How to Use Video to Improve Your Company’s Internal Communications

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When you think of video content, you typically think of it within the context of external outreach strategies – like building an effective marketing funnel. But few stop to think about how efficient a tool those same videos can be to enhance internal communications within a company.

Building a video communication strategy to convey important intel that your workforce needs to operate more efficiently – and do so in compelling and entertaining ways! – is something that most companies can really benefit from. 

If you do it right, at least!

In this piece, we will cover different internal communications tasks that your company can always improve using video and give you some ideas on how to get started while we are at it.

Welcoming New Hires to the Team

We all know that starting a new job is often a daunting experience, even for seasoned professionals. Why not make this transition process much smoother with a genuinely warm and helpful video that welcomes new hires to their new company?

A great welcome video lets you give a new employee a unique, stress-free, and even enjoyable first experience with their work while enhancing your existing onboarding process. You also get to walk them through every key point you want them to know as they start in their new position.

Moreover, videos like these can expertly explain company policy as well as the basics of their position!

You can even break it down into a series of onboarding content that supplements your employee integration process, gets them up to speed with their role-specific tasks, and even gives them the rundown of your company’s values, mission, and vision. The sort of content that invites them to contribute to its success! 

Last but certainly not least, you can use welcoming videos to have new hires get to know their colleagues by having your existing team record a short welcome message to introduce themselves.  This is a constructive idea if you are using a remote workplace model!

The Takeaway:

Rather than the standard email with a schedule and a welcome package with dense blocks of text you’re not even sure they’re going to read, use a video introduction to your company to summarize essential information and improve internal communications with new employees.

EMBED: https://youtu.be/7ZHnVV7RfYQ

Injecting Some Fun into the Training Experience

Training your employees, new and old, tends to be very time-consuming and resource-intensive, especially if your niche requires multiple training instances to keep your workforce up-to-date with the latest developments in your industry. 

With tutorials and how-to videos, you can cover just about any topic you feel your employees need to know about, no matter how complex, and do it in a way that ensures the information sticks with them. 

For example, you can make a tutorial to teach new or existing work practices, demonstrate safety procedures, get them up to speed using a new piece of software or even illustrate internal company processes, like applying for leave.

As long as they’re straightforward and present clear instructions, these types of internal videos will help improve information retention, save time, and even help you reduce costs. 

After all, you only need your in-house experts to explain and demonstrate things once if it’s being recorded. Then your team can access and even refresh that information anytime, reducing – or even eliminating – the need for multiple training sessions.

The Takeaway:

Forget about dense handbooks or time-consuming in-situ training lessons and transform them into a fun and engaging educational experience by communicating all the necessary information through engaging video content instead.

EMBED: https://youtu.be/PR3eXbLzoCM

Keeping Everyone on the Same Page

Video can be a highly effective tool to share clear and vital information and updates across a large workforce. Whether it is a product update or just a reminder for your employees to use their vacation days.

How? Well, you can create attention-grabbing video announcements to communicate corporate news in a memorable and dynamic way. 

For example, you can personally address employees directly and share the excitement over a closed deal or a marketing launch. Moreover, plenty of video editing techniques let you spruce up your videos with the right music and slick transitions that go a long way in keeping viewers engaged. Engaged people are better at retaining information.

You can use styles such as whiteboard animation videos to showcase complex information in simple and entertaining ways. It’s often challenging to keep everyone on the same page about things like new product lines or upcoming events.

The Takeaway

Your employees are probably not inclined – and might not have the time –  to sit and read through long and complex communique, but few would fail to watch a short, charming video that summarizes the key points of important corporate news on the go. 

Share your updates in ways that are accessible (and even fun!) to consume, and your internal communication effectiveness goes through the roof!

EMBED: https://youtu.be/zoBD1zYHETo

Motivating Your Team and Boosting Morale

Your employees can benefit from some positive reinforcement to keep up their hard work every once in a while. This could be positive feedback from customers or highlighting the team’s achievements. You could even share good news from a coworker in the form of videos.

Internal videos like these can help you boost morale, increase camaraderie, and empower your team. This which goes a long way to breaking down silos and building a successful, cohesive group.

Testimonials, while most often used as external marketing tools, can also be particularly useful in this regard. They enable you to spread positive feedback from happy customers. Or perhaps show the positive impact a project your team has been working on has had on real people. 

The Takeaway:

Use video to connect with your team and inspire them to excel in their daily tasks. Make them feel proud to be part of your company and share the recognition from industry peers to motivate them. This will ultimately lead to increased productivity and satisfaction while reducing attrition.

EMBED: https://youtu.be/3jgBLjumsjo

Giving Your Employees a Voice

Internal communications are not just about what you have to say to your employees. They are also about what they need to communicate to you. 

Your company comprises many individuals who are already familiar with your mission and values. That makes them an invaluable source of information, material, and ideas for your business. So, why not let them create engaging employee material for their peers? 

For example, you can have one of your workers talk about any recent challenges they’re facing with a project. This way others can offer suggestions on how to overcome them. Or invite employees to share industry knowledge, best practices, company culture, and values they particularly feel strongly about!

These are all possible topics that the most outgoing members of your team can easily cover and would probably be glad to share with their teammates. And the best part is that they can do so from their phones! There’s no fancy and expensive equipment needed at all for these!

The Takeaway

Employee-generated video can be the perfect alternative to sharing ideas through email or stuffing them into a suggestion box. Those options so often get lost or ignored. By giving your team a voice, you can also promote a healthy corporate culture and work environment.

In Short

Using video for internal communications can help keep your company organized, connected, and engaged from anywhere and at any time. Bring even your far-flung employees together for important corporate communications by incorporating video into your strategy.

Hopefully, you now know where to start as you plan and develop your next internal communications videos!

Guest Author Bio Victor Blasco:

Victor Blasco is an audiovisual designer, video marketing expert, and founder/CEO of the explainer video production company Yum Yum Videos. Besides running the business, he’s a lifelong student of Chinese philosophy and a passionate geek for all things sci-fi.