Onboarding Video Examples: Employee Onboarding Microlearning

What makes a good onboarding video?

A good onboarding video helps a new hire understand one thing clearly: why the organization exists, how a process works, or what their role requires. It is short, features real people or settings, matches the company’s tone, and connects to an action the new hire takes next. Several focused videos beat one long welcome tour.

Most onboarding programs fail in predictable ways. Day one is a flood of policies and slide decks, and the useful knowledge arrives weeks later, through trial and error. Microlearning spreads onboarding across the first weeks in small, timely pieces, so new hires learn what they need just before they need it.

Video also carries culture in a way documents cannot. Hearing a leader explain the mission, or seeing a real colleague walk through a process, tells a new hire what the organization values more convincingly than any handbook.

What to notice in these onboarding video examples

The best onboarding video examples above match the format to the job. Culture and values content uses real leaders and warm visuals, role-specific training uses 3D or scenario-based design to explain complex work, and software onboarding pairs screencasts with motion graphics. Each one is built for the new hire’s first weeks, not for a generic audience.

• Trupanion, culture and values. The pet insurance company needed to communicate its mission, values, and product knowledge to a growing staff. We built microlearning videos that blend animation, b-roll, and live-action clips and highlight internal industry leaders. A second case study walks through the process of creating their interactive onboarding series. [VERIFY: Trupanion onboarding results metrics]
• New Cold, immersive warehouse onboarding. New Cold operates frozen warehouses at sub-23-degree temperatures, where in-person onboarding is difficult, slow, and costly. The Level 3 Articulate Storyline course combines live-action video, 360-degree simulated facility tours, and scenario-based learning covering both operational workflows and internal software.
• Oldcastle, role-specific training. Oldcastle needed new ground employees to understand technician roles and the complex concept of zone flow. 3D animation and motion graphics make an abstract process visible.
• HPNA, clinical onboarding. The Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association used the Palliative Care Basics series to standardize onboarding for new clinicians, with a 1,573% increase in utilization and 90% learner satisfaction.
• Lumere, software onboarding. Bite-sized how-to tutorials combine soft corporate motion graphics with screencasts for step-by-step software walkthroughs.

The full HPNA story is in our HPNA case study.

Types of onboarding videos and when to use them

Onboarding videos fall into five main types: culture and values, role-specific skills, operational or facility orientation, software and tools, and safety. Each answers a different new-hire question and works best in a different format, from a short illustrated welcome to an interactive Storyline simulation, as summarized in the table below.

Lengths are general guidance. Our guide on how long a microlearning module should be explains how to set the right length for each topic.

How do you onboard new hires on culture and values?

Onboard new hires on culture and values by showing them, not telling them. Use real leaders and employees describing how the values shape everyday decisions, add short stories or scenarios that make each value concrete, and keep each video to a single idea. Values explained through examples stick far better than a list on a slide.

Trupanion’s series is a good model: internal leaders, mixed media, and short modules that new staff can absorb in their first days. The Saks Fifth Avenue example takes a different route, using illustrative frame-by-frame animation to communicate culture, values, and expectations in under a minute. Both work because the tone matches the brand.

Onboarding video mistakes to avoid

The most common onboarding video mistakes are trying to cover everything in one long welcome video, front-loading all content on day one, using generic stock footage, and forgetting frontline roles. Others include skipping role-specific practice and letting videos go stale after a rebrand, reorganization, or new software rollout.

1. One video, one topic. A ten-minute welcome video is really five videos.
2. Show your real people and places. New Cold’s facility tours and Trupanion’s leader interviews work because they are real.
3. Design for frontline devices. Many new hires, as with Take 5’s carwash teams, will watch on a phone or shared device.
4. Add practice for critical tasks. Use interactive scenarios where mistakes are costly. Our interactive video examples show how.
5. Assign an owner. Someone must update videos when processes, tools, or leaders change.

How to get started with onboarding microlearning

Start by listing the questions new hires ask most in their first month, then pick the three to five that cause the most delay or error. Build short videos for those first, add a culture and values welcome, and pilot the series with your next hiring cohort before expanding by role.

For the safety side of onboarding, see our safety training video examples. For interactive builds like New Cold’s, browse our Articulate Storyline examples, and for non-interactive formats, our microlearning video examples. Healthcare teams can find clinical onboarding examples in our healthcare microlearning hub.