When you're onboarding for a new job, the bulk of the information you'll need will come in an email, not a stack of documents. The days when managers had to rely on reams of paper to onboard new hires is long gone. Now, things are far less analog and far more digital. Staff training videos have changed the game, and now managers can create polished, engaging videos for everything from onboarding new employees to communicating with entire teams.
If you know staff training videos are important, but you’re not sure how to level-up your skills, then these tips can help. Learn the basics of how to make effective training videos, and which tools and tactics you should use to get the right information to the right people. Plus, discover eight excellent training video examples that you can use for inspiration.
5 types of staff training videos
Training videos can come in many forms, but staff training videos work best for five main areas:
1. Onboarding videos
New employees are an investment. It takes months before a new hire is fully trained and ready to contribute to the business. Onboarding videos accelerate the process and boost retention.
You can use onboarding videos to explain company culture, demonstrate common processes, and introduce members of the leadership team. First, identify key topics or themes you want to cover in the videos, such as your company’s mission, values, and core workflows. Then you can use a tool like Loom to create videos that explain the key points you want new hires to learn. This is especially important if your new hire works from home and you need a remote training solution.
Onboarding videos should give your new employee a clear idea of what kind of company they’re joining and how they can be successful in their role.
2. Explainer videos
When you work remotely, sometimes it’s hard to verbally explain how to do a task. You can’t just walk up to your coworker Jane’s desk and show her how to properly format the monthly report. Explainer videos make it easier to train staff on specific duties and processes. These videos usually include basic screen recordings, plus voiceover narration and annotation as needed.
3. Corporate training videos
General corporate training videos include company updates, safety training, diversity and inclusion training, and more. These videos train employees on broad subjects rather than on particular tasks, and they can be more stylized and personable than a basic screen recording.
Whether you're using training videos to introduce broad subjects like company culture or drill down into a particular process, your video should be easily digestible and give clear takeaways for learners to implement.
4. Interactive videos
If you want employees to retain the information in your training content, then make it interactive. Interactive video content often includes quizzes or checks for understanding, where employees have to summarize or repeat information they just learned.
This type of training video is great for teaching compliance rules, or other complicated topics where employees need to remember the details.
5. Learning and development videos
If your company has a learning and development or e-learning training program, then training videos are a perfect fit. To create a curriculum, identify the key concepts employees need to learn about from other teams. Then, you can either gather existing videos from those teams or use Loom to record new explainer videos that teach those key concepts. You can even use Loom to break longer videos down in a bite-size series that makes content easily digestible, or stitch videos from different contributors together. Share the clips via your Loom Library, or upload them to your learning management system (LMS).
Since videos can be watched on-demand, this method tends to work better than trying to organize mentor relationships—especially in remote environments where you depend on employee training videos. Research shows that by mid-2024, 39% of full-time employees either fully work from home or have a hybrid situation, so on-demand training videos have become a necessity.
Tips for creating effective staff training videos
Training videos offer a slew of benefits over documents or one-off meetings. They deliver your content and best practices consistently, boosting engagement in a visual format. Plus, employees can rewatch them as needed, from wherever they work. But actually making videos can be a daunting process. What tools should you use? What style is most effective?
Whether you’re trying to show a new hire how to do a task, or you need to deliver a compliance refresher, all effective employee training videos should follow the same guidelines.
Give clear information
The most important part of any training is conveying information clearly and in an engaging manner. Videos are generally more appealing than old-school training materials, but even instructor-led training can get lost in the weeds sometimes. If your main points aren’t clear, then your training won’t be effective.
To give clear information your audience will remember, keep these things in mind:
Introduce the most important things first. People pay the most attention to the beginning of your video, so give them any high-priority information as soon as possible.
Say it two ways. Videos usually include visuals and either narration or text. Your visuals and the narration or text should work in tandem to communicate the same ideas so that the learner absorbs the information in multiple ways. Avoid using unrelated filler images that don’t support the information you’re sharing.
Be direct. In training, you should err on the side of bluntness. Avoid idioms or clichés that make things harder to understand. Your audience should know exactly what you’re trying to tell them.
