We’ve said it, but it begs repeating: humans are visual creatures. While all of our senses are important, we’re always drawn to the immediacy of what we can see. Therefore, it’s no surprise that even companies are looking to video internal communication for enhanced clarity and engagement. Today, we’re going to learn all about how these internal videos can benefit you.
And trust me, this is no fad. While e-mail, in-person communication, and other means of interaction have their use, video is king. We humans rely heavily on visual cues, and video leverages this natural tendency. In fact, studies clearly and reliably show this. Nifty, huh? But, what does this mean for you?
First, it means you’ve got a much higher chance of engaging your employees through video. In fact, nearly two-thirds of individuals understand visual info better. So that means that video can, at worst, help you reach 66% of your company more successfully. But, if that’s not enough:
- Video is clearer, more engaging, and faster.
- People understand and retain visual info much better.
- Technology! Meaning, you can say more with less. Efficiency is the name of the game.
So, ready to integrate video internal communication into your strategy? You won’t regret it, and neither will your employees. If you do it right—that is, with the right blueprint and with the right people— it’s as close to a surefire strategy as you can find out there.
Let’s take a more detailed look.
This post has been updated in September 2021.
What Is Video Internal Communication?
Video internal communication, or internal company videos, are educational video tools that foster communication within a company or group. While video is an essential part of branding and marketing, its usefulness goes beyond the external.
While all is well and good with selling—the cornerstone of for-profit enterprises— you can use the same tools to build a more complete, more cohesive team. Moreover, video can promote a net-positive effect on your employees; it can work towards building bridges, increasing morale, establishing roadmaps, and helping create a growth-centered company culture.
In “Internal Videos: Improved Workplace Communication,” our writer James Young wrote:
But how are videos an effective method to communicate within the workplace? Internal videos are much like video calls, which you can send to any number of devices. It is a great way to spread your message throughout an organization with ease. It not only saves time and money but is accessible and easy to integrate into our daily online experience.
In short, video internal communication is a time-saving measure that eliminates confusion. And not only that, it keeps people glued to their screen throughout in a way that a simple email just doesn’t.
Are you one of those bosses that simply swear by emails? Hey, you don’t have to eliminate them for your strategy! But, you’d do well to heed this advice about video. Let’s do a simple comparison.
Video Internal Communication or Emails?
It doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition. Email communication has its place; it’s slow, measured, where every word slots into place perfectly. You can also supplement emails with images and other documents. It doesn’t have to be all drab, samey wordiness.
But, the downside is that employees are always knee-deep in emails. That means that for every awesome email that you craft, you’re probably going to hear involuntary groans and utterances of “Not another one, man!” And what’s even worse, in the race to get back to work, employees could skim over important, mission-critical details. It’s never easy to tear your eyes away from a hard day of word to read yet another wall of text, however important it is.
Don’t get me wrong, though, emails are great. When it comes to technical information, it’s always a great idea to have it in writing. And then, there’s in-person communication—meetings— but that has its downsides too. You need to get everyone together at the same time, which tears them away from important work-related activities.
Video internal communication sidesteps this, and it doesn’t even have to exclude email from the equation. If you still want a part of the message to be in writing, you could supplement your email with a video. This tallies up the benefits of a visible face, which you get in meetings, and the detail-oriented quality of emails.
Why Videos Work
In broad strokes, it’s because they’re interesting; people will pay attention to a video in a way that they won’t with emails. They’re a complementary strategy to emails, calls, and meetings, that employees can watch on their own time. Therefore, they can take as long as they need to rewatch the videos and digest the important information within.
How? What’s the magic behind video? I’ll let Digital HR Tech explain further:
It turns out that employees are likely to retain 95% of a message when it’s delivered to them in the form of a video
But it’s not just that either. Let me put up some statistics:
- 93% of internal communicators believe in the efficacy of video internal communication.
- 59% of execs would much rather watch a video than reading. And I’m sure that number is a lowball estimate.
- Also, it’s quicker and more cost-effective.
- It allows your team to go remote, and connect from everywhere.
- It cuts down on staff training overhead.
- Video cuts down on time spent in meetings and increases overall productivity.
And you don’t really need to spruce up your video with the latest bells and whistles either. Don’t get me wrong, though, professional-looking videos are an absolute must. What I mean is that you don’t have to wow your employees every time with special effects or seek spectacularity. Just having well-shot, well-edited videos with good content is enough to take hold and never let go. Still, it’s better to follow a sort of protocol, or establish an aesthetic template, if you will. This makes it easier to follow a process going forward.
Video Internal Communication Types
Now that I’ve helped establish the bonafides of video, we need to look further into things. You can use many types of video to engage your employees, to wit:
Onboarding Videos
Training new employees is hard. And worse than that, it can be a very stressful time for them. Add learning new skills or how to navigate a problem to the mix, and you’ve got a problem in your hands. But videos can help smooth this path and make things significantly easier for everyone. In a previous article about the subject, James wrote:
Have you ever noticed most of your employees don’t get excited if you announce a new training seminar or program? If so, try to make training more interesting through an internal company video. Not only do these videos improve engagement, but they also have a positive impact on information retention. If you are trying to cut costs, this method also helps since shifting to video results in a staggering decrease in training costs for many companies.
For onboarding and training videos, it is important to maximize people’s learning and information retention by engaging all their senses. People are more likely to remember multisensory experiences, and this is why video works best for training purposes. Try to include interactive calls to action (CTAs) to assess the knowledge of employees after they watched the video.
To add further to this, employees can check out this content as many times as they need. That removes the high-pressure stakes present in most seminars.
Announcements
Need to tell your employees about important, urgent, or exciting new things? Making a video announcement is the perfect way to reach them in a personalized way. These videos are a great way to foster a more human, more empathetic relationship with your employees. Tell them about exciting features, updates, or new products. Showing is telling, and there’s nothing more believable than seeing your palpable excitement and joy at things going right. Or, conversely, if you need to tell them about important new developments, a more stately, somber tone can get your message across much more convincingly than just words on a screen.
Events
Ah, remember the joy of in-person events? And whether you’re hosting a new webinar, or thinking ahead to a fully vaccinated population where we can all meet each other in person again, video internal communication can help set the tone for the festivities ahead.
During the pandemic, we’ve gotten used to seeing each other as names on a screen. Just a few minutes of video can bring joy and relief during these isolated times. A good video can help remind people that they’re not alone or working for a faceless machine, but part of something greater.
Social Learning and Education
Times are changing, and they’re changing fast. And companies are scrambling to tackle the hot-button issues of the day. While you don’t have to have a solidified position on these issues, it helps to pitch in, engage people in debate, discuss new social norms, or engage with emerging, complex issues.
And, as these issues result in new behaviors, video is a great way for HR to communicate with employees. You can also use this opportunity to create a space for more diversity, inclusivity, and to make the voices of your staff heard more.
Who Can Help With Video Internal Communication?
Thankfully, that’s the easy part. You don’t want to rush in and start creating half-baked, amateurish videos. A video production company such as Bunny Studio can really help you set the tone and style of video internal communication that you need.
We can take a look at your brand, your identity, and help you create a look and tone that suits you. And what’s more, we can help you do it in a quick, cost-effective manner that blows the competition out of the water.
If you want to up your video game, submit a project with Bunny Studio today and we’ll take away all the stress, and just leave the success!
