Onboarding videos work best as a short series of one- to two-minute videos, each made from a document the business already keeps: the staff handbook for new starters, the getting-started help articles for new customers. Leave out anything that changes weekly and any personal data. Videngine turns those pages into narrated, captioned MP4s in your brand, reviewed before release and re-rendered when the document changes.
Two onboarding series from documents you already keep
One method serves both audiences: one short video for each question a newcomer asks, made from the page that already answers it.
Those answers usually exist already, in a staff handbook, an IT setup page, a help centre or a welcome email. The training videos hub covers the wider method; this page applies it to onboarding.
Employee onboarding videos, in the order a new starter needs them:
| Video | Source document | Length | When sent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome and your first week | First-week section of the staff handbook | 60–90 s | When the offer is accepted |
| How we work | Values or ways-of-working page | 90 s | Day 1 |
| Your tools and accounts | IT setup page and access guide | 90–120 s | Day 1, before first login |
| Leave, expenses and pay | HR policy pages | 90 s | Week 1 |
| Your first procedure | The written procedure for the role’s first task | Up to 2 min | Week 2 |
The last row is where new starter videos meet SOP videos: one procedure per video.
Customer onboarding videos, built from the help centre:
| Video | Source document | Length | When sent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome: what happens next | Welcome email or kick-off page | 60 s | On sign-up or signature |
| Set up your account | Getting-started help article | 90–120 s | First login |
| Your first result | Help article for the first core task | Up to 2 min | Day 2 or 3 |
| Invite your team | Help article on users and permissions | 90 s | Week 1 |
| Billing and support | Billing FAQ and support policy | 60–90 s | Before the first invoice |
How-to videos from help articles covers the one-article, one-video pattern; SaaS video covers screenshots that change with each release. The when-sent column belongs to your HR system, LMS or email tool; Videngine makes the files but does not send emails.
What not to put in onboarding videos
Keep anything that changes weekly, and anything about an identifiable person, out of the video; put it in the email or document the video sits beside.
The video should carry the stable how and why; text carries the who, when and how much.
- Weekly changes: rotas, this week’s timetable, meeting dates, current offers and prices.
- Personal data: a new starter’s name, start date, salary or employee number; a customer’s account name or records in a screenshot. The UK ICO’s guide to personal information defines personal data as information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual, and lists a name, an identification number, location data and an online identifier among the identifiers. Say “your manager”, not a name, and use a demo account for screenshots.
- Secrets: passwords, door codes and Wi-Fi keys. A video can be forwarded and kept long after the code changes.
- Wording people must accept: contract terms and signed policies. The video explains what a policy is for; the document stays the record.
A quick test: if a line would be wrong in three months, it belongs in the email.
Keeping an onboarding series current
Tie every video to one source document and one owner, and re-render the video when that document changes rather than patching the old file.
Keep a short register of video, source, owner, version and date checked, and review it whenever a policy, tool or product changes.
In Videngine a video ledger records versions, and a rebuild is saved as a new version, for example _v2, beside the original rather than overwriting it. A changed policy line is a script edit; a new logo is one brand-token change; a mispronounced name is one lexicon entry. Captions are transcribed again from the new narration, and re-rendering the same video in the same month is free.
Keep the links in one place, such as the onboarding email template or the LMS course, so a new version means one edit.
Delivering onboarding videos: intranet, LMS, YouTube, Drive or a help site
Put staff videos where staff already work, and customer videos where customers already look.
| Channel | How the video gets there | Suits | Check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intranet | Download the MP4 and add it to the page | New staff | The media library’s file size limit |
| LMS | Upload the 16:9 MP4 as a video or file item | Staff and partners | How it records a video as watched; no SCORM package |
| Unlisted YouTube | Publish from review with privacy set to unlisted | Customers | Anyone with the link can watch |
| Google Drive | Deliver to a folder you own and share it there | Small teams without an LMS | Videngine sees only the files it creates there |
| Static help site | Publish commits video, captions, transcript and VideoObject JSON-LD to the page | Public help centres | Static HTML sites in a GitHub repository only |
Treat an unlisted link as semi-public: YouTube’s privacy settings page says unlisted videos can be seen and shared by anyone with the link, and stay out of search results unless someone adds them to a public playlist. Keep internal material on the intranet, in the LMS or in a restricted Drive folder.
