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.«
What is usually the problem
Most organisations have the material. The staff handbook exists, the policies are written, and the induction day is in the calendar. Even so, the same questions come into HR three months later, and managers spend time explaining what has already been explained.
That is rarely down to the content. It is down to the order and the volume. 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 rules on parental leave only become interesting six months later, and by then they are forgotten.
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.
What a course consists of
A welcome video with your own employees
Not a branding film. People from your own workplaces 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, senior schemes. Two to three minutes each, animated. They stand on their own, so they can sit on the intranet, in the LMS and on the careers page, and be found one at a time when the need arises.
A module for the things you need to look up
Staff benefits, staff associations, rules on gifts. Subjects where the doubt arises in practice: may I accept a bottle of wine from a citizen? The module makes the rule easy to use, so nobody has to search through policies.
Files that work in your systems
Delivered as SCORM 1.2 or 2004 for your own LMS, and as films you can put on the intranet or the careers page. You get the source files and the rights.
Onboarding before and after day one
The course gives the culture and the rules. What is usually missing around day one is something else: who do I ask, what do I do now, and what can wait.
For that we have Onboarding Studio, a small employee app with checklists and short guides that shows what is relevant now and holds the rest back. It can start before the new employee begins, with the practical things like the contract, and carry on through the first weeks. It can be used on its own or alongside the course, and it costs DKK 5,000 a year for the first journey.
How we have done it before
Herning Municipality
Herning has more than 7,700 employees across more than 150 workplaces. Information for new joiners existed, but every manager had to find the time and the form for the induction themselves. The municipality wanted something that conveyed the culture without feeling like a staff handbook.
The course was built around the questions a new employee actually asks: the ones in the first week, and the ones that only come later. At its heart is the welcome video with real employees and a series of short films about the practical things.
»We wanted to give a nuanced picture of the many different tasks we handle as a municipal workplace, and at the same time signal that with a job in Herning Municipality you are not just employed at a single workplace. You are also part of something bigger.«
OK Plus
At OK Plus, young employees had to be onboarded into a very practical job. Turn up on time, look presentable, be dressed for the work. We asked who the young people would experience as a credible sender, and the answer was their own colleagues.
So we travelled the country, from North Zealand to Nakskov, and let the employees film each other in small teams. Shot in portrait format, so it can be watched on a phone. When a colleague your own age says »Turn up on time, so the next person can go home«, it lands differently than when it comes from a manager or an animated character.
It became one of the onboarding courses we have had the best feedback on.
How it works
- 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.
- StoryboardYou see the whole course in writing, voice-over and text, before anything is produced. Your HR or legal team reads it through.
- Filming and productionWe film the welcome video at your place. Films, animation and module are built on the approved storyboard.
- 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 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
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