There are a few common themes that all induction videos include as they on-board and orientate new joiners.
- Explain the direction of the company and demonstrate the leadership.
- Enable the new joiner to see where their job fits in to the wider activities of the firm.
- Ensure new joiners are enthused and optimistic about their future.
Of the many ways to achieve these outcomes, we’ve found that multi-participant videos which take a thematic approach to introducing and explaining the various different business areas people work in are the most successful. They allow for more variety, background and visual colour in telling the firm’s story. Talking heads are another popular approach too, but they rely on one senior leader after another simply explaining about “their bit” and hoping the new joiners work out for themselves how they fit into it all.
With the big picture of the company and its activities out of the way, the ideal video induction series includes two further elements. These explain career development and personal opportunities and the second focuses on culture, community, networks, d&i and social activities. Let’s take a look at what this looks like in practice:
“Welcome to the Firm” Master (4 minutes)
This is the “trailer” for the career at your new work. Opened and closed by a senior leader and featuring the best of the best soundbites from the pool of interviewees edited with visuals of the organisation. It will cover an overview of the business – activities and history. How everyone comes together to deliver for clients and how to make the most of opportunities at the firm. It’s a big picture overview of life at work.
Thematic Deeper Dive (x6-8 3 minutes each)
These explore each main business area in greater detail, starting with an explanation from their respective leader/s. Each package features not only the senior person giving leadership and direction, but also a mid level figure giving a flavour of the day to day work and culture. This also gives a chance to highlight anything special the business teams are known for – charity work, sports & social etc.
Don’t forget back office and support functions in these thematic looks at the firm, the new joiners here are just as important. Not all heroes wear capes after all…
“Your Career Development” (3 minutes)
With the business-level orientation out of the way, the focus shifts to the new joiner and the experience they will have within the business. We are looking at how the new company will support and enhance capabilities through mentoring, learning and development, opportunities to work abroad etc. We see this video as being more HR / People led rather than senior talking heads. Led by HR talking about the development structure an important subsequent part are real life anecdotes from staff (low, mid, upper levels) about how their careers have been fostered.
“Corporate Culture” (3 minutes)
What makes the company special and makes You part of the company. Cultural immersion to reassure you why you joined in the first place and what makes it different from the others. It’s not just about how we treat each other and serve our clients, but what you’ll get from being in this community, from CSR to sport, social life to support networks, charity to d&i. No matter how junior or senior you are.
But wait, there’s more….
Recruitment Video recut from Induction Video (4 minutes)
“What we do here” shares much DNA with “Why you should join us”. In creating an induction video for new joiners, we are most of the way there to creating a public facing recruitment video. Almost twice the bang for the buck. A couple of answers phrased slightly with this re-cut version in mind and you have new, up-to-date content for the website and YouTube for just the cost of a content edit, much cheaper than having to make a new video from scratch.
Career Podcast Series
We suggesting using senior leaders sparingly in videos, but what about the rest of their insights? Instead of leaving them on the cutting room floor, they work well in podcasts. We can use their recorded interview sound and have a “live discussion” with additional participants discussing careers in each business area. Some subjects lend themselves to the gentler pace of a podcast and we have considerable experience putting these programmes together. During lockdown when filming ground to a halt, various podcasts for our clients were all we did for two years.
How to get started
Start by deciding which stories from within the business you want to tell and therefore which videos you want to produce, we can establish just how much crossover of interviewees there is between each video to work out the best narrative to get it all across.
Mahne Creative Media www.mahne.com is an independent specialist media production agency operating. We pride ourselves on the quality of our storytelling. We unlock the heart of the story to connect and engage target audiences through video, podcasts and training. We have created induction videos and/or recruitment for several city institutions including ING, the FCA and Wells Fargo (which involved travelling to 6 of their offices around the world).
