Our production team started with a brief that featured the key messages that needed to be shown in the video and we then looked at how these messages could be shown visually. A storyboard was put together for the key shots and inspiration was also taken from the Canadian branch’s induction video which had had a large degree of success with inducting their new recruits.
It was felt that the best way to get the message across was to use actual employees to front the video. This would make it more authentic and relatable to the new staff than using staff from higher management or actors. This was also an important factor in the type of information that the staff were talking about on screen. Citron wanted a truly authentic induction video which described the job that the new recruits were starting in a ‘warts and all’ way. Part of their issue had historically been that new recruits were leaving the role very quickly because the job wasn’t what they thought it was so this video was being created to address that.
The staff on camera were encouraged to talk about the dirty and less desirable side top the job and they did this in a way that gave a realistic account of the role. However it was also interspersed with some of the more positive elements of the job too so that it appeared more like a chat between friends than a traditional, corporate induction video. Many aspects of the day to day job were also shown to depict what is expected of the staff members.