How to Make HR Onboarding Videos with Synthesia

Most “AI onboarding video” posts skip the two facts that actually decide the project. First: Day 1 is not a compliance course and it is not a founder keynote. It is a spoken handbook — who we are, how benefits work, which tools you log into, who to ping when something breaks. Second: the tool this site sends for that talking-head file is Synthesia (synthesia.io). This guide is the working path for People Ops when the CHRO’s calendar will not survive another recut: script, plan, people partner, chapters, upload, refresh.

When Day 1 needs an avatar — and when it doesn't

Use an avatar when the first-week track needs a face and you cannot or will not book an executive every time open enrollment, PTO, or the IT stack changes. A benefits walkthrough, a culture primer, a “here is Slack / Workday / the badge app” chapter, and a who-to-ask close are the fit. Edit the handbook line, swap the screen grab, re-render. That is the economic case.

Skip the avatar if Day 1 is a live welcome, a manager conversation, or a packet the hire will only read. The handbook is still the source of truth; the video quotes it. Skip it if the file is a scored compliance module — the training how-to is the other desk. Skip it if you are localizing a locked English welcome — the localization how-to starts after this file exists. Skip it if the clip will run as a public YouTube explainer — the public avatar how-to is not an HRIS upload.

The seven-step Synthesia Day-1 onboarding video

1. 01

   Pull the Day-1 script from the handbook, not from a welcome speech

   An onboarding video is a spoken handbook. Open on who we are and what happens in week one, then walk benefits, culture, and the tools a new hire actually logs into. Copy the words Legal already signed — PTO codes, plan names, Slack vs Teams, the IT ticket URL. Spell them the way a hire should hear them. If you wanted a scored lesson with quizzes, that is the training how-to. If you wanted a sales walkthrough, that is the product-demo how-to.

2. 02

   Confirm a people-partner avatar is the right Day-1 format

   Use a talking-head when Day 1 needs a face and you will not book the CHRO, the CEO, or a camera every time benefits or the tool stack change. Skip the avatar for a live welcome circle, a manager 1:1, or a handbook PDF that does not need a presenter. Skip it if the file is really a compliance course — that is a lesson, not a welcome. The avatar is a people partner reading the signed packet, not a substitute for a human first week.

3. 03

   Open Synthesia (synthesia.io) — check the domain

   Synthesia is the presenter desk this page is written for. Synthesys (synthesys.io) is a different company. HeyGen and Colossyan show up in the same “AI onboarding video” search; they are editorial mentions here, not hops. Mixing the names is the expensive mistake. This page sends you to Synthesia only.

4. 04

   Pick the plan that can ship a clean Day-1 file

   Basic ($0) is an audition: 9 avatars, 10 minutes a month, no clean download. Starter ($29/month, or $18/month billed yearly) is where downloads and logo removal start — that is the usual LMS export. Creator ($89/month, or $64/month yearly) adds minutes and personal avatars. Enterprise is where brand kits, SCORM, and SSO live. Unused minutes do not roll over. Do not buy Creator hoping the avatar becomes an actor, and do not buy Enterprise for one English welcome you can upload as an MP4.

5. 05

   Cast a stock avatar as the people partner

   Pick one stock presenter and keep that face for the whole Day-1 file — and for later policy updates. A “people partner” read is calm, first-person plural, and specific: we, your manager, People Ops, IT. Do not cast a founder likeness until People and Legal have watched a stock cut of the real handbook. Do not clone a CHRO voice unless you have written consent. One host. One crop. Head-and-shoulders.

6. 06

   Build the chapter list: welcome, culture, benefits, tools, who to ask

   Write the script into scenes that match how a hire will scrub the file. Chapter 1: welcome and week-one map. Chapter 2: how we work (hours, meetings, values you can actually observe). Chapter 3: benefits and time off, with the plan names from the handbook. Chapter 4: the tools they log into on Day 1, with a screen grab of the real login — not a slide that looks like Slack. Chapter 5: who to ask, with names or aliases that stay current. Add auto-captions. Brand kits sit on Enterprise.

7. 07

   Generate, QC, upload to the LMS, then re-render when policy changes

   Generate, then watch the first second, plan names, PTO codes, and the tool screens. Mouth-sync is consistently strong in English and major European languages. Hand gestures loop. These are narrators. Edit the handbook line and re-render instead of re-booking an executive. Export on the plan that grants a clean download. Upload the MP4 (or embed) into the LMS / HRIS onboarding track — Workday, Greenhouse, BambooHR, or whatever you already use. When open enrollment or a tool swap lands, change that chapter and ship a new version. Confirm internal-use terms on the plan you will export from.

People-partner avatar vs filming the CHRO vs the PDF

“AI onboarding tool” is a search, not a product. The decision is the format. Pricing on the Synthesia column matches the live synthesia.io/pricing page as of August 2026. The yearly toggle shows Starter at $18/month; the FAQ on the same page still quotes $264/year. We report both. Unused minutes do not roll over.

The script is the handbook, spoken

Do not write a welcome speech and hope Legal catches up. Open the current employee handbook, the benefits one-pager, and the IT new-hire checklist. Those pages already have the words you are allowed to say. Your job is to cut them into a voice a person can sit through on Day 1 — usually six to ten minutes, five chapters, no jokes about the dental plan.