Keep captions on everywhere: WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.2 (level A) asks for captions on all prerecorded audio in synchronised media, for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Videngine burns captions in and can export an .srt or WebVTT file.
A build plan for a first onboarding series
Start from the questions newcomers actually ask, not from the documents, and finish one audience’s series before starting the other.
- Collect the questions. Ask recent starters and managers what they asked in the first fortnight; for customers, read first-month support tickets.
- Map each question to a document. Where no page answers it, write the page first.
- Strip what does not belong. Move dates, names, prices and codes into the welcome email.
- Cut to four to six videos. One question each, under two minutes, in the order a newcomer needs them.
- Set the brand once. Typefaces, colours, logo, voice and a lexicon of product, team and office names.
- Make one video and review it with the document owner. Edit the script, or supply approved wording word for word.
- Render the rest as a batch. Review each; render 16:9 for the LMS and 9:16 for phones.
- Deliver and register. Record each video’s source, owner and version, and set the next check date.
How Videngine makes onboarding videos
Videngine is an onboarding video maker that works from text: give it a page or a document and it returns a narrated, captioned MP4 in your brand, reviewed before release.
Give it a URL and it reads the page in a headless browser, keeping the text and images and dropping navigation and cookie banners; for a page behind a login, paste the text as markdown. It can also read a sitemap so you can pick onboarding articles and run them as a batch, as URL to video explains.
It writes a script and a scene plan with timings: accept it, edit a line, or supply approved wording. Scenes come from the explainer template’s chapter title cards, information cards and side-by-side comparisons, narrated over your own screenshots or photos, with typefaces, colours and logo set once as brand tokens. It does not generate footage, avatars or presenters.
Narration is a house voice, another synthetic voice or your own uploaded audio, in English only, with a pronunciation lexicon per brand. Captions are transcribed from the finished audio. Output is MP4 or WebM up to 1080p, usually a 16:9 and a 9:16 cut, and you own the files and scripts.
A video is one render up to two minutes, so the ten videos above, in one format each, use ten of Starter’s 50 a month ($79). For longer material, see the AI training video generator.
When a recorded welcome from a real person is better
When the point of the video is the person, record the person: a founder’s welcome, a manager’s hello before day one, or an account manager introducing themselves to a new customer.
Those welcome videos work because the viewer sees a face they are about to meet; a minute on a phone or webcam, sent personally, does that better than any template. A team that hires a few people a year may need only a good handbook and a named buddy.
Videngine is also the wrong tool if you want an on-screen presenter (an avatar tool fits; Videngine vs Synthesia compares one), SCORM packages, quizzes or completion records (use e-learning authoring software and an LMS), narration in other languages, or hands-on onboarding where a live walk-through works better.
The two mix well: record the welcome yourself, or upload your own audio as narration, and let the documents carry the rest.
Onboarding video questions
What should employee onboarding videos cover?
Cover what every new starter asks in the first two weeks: how the first week runs, how the team works, which tools they need, how leave and expenses work, and where to get help. Make one short video per question from the handbook page that already answers it.
How long should onboarding videos be?
Aim for 60 seconds to two minutes, with one question per video. Short videos are easier to watch in a busy first week and easier to update when one document changes.
Can you make customer onboarding videos from help articles?
Yes. Getting-started articles are already written as steps and kept current by the support team. Videngine reads an article by URL, writes a script you can edit and builds scenes over the article's own screenshots.
Can Videngine track who has watched our onboarding videos?
No. Videngine makes MP4 and WebM files and delivers them as downloads, to a Google Drive folder you own, to YouTube or to a static website page. It does not track learners, make SCORM packages or add quizzes.
How much does it cost to make onboarding videos with Videngine?
On launch pricing, Starter is $79 a month for 50 videos, Growth $249 for 250 and Scale $599 for 750. A video is one finished render up to two minutes, and re-rendering the same video in the same month is free. Videngine is coming soon; choosing a plan joins the launch list with no charge today.
Choose your next step
Pick the page that matches your next job.
Bring your first-week pages.
Bring the handbook pages or help articles a newcomer reads first. Agree the series, the owner of each document and who signs off, then render the first video. Choosing a plan joins the launch list; there is no charge today.
Join the waitlist ↗Published by Videngine, a video rendering product built and run by Wall & Fifth. External links refer to the original documentation or product descriptions; examples are illustrative unless stated otherwise.