Keep it concise
People’s interest wanes over time, no matter how interesting the subject. Keep your training sessions as short as possible, and avoid unnecessary fluff. If you’re covering a training subject that takes longer than six minutes, consider breaking up your video into multiple parts.
Loom AI automatically removes filler words or awkward silences so you can make clear and concise training videos every time.
End with a summary
Wrap up your training with a summary of the information you covered, especially after longer training videos. The last thing on your viewer’s mind after they close the video should be clear takeaways from what they just learned. This summary doesn’t have to be a step-by-step review, but it should provide the main highlights.
Make it accessible
Especially in a work setting, accessibility is important. Include basic accessibility features in your videos, such as captions. Some video training tools, like Loom, do this for you with automatic captions and transcripts.
You should also create audio descriptions if necessary, and avoid flashing lights in your videos. Take a minute and think about which employees will see this video and if they have any particular accessibility needs you should address before you share it.
Choose the right tool for making staff training videos
There are a lot of complicated video training software programs out there, but to create training videos, you’ll likely need just a video messaging tool. Most simple training videos use screen recordings and voice-over narration, which are easy to create yourself with Loom.
Loom can capture both screenshots and screen recordings, and it offers extra features like background templates, annotations, and AI assistance.
Once you’ve captured and edited a recording, you can share the final videos with team members with unique links—embed them in an email, drop the link into Slack, or post them on your company knowledge base site. Loom also boosts engagement with features like comment threads, emoji reactions, and convenient integrations that make it easier to work asynchronously with your team.
8 examples of staff training videos for inspiration
Example #1: Salesforce
This explainer video demonstrates a Salesforce tool that lets users create chatbots. The video primarily uses screen recordings and narration, but it also adds some small effects that make it more engaging. For example, the title screen at the beginning introduces the topic, while annotations throughout highlight sections on the screen that the viewer should pay attention to.
Example #2: Vyond
Vyond’s employee training video from Vyond teaches new hires (or existing employees) basic etiquette expectations for conference calls. It uses animation plus narration to convey the information.
The animations aren’t just filler images—they back up the narration to drive the point home while keeping things interesting for the viewer.
Example #3: Wizer
Wizer covers best practices for creating a strong password in this employee training video. It conveys basic cybersecurity information that employees at any company need to know and uses hand-drawn animation to support the narration in an engaging way.
Example #4: Zendesk
Onboarding videos are a bit different from other employee training or explainer videos. Their primary purpose is to introduce new hires or prospective employees to the company culture. This introduction video from Zendesk includes some light information about the company’s products, but it mostly works to create a vibe.
Narration takes a backseat and lets the images do most of the talking. For example, rather than telling you that Zendesk is a remote-friendly company, it simply shows people working in offices, on couches, and on Zoom. When the goal is to communicate a feeling rather than just factual information, images are often more powerful than words.
Example #5: Dropbox
Dropbox uses basic screen recordings in this explainer video, but it adds some extra value by showing multiple views and devices. Rather than just show how to do the task on the desktop app and call it a day, the video also shows how to use the mobile app. Dropbox also includes minor zoom effects in the video that make it more interesting to watch.
Example #6: DoorDash
DoorDash uses animation and narration in this video to teach best practices. The high-quality animation makes the video more interesting to watch—and while the narration is the most important part of the video, it also uses text to highlight each tip and give clear takeaways to the viewer.
Example #7: Asana
Asana uses a combination of animation, narration, and screen recordings in this explainer video. Multiple mediums make the video more engaging to watch and more memorable for the viewer.
Example #8: DC.gov
This disability sensitivity training video from the Washington, DC government combines serious information and guidelines with fun fictional scenarios and comedic moments, turning a potentially stilted subject into a lighthearted yet meaningful discussion. No wonder the video has been viewed over one million times on YouTube.
For some sensitive training subjects, scripted scenes or talking heads are often more effective than plain text or filler images. This video is a great example of how to humanize a complicated real-life topic.
Level up your staff training videos with Loom
Asynchronous teams can easily make, share, and save high-quality training videos with Loom. Loom keeps training fun and accessible with built-in features like transcripts and captions, plus automatic video editing to remove silences and filler words. Loom also offers collaboration and analytics features so you can engage your entire team and keep everyone aligned.
Transform your training strategy with Loom’s easy-to-use video capabilities.