Keep first-person plural and concrete. “We close Slack after 6.” “Your PTO code is in Workday under Time.” “People Ops is #ask-people, not your manager’s DMs for a W-4.” If a number or a plan name is still in review, that chapter waits. An avatar reading last year’s deductible is worse than a PDF, because it sounds finished.

Do not write a learning objective. Do not write a YouTube hook. Do not ask the avatar to “sound warmer than HR.” These presenters are narrators: blink cadence, micro head-tilt, a looping hand. On a head-and-shoulders framing that is enough. Full-body action and emotional range are not the product. Full breakdown of what the avatars actually do is in our Synthesia review.

Cast one people partner. Keep that face.

The host is a people partner, not the CEO and not a trainer with a quiz. Pick one stock avatar. Same crop, same wardrobe read, same voice, for the welcome and for every later refresh. A hire who watches v1 in January and v3 in September should still recognize the person who walked them through Slack.

A custom CHRO likeness is a later decision, not the first invoice. Prove the chapter list on a stock presenter. Personal avatars sit on paid plans; a Studio Express-1 avatar is a published add-on with a multi-day turnaround. Clone a voice only with written consent. Platform terms and replica laws are not theoretical. The consent rule is the same one in How to clone your voice for YouTube.

The chapter list: welcome, culture, benefits, tools, who to ask

Write scenes that match how a hire will scrub the timeline. New people do not watch a twelve-minute block; they jump to “how do I enroll” and “what is the VPN.” Label the chapters in the script and on screen so the LMS player’s chapters (or even a YouTube-style card list you paste into the description) match the handbook table of contents.

Welcome. Who we are in two sentences, what happens in week one, who their manager is responsible for. Culture. Hours, meetings, and values you can point at in the building or the Slack archive — not a poster. Benefits. Medical, retirement, PTO, parental leave, with the plan names and the enrollment window from the signed packet. Tools. A screen recording of the real Day-1 logins: email, chat, HRIS, badge or SSO. Synthesia can record the screen; the avatar is still the narrator sitting next to the product, not a replacement for IT’s checklist. Who to ask. People Ops, IT, your manager, the channel or alias that will still be true next quarter.

Captions go on so the file works muted in an HRIS tile or on a laptop in a noisy office. Brand kits — locked colors, logos, fonts — sit on Enterprise. For a first Day-1 file, a stock people partner and a clean Starter download are the whole buy.

Which Synthesia plan ships the welcome in 2026

The 2026 pricing page meters Synthesia in credits plus video minutes. Basic is $0 with 9 avatars and 10 minutes a month — downloads and logo removal start on Starter. Starter is $29/month (1,200 credits, 10 minutes of video or dubbing, 125+ avatars) or $18/month billed yearly. Creator is $89/month (3,600 credits, 30 minutes, five personal avatars, API) or $64/month yearly. Annual Starter lists 14,500 credits and 120 minutes a year; annual Creator lists 44,000 credits and 360 minutes a year. Languages and voices are published as 160+ on every tier. Unused minutes do not roll over.

For a first welcome, start on Basic with a real handbook paragraph — a benefits clause People already signed, not a placeholder sentence. Go to Starter when you need a logo-off file for the LMS. Buy Creator for a personal people-partner avatar or more minutes — not for “more cinema.” Buy Enterprise when IT asks for SSO or L&D asks for SCORM. Confirm internal-use terms on the plan you will export from. We do not invent a “full commercial rights” line the pricing page does not print.

Upload to the LMS. Then treat policy as a recut, not a reshoot

Export on the plan that grants a clean download. Upload the MP4 into the onboarding track you already run — Workday Learning, Greenhouse, BambooHR, Lattice, or a generic LMS — or drop the Synthesia embed if your HRIS accepts it. Embeds update when you edit. Most People Ops teams do not need a SCORM package for a welcome; they need a file in the Day-1 checklist next to “complete I-9.”

Name the export so the next person can find it: onboarding-day1_en_v1. When open enrollment changes a plan name, or IT swaps Slack for Teams, open that chapter, edit the line, recapture the screen, generate, bump to v2, replace the file. Leave the chapters that are still true. That is the reason you did not film the CHRO.

Employees still deserve a plain-language note when the presenter is synthetic. Say it in the module intro or the LMS description: this is a people-partner avatar reading the current handbook. If you later publish the same file outside the company, you also need the current platform disclosure for synthetic media. That is separate from the vendor license. You need both.

Localization and role tracks are next steps, not this brief

Ship the home-market Day-1 file first. A second language is a translation of a signed handbook, not a reason to start in Enterprise. Synthesia’s 1-click translation into 80+ languages and brand kits live on that tier. When you are ready, lock this welcome, then follow how to localize training videos — same loop, different packet. A sales-engineer onboarding track with a product walkthrough is closer to the product-demo how-to than to this welcome.

The comparison of presenter platforms — including where Synthesys sits as a different company — lives on Synthesia vs Synthesys and Best AI Avatar Video Tools 2026. This page does not hop there. The only Try button here is Synthesia.

HeyGen, Colossyan, and a live welcome — editorial only

Those names sit in the same “AI onboarding video” search. HeyGen is the usual Synthesia alternative in reviewer write-ups: faster custom-avatar turnaround, punchier social presenters, less of the LMS/SSO stack. Colossyan shows up in L&D roundups as another corporate-avatar desk. A live CHRO welcome is the right tool when the face has to be that person and the file will not be recut. None of them have a live hop on this page, so there is no Try button. If you need the Day-1 people-partner we can route, it is Synthesia.