How To Boost Onboarding Success With Custom Induction Videos

Introduction

Company inductions can be challenging when relying on conventional methods like manuals, slide decks, or on-the-job training with a mentor.

But custom induction videos are different, they’re built around a company’s specific processes, culture, and employee roles. They deliver information that is directly relevant to each new hire, showing exactly how tasks are performed and what’s expected in their position. Unlike generic materials, these bespoke solutions reduce confusion and make learning practical and actionable.

Bespoke induction videos also ensure consistent messaging across teams and locations, reducing miscommunication. Employees can watch at their own pace and revisit material as needed, improving knowledge retention. By integrating custom orientation videos into employee onboarding, companies provide a scalable, flexible, and effective way to guide new hires, helping them become productive and confident members of the organization from day one.

Why Effective Onboarding Matters

Effective onboarding is critical to employee retention, productivity, and long-term success. Employees who undergo structured orientation programs are more likely to feel confident and integrate into company culture quickly.

Custom induction videos enhance traditional employee orientation by:

• Delivering consistent messaging across locations and teams.
• Providing a visual and interactive learning experience that improves knowledge retention.
• Allowing employees to revisit material as needed, ensuring comprehension.
• Making the induction process more engaging and less time-consuming for both trainers and new hires.

Studies show that employees retain significantly more information from video-based training than from text or in-person sessions alone, making custom orientation videos a practical choice for modern onboarding strategies.

Limitations of Onboarding Without Using Bespoke Videos

Onboarding without bespoke induction videos often struggles with consistency, engagement, and retention:

• Inconsistent delivery: Managers or trainers may communicate key processes differently, causing confusion.
• Low engagement: Static slides or manuals fail to capture attention, especially for remote hires.
• Slow knowledge retention: Employees often forget instructions or procedures after a single session.
• Limited flexibility: Traditional sessions require attendance at fixed times, reducing accessibility for dispersed teams.

Custom training videos provide a modern solution that improves engagement, ensures consistency, and allows employees to learn at their own pace. By tailoring induction training content specifically to your company and roles, you will successfully transform your company’s employee induction process into an efficient, engaging, and scalable experience.

If you’re interested, you’ll probably enjoy reading our deep dive comparing bespoke training with generic training, which corresponds with this article on why you should be using custom/bespoke training, videos in particular for your employee orientation.

Benefits of Custom Induction Videos

Investing in custom induction videos offers tangible advantages for organizations:

1. Consistency
Every new hire receives the same high-quality information, ensuring alignment across teams and locations. This eliminates miscommunication and maintains company standards.

2. Engagement
Videos combine visuals, audio, and interactive elements, making the onboarding experience more captivating than static presentations or printed materials.

3. Retention
Employees retain knowledge more effectively when learning is visual and interactive. Incorporating real-life scenarios and role-specific examples in custom orientation videos reinforces critical processes.

4. Flexibility
New hires can watch the videos anytime, anywhere, and revisit key sections as needed. This flexibility supports both in-office and remote onboarding.

5. Scalability
Custom induction videos are easily updated for new roles, procedures, or policies. Whether onboarding one employee or hundreds across multiple locations, bespoke videos streamline the process efficiently.

6. Alignment with Company Culture
Videos can showcase your organization’s values, mission, and expectations in a compelling, memorable way. This strengthens employee engagement from day one.

By integrating orientation training videos into your onboarding program, companies can significantly enhance employee satisfaction, reduce training time, and improve overall productivity.

Custom Induction Training Video Examples

At SHIIFT, we’ve produced plenty of custom induction videos for clients like GCGV, Milestone Envinmental Services, TotalEnergies, BHP, Nass Corporation, ADNOC, and more.

These were created with a combination of our in-house teams and our global network of film crews, together creating 3D/2D animation and live-action video production for different company inductions or worksite inductions.

Watch some bespoke examples below:

Client: Milestone Environmental Services
Sector: Energy Waste Infrastructure
Project Background:
Milestone Environmental Services needed a safety orientation to cross-train their field workforce for their employees, most of whom were field-based at oilfield waste disposal facilities in the Permian Basin, Eagle Ford Shale, and Haynesville Shale areas of the US.

So we supplied them with 21 custom orientation videos which included 21 sections focused on health, safety, environment, and social (HSES), using a mix of live-action and animation.

We made each section available via their LMS, as well as in interactive video brochures allowing for field workers with no access to online platforms to access the training from anywhere on their sites.

Client: GCGV
Sector: Petrochemical and Plastics Manufacturing
Project Background:
SHIIFT worked closely with Gulf Coast Growth Ventures (GCGV)’s SSHE team to come up with an engaging structure, a storyboard and a script that would hold the interest and attention of the GCGV audience throughout their custom site induction video. We used a combination of live action filming, 2D and 3D animation, text reinforcement, a professional voiceover, and also divided the content with chapter headings to make it easier to pause at key stages of the video.

Client: MethaneX
Sector: Chemicals (Methanol Production)
Project Background:

We were approached by Methanex to create high quality project communications for the integrated project team including contractors working across their Geismar 3 site. Our approach involved interviews, schematic 3D animation, live action video and drone video to capture key aspects of the development over time.

The custom onboarding video starts off with a welcome message from the Project Director, before a visual explanation of the purpose of the plant and what the chemicals get used for. After that it goes into the interviews from workers discussing the importance of safety, talking about their experiences and values as workers on the site.

This had a strong effect in conveying the company’s safety culture and the video was overall very well received by the client as evidenced by a quote from Paul Bailey, VP Projects at Methanex Corporation. SHIIFT is a brand of Myriad Global, which is why Paul refers to us as Myriad in his statement at the time:

“Myriad has contributed significantly to our goals. To date the Project has worked 6 million hours without a single lost time incident putting it top quartile in performance. The Myriad onboarding video was a valuable part of that.”

Conclusion

Custom induction videos offer a scalable, engaging, and consistent solution for modern employee onboarding. Unlike traditional methods, these videos improve retention, ensure clear communication, and allow employees to learn at their own pace. Investing in bespoke orientation and custom induction videos is a practical step toward a more effective, efficient, and impactful employee induction process.