Why You Should Use Videos in Internal Communications: A Complete Guide
You might think that companies are in the golden age of internal communications. Almost every company today has found ways to communicate with their employees through different mediums — email newsletters, Slack, and Zoom meetings. Yet over one-third of employees are not satisfied in their positions and are skeptical about the level of impact their work has on the company’s growth.
But things are changing.
In recent times, companies have begun to realize that employee satisfaction has a major and direct impact on business success. Thus, businesses have started to look for the best ways to re-engage the workforce. One of the most effective ways to do this is to utilize videos in internal communications.
Companies have realized that videos promote transparent communication between employees and increase the ease of collaboration between teams. Internal communications videos can help business owners capture their employees’ attention, measure their engagement, and provide the necessary tools to collaborate effectively.
Reasons to use videos for Internal Communications
There are many reasons why companies should use videos for internal communications.
The most common one is that it is much easier for people to understand video instructions that text-based ones. That is, in fact, why people prefer to watch YouTube tutorials rather than read five long pages of text explaining what they’re trying to learn.
However, there are other reasons why videos should definitely be used in Internal Communications.
Below are some of them.
Videos help save time and money
This is probably the biggest reason to use more videos in internal communications; video saves organizations a lot of time — and money!
While typing one email is pretty easy, it’s not always the best option when you have a lot of messages you need to send out. On most occasions, workers won’t be able to explain every point in the emails and they might even leave some things out. To prevent this, employees can use visuals to create short but detailed snippets that will outline every point they want to make.
Instead of hiring an expensive trainer or messenger, business leaders can make use of video technology to explain concepts and relay messages to their teams. In so doing, tons of dollars will be saved.
It has also been shown that using more visuals in internal communication will save the average worker about 6 minutes and 43 seconds per day. Now, this might seem like a small number, but if you do some math, this amounts to over 30 minutes per week, and over 25 hours per year, for every employee.
With the conservative economic model we have, an organization could save about $1,200/year in productivity for each employee, just by using more videos in the workplace. This means that a company with 200 employees can add the productivity of three full-time employees without hiring anyone.
Videos help simplify complicated information
New and complex challenges rise as technology evolves. This complexity extends to the tools you use internally to work. If your employees cannot find the information they need about complex work tools, problems can arise in the workplace.
Videos are a great channel to address the problems your business might be facing. For instance, many companies have started using artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and business analytics tools to study company insights. The only way these tools can be helpful is when employees know exactly how to use them to uncover business data.
Businesses can make sure workers understand how to use these tools by creating internal videos for stakeholders on how to read, understand and utilize data collected by said tools. In this training case, emails will NOT cut it; they might even make things more confusing.
Approximately 65% of the entire population are visual learners. This means that most of your employees respond to visual cues, and they will understand visual explanations better as opposed to text-based explanations.
According to Pop Video, 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and these visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text. Explaining complex information via email will not stimulate the visual aspects of your employees’ brains.
If made in the right way, videos do a much better job at making complicated information easy to understand than emails.
Videos close the distance
The world has advanced so quickly that many people don’t consider ‘work’ as a place they have to go to. Remote work is increasingly on the rise, as many professionals work jobs from the comfort of their homes and immediate environment.
A report by IWG estimates that about 70% of employees do some remote work. This provides ample advantage to companies because 87% of businesses say that remote work helps them remain competitive.
However, the rise of remote work poses a huge challenge to business teams. Teams generally find it more difficult to collaborate on certain projects when the members are not physically present. The variance in time zones makes this problem even more challenging. Remote workers can also get very lonely, as reported by Harvard Business Review.
Nonsynchronous video messages can help bridge the wide gap between team members. They help team members collaborate and communicate effectively, even if their work hours differ. This way, team members can avoid reading long email threads, and remote workers can feel more connected with their colleagues.
Videos are easy to distribute
Emails can be a drag when it comes to typing and formatting — limited characters, grammatical errors, etc. Miscommunication hurts businesses and it can be really exasperating to always have to explain what exactly you meant in your emails.
Instead of spending a long time typing emails, videos allow colleagues and team members to directly communicate their message with little chance of being misunderstood. Videos give the recipient a sense of personal exchange and a direct access to the meaning of the sender. This helps work go more smoothly.
Videos help create a good onboarding experience for new employees
New employees often feel thrilled and terrified at the same time. There are tons of information to absorb, and new faces and names to memorize. They are faced with new challenges, opportunities, and responsibilities that can be overwhelming. This is why onboarding is necessary; the process is meant to efficiently tackle the needs of new employees.
However, many companies don’t offer the best onboarding experience to newbie workers. In fact, businesses lose up to 25% of their workers within the first year because of terrible onboarding experience and poor internal communication. As a result, U.S. employers spend about $1.1 billion every year searching for replacement workers.
Videos can be used to improve the onboarding process and internal communications for new employees. They’re more engaging and easy-to-understand than documentation, HR forms and safety rules. When new starters have access to videos explaining concepts like internal policies and product training, they become inspired to contribute to the success of the company.
While offering online training is a great way to get your new employees on board, it is also important to forge relationships between the leaders and employees. To do this, leaders can make and distribute regular video updates on critical information that the staff needs to know. Through visuals, staff members can directly communicate with each other, keep up with updates and know how their work, directly and indirectly, impacts the organization.
Videos can improve employee retention
A solid internal communications strategy is very important if you want to motivate and energize your workforce. Internal communications is not only about managing and fixing issues. It also helps create a sense of amity amongst staff, and show them the role their work plays in moving the company forward.
