Onboarding new employees actually use

A welcome video with your own employees and short films about the practical things. Built so the new joiner finds the answer on the day the question comes up.

»This format is just great. It really meets the audience at eye level.«
Michael Djarnis, Director, OK Plus — on the onboarding we built for them.

What is usually the problem

The material usually exists already. The problem is that new employees are told everything in the first week, when what they mostly need is to work out who to ask and where to sit. The rest is forgotten by the day they need it.

We build onboarding the other way round: what you need in the first week comes first, and the rest is ready on the day the question arises.

Tomas uses a candle to explain why a three-day course does not turn into a block candle. 1 min.

What a course consists of

A welcome video with your own employees

Not a branding film. Your own people talk about a good day, and about what they do when something is difficult. That is the part that gives the new joiner a feel for the place, and nobody else can make it for you.

Short films about the practical things

Holiday, a child’s first sick day, sickness absence, pay, parental leave. Two to three minutes each, animated. They stand on their own, so they can be found one at a time on the intranet, in the LMS and on the careers page.

A module for the things you need to look up

Staff benefits, staff associations, rules on gifts. May I accept a bottle of wine from a citizen? The module makes the rule easy to find, so nobody has to search through policies.

Files that work in your systems

SCORM 1.2 or 2004 for your own LMS, and films for the intranet or the careers page. You get the source files and the rights.

Before and after day one: Onboarding Studio

The course gives the culture and the rules. What is usually missing around day one is the checklists: who do I ask, what do I do now, and what can wait. For that we have Onboarding Studio, a small employee app that can start before day one and be used on its own or alongside the course. DKK 5,000 a year for the first journey.

How we have done it before

Herning Municipality

More than 7,700 employees across more than 150 workplaces, and every manager had to find the time and the form for the induction themselves. We built the course around the questions a new employee actually asks: a welcome video with real employees and short films about the practical things. Herning uses it on its careers page today.

OK Plus

Young employees had to be onboarded into a very practical job: turn up on time, look presentable. The most credible sender was their own colleagues, so we let the employees film each other in small teams, in portrait format for the phone. It became one of the courses we have had the best feedback on.

How it works

  1. WorkshopWe start with you, preferably with HR, a manager and a couple of the people it is about. What do new joiners actually ask, and what stands in the way in your everyday.
  2. StoryboardYou see the whole course in writing, voice-over and text, before anything is produced. Your HR or legal team reads it through.
  3. Filming and productionWe film the welcome video at your place. Films, animation and module are built on the approved storyboard.
  4. DeliveryProfessional voice-over, quality assurance, SCORM package and source files. We help you put it in place.

What it costs

Most onboarding projects land between DKK 30,000 and 120,000. It depends on how much has to be filmed, how many films are needed, and whether you need several languages. A course is typically ready in four to twelve weeks.

If you need a version of what was built for Herning, the adaptation costs less, because the script and the animation already exist. You pay for the adaptation and for your own welcome video.

Frequently asked questions

Does it run in our own LMS?

Yes. Everything is delivered as SCORM 1.2 or 2004 and works in the systems that are normally used. If you do not have an LMS, it can run in Activate LMS, our own platform. The films can also sit on the intranet or the careers page with no LMS at all.

Do new employees have to watch all of it at once?

No, and that is the point. The films stand on their own, so the new joiner sees what is relevant now and finds the rest on the day the question comes up. If you need to document that something has been completed, that part can sit in the LMS as one course.

Can we edit it ourselves afterwards?

Text, questions and feedback you can edit yourselves in the source files, if you have an Articulate licence. Otherwise we do it. Changes to animation and voice-over we do by the hour or as a fixed annual pool.

Can it be in several languages?

Yes. We have made e-learning in Greenlandic, Ukrainian, Polish, German, English and Swedish, among others, translated and voiced.

Is it accessible?

Yes, to WCAG 2.1: subtitles, keyboard navigation, contrast and alternative text.

How much time does it take for us?

Count on a half-day workshop, one round on the storyboard and a day of filming if a welcome video is needed. We do the rest.

We are a municipality. Can we use the Herning programme?

Yes, much of it: the structure, the films on the rules that follow from the collective agreements, and the module on staff benefits and rules on gifts. The welcome video has to be your own, with your own employees, and we film it at your place. The adaptation takes 6 to 10 weeks and costs less than a new course, because the script and the animation already exist. See also e-learning for municipalities and regions.

We already have an onboarding course. Will you look at it?

Yes. Send us what you have, and we will tell you what we would do differently. Sometimes the answer is to cut something out rather than build something new.

Send us what you have today

Tomas Pødenphant Lund

The induction material, the programme for the induction day, or simply a description of what the first week looks like with you. We will come back to you with what we would do differently, and what it costs.

Tomas Pødenphant Lund, ElearningSpecialist
Write: info@elearningspecialist.com · Call: +45 25 94 81 66