay. Right now, there may be no more powerful tool than video when it comes to onboarding.

With these informational and emotional needs better understood, you can see that while this is the last official step in the journey, we aren’t completely done. Because if we truly end here, the missed opportunities are going to pile up. Missed opportunities that will bring true closure to your video strategy.

The missed opportunity: New hires can take your video strategy even further by powering your early stage content with new, fresh voices telling the story of their journey with you and amplifying these messages to their social networks. We do not want to miss any opportunities here, so a plan (link to download piece) is key.

Onboarding today is a lot different than it was a year ago. Adjustments should be made to the video strategy and assets. Many businesses have decided to continue to work remote. Onboarding someone into your company when they are working from home can be emotionally draining for the new hire. They want to be with people, they want to connect.

Right now, video is not a nice to have. It’s not only needed by new hires, it’s expected. They need to have connection to you, your team, your company right now. When we cannot go places easily, we want to feel a connection. Video is what they want. Video is critical to your overall communications strategy. Video connects your new hires to your company and their jobs. They need it throughout every stage of their journey. But never before like they need it in onboarding.

Some of the ideas that are really helping people onboard in the COVID era are:

Our Values

This is where you can start really bringing it all home. In the earliest stages of their journey, they heard about your values from the leaders, and learned more about them from the interviews they had. Now that they are with you, it’s time to put a small “insider” twist on your values. Talk about the values in practice. Tell stories about the impact those values have. How each value or the values collectively manifest themselves each day whether we are together in the office of spread across the country.

Intro to Benefits

Benefits are CONFUSING. The options, open enrollment, different plans, company matches, it’s dizzying. If you can craft and develop video content to explain benefits, the differences, and how to choose, you are helping your new hire adjust. For things that are more perks than benefits (think unlimited vacation), have employees who take advantage of this perk talk to the new hire about how that perk benefits their lives to really bring it all home.

Intro to Key Contacts

Remember when you started the job you have now. Did you have any idea who to call for what? Of course you didn’t. Enterprise organization are just that ENTERPRISE! They are big and expansive. If you can help your new hires acclimatize by sharing with them a video of who to contact in technology, human resources, their new manager, and their team, it’s a win. It also makes it more personal to see and get to know a face in a video vs. a list emailed to them. Helping them get started in their new job with who they need to talk to is a useful piece of content that they will keep!

First day overview

Imagine your first day is today. Imagine that yesterday, your company shipped you a computer. Today when you opened it up, a video auto-played. This video was from your hiring manager and spelled out what you will be doing today on your first day. If he walked you though what to expect on your first day, you would feel cared for. If you instead had to open the computer, create a log in, and open your email, that would be fine, but not the same as getting a personal welcome from your new manager and the context for the day. That’s meaningful.

Your first 90 days

What if, after opening your email for the first time after your lovely welcome video, you had an email from your teammates with a video of what to expect from us in the first 90 days? That would be REALLY something. You would be able to have a complete level set on your first three months in your first 5 minutes on the job. Not knowing what’s coming next creates bad experiences. Knowing what to expect creates good experiences. These are the experiences we need to be focused on creating right now, when everything feels so uncertain.

If you’ve been following this entire series, it should be crystal clear now just how meaningful and valuable video content is to your employer brand and recruitment marketing plans. Having a well-planned Video Strategy can and will help you bring in the best talent for your open roles. It is a difference maker, a game changer. But it must be thought through. You’re ready to begin building your Video Strategy. It doesn’t have to be expensive. But when executed properly, there are major benefits in terms of candidate quality and employee engagement. You’re ready. Download our Video Strategy Framework and get your new strategy in front of your manager today.