These days, workers feel increasingly disengaged from their work. According to a report by Harvard Business Review, only 40% of employees know the strategic goals of their organization. Millennial and Gen Z workers — which make up half the population of working adults — feel discontented in their current position and would quit in two years if they were able. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace reports that 85% of workers are not engaged in the workplace. According to an infographic by Entrepreneur, unhappy workers cost U.S. businesses up to $500 billion every year.
Your ability to keep your employees engaged and enthusiastic to work can make or mar your business. Thankfully, video messages can help you retain your employees. Employees are people, and it has been estimated that the average person watches approximately 90 minutes of video every day.
This means that your employees are already familiar with digesting information through videos. Since videos allows workers to convey complex information in a short span of time, this medium of communication can be used to effectively increase engagement and improve employee retention.
What types of videos should businesses use in Internal Communications?
The benefits of using videos in Internal Communications are vast. Having understood this, you might be wondering what types of videos you can make to foster this tradition in your organization.
Here are some convenient and cost-efficient video types that can change the way you run your business and improve productivity in the workplace.
Company mission and vision videos (Company Culture)
The mission, vision and unique voice of your business are crucial aspects of your company’s identity, and should be properly communicated to all your employees. A brief, documentary-style video explaining clearly your organization’s values, mission and vision can serve to educate and motivate your workforce.
While making the video, it is not enough to have your company’s mission and vision written and read by a voice-over artist. You should also take time to interview real employees (probably the early ones) and highlight the most exciting milestones your company has achieved. You can even feature a tour of the workplace. Seal the message by filming a special message from the CEO or a (co)founder to the employee
This video can serve as an excellent onboarding video for new employees. It is more effective than a handbook or pamphlet encouraging them to embrace your company’s culture and helping them fit right in with the older employees. Company culture videos communicate your company’s goals to your employees, especially new ones, and motivate them to want to contribute to your business’ long-term growth.
The best part of having company culture videos is that it can be used for years to come; it is evergreen. You need only update it when necessary.
Training and safety videos
This type of video is well known but not well done in many companies. Many corporate businesses approach the making of training and safety videos with a style that is old-school and outdated.
Training and safety videos essentially ensure that tasks and responsibilities are carried out accurately. They also make sure that the work environment is safe and functions optimally for every employee.
Training and safety videos must be part of your internal communications strategy, but they should be captivating and engaging, rather than boring and stale. While filming these videos, keep the modern viewer in mind and try to make the video look like something they’ll enjoy watching.
Experiment with different video elements and communication styles, some of which include:
- Animation
- Create a narrative
- Include action
- Have a strong script
- Incorporate humor
To up the ante, you can also make additional videos that target simpler, more specific tasks. Apart from safety precautions and job-training videos, make videos that explain standard operating processes and guide employees on how to use specific company tools, computer programs or software.
Videos that offer walk-throughs or step-by-step guides to specific responsibilities are very useful because they demonstrate and teach employees visually. They are also really efficient because an employee can learn about these things on their own without needing help from a co-worker or manager.
Employee videos
When emails are the only medium through which employees communicate, things can get really messy. Sometimes, text can be misread and intended tones can be misunderstood, which leads to confusion and tension. Videos can help prevent this because they allow for more direct communication accompanied with visual cues like facial expressions and gesticulations.
Employee videos are a great asset especially in larger organizations where employees in different departments are not in the same vicinity or location. When communication happens between workers in real-time, a more direct sense of community and connection is created. The employees will have accessibility that will only increase the level of efficiency and transparency in your internal communications.
You can create a forum where employee videos can be filmed independently, live-streamed and/or shared internally by staff.
Announcements and updates
Video can be a great way to provide big announcements and company updates to a large workforce. Through videos, you can easily communicate upcoming events, a big sale or newly closed deal or a quick update from the CEO to a large audience.
Basic memos, BCC’d emails, and VHS training videos are pretty outdated ways to do this. Internal communications in modern companies should go beyond newsletters and email threads.
You can replace these old systems with:
- Live streaming conferences and corporate events
- Video series that highlight specific work departments and employees
- Video event announcements
- Vlogs from the CEO or (a co)founder to update shareholders and board members
Videos convey the emotional undertone of a message; this can make your internal communications more human, which is really important for certain types of announcements.
Event videos
How many times have you missed out on a company event (an important presentation, office party, product launch, etc.) only to realize that no one filmed it?
Event videos offer a way to create good memories for the employees, keep track of pivotal moments in the company’s history and share them with employees that weren’t able to attend.
FAQ videos
Most companies, especially SaaS companies, have FAQ pages on their websites, where they answer questions that are frequently asked about their products or services. However, this is not good enough. FAQ web pages only cater to the potential customers of your customers.
New employees almost always ask experienced colleagues tons of questions upon their initiation into the workplace. This causes experienced employees to waste work time and lose their patience. This is why it is important to provide videos that readily answer common questions that new employees have.
These internal videos should cover a wide range of topics, from company info for new employees to how they should act in certain situations. FAQ videos help clarify common doubts and should be made readily available for staff to watch whenever they need to.
Conclusion
No matter the industry you are in, video is one of the best mediums for internal communications. It’s one of the best tools for engaging employees and disseminating timely information. With video, companies can educate and empower their employees through educational content.
Video also helps companies improve employee education, create an engaged work environment and boost employee retention.
