Nowadays, a lot of companies rely on video content as an effective marketing and promotional solution. But a slightly less known fact is how powerful an asset video is to engage and raise a team’s productivity.
The pandemic has forced most of us to work remotely, so it’s crucial to use all resources at hand to facilitate internal communications and foster a unified business culture.
Fortunately, through the combined efforts of video production companies and developers, producing effective video content is easier than ever, which helps mitigate the limitations of long-distance work!
But implementing video as part of your company’s communication efforts takes some adjusting and know-how. Not every type of video is the same, and you have many options in terms of approach and production decisions.
So, here, we’ll be talking all about using video to engage your workforce and giving you some tricks to make the most out of your efforts.
The Big Question: Live-action or Animation?
When you set out to decide which videos will work best to deliver your message to your team members, you may wonder whether it’s more effective to produce live or animated videos.
The difference between these is not merely about the budget – although animation tends to be the most affordable medium. But more often than not, the decision comes down to what you want to accomplish with your video.
- Live-action videos are more effective in communicating direct messages without ambiguity. You can think of them as a kind of invitation, a face-to-face conversation you establish with team members.
- Animation is excellent for educational and data delivery purposes. As you’ll soon see, a visually compelling and entertaining piece is a perfect complement to transmit important (even technical) information to your employees.
But the boundaries between live-action videos and animations often overlap, as there is a wide range of possibilities between them. Let’s take a moment to look at them!
Most Effective Types of Videos to Engage Your Workforce
Updates and Events Videos
Sure, sending updates by email is enough to keep your team up to date with all the news and weekly events. But what if I told you that it’s possible to generate excitement about them?
Through short video teasers, you can introduce important announcements and projects to come to your team in compelling ways. They work really well when the person in charge of delivering the news is well-known, like the company’s CEO, who can greatly convey trust and enthusiasm.
Animated Explainer Videos
As humans, we connect with stories. Whether it is our deepest moral feelings or technical concepts in business, the introduction of a tale and vivid characters is crucial to deep learning.
With animated explainer videos, you can take your team through the most technical processes without having to bore them. Colorful visuals and interesting plots can help you frame all kinds of problems—key concepts, complex data, or multi-layered processes—in an easier to digest and more retainable way.
Company Culture Videos
So far, I’ve focused primarily on how to use video for communication. But crucially, you want your content to make your workforce feel part of the same culture, with shared values and ambitions.
You can convey the mission and vision that drives your work together through company culture videos. In these pieces, you can bring together both leaders and team members to express their personal perspective on the important work that takes place in your company every day.
Instructional ‘How-To’ Videos
Videos are an excellent—if not indispensable!—training resource. ‘How-To’ videos are a huge productivity boost, as they allow you to break down entire business processes and protocols into easy-to-consume pieces that your employees can turn to when needed.
By having instructions and crucial knowledge recorded on video, team members will be able to have more control over their own learning. In addition, having well-produced and properly scripted videos will prevent them from getting confusing or conflicting messages.
FAQ Videos
Using video to communicate remotely is more than having discrete pieces here and there. Essentially, you want to think strategically and go one step further to mitigate any doubts or ambiguities that may arise in your workers.
As part of your training platform, you can include FAQ videos to address the most common issues that your team members deal with daily. When you do, try to keep your pieces sorted by question or topic so that your employees can directly access the material they need.
Best Channels to Distribute Your Videos
One of the greatest advantages of internal communications videos is that, if well implemented, team members will have 24/7 access to the material they need.
Video content will give them autonomy to solve problems on their own, without having to wait long hours for their superiors’ response or dealing with intermediaries.
But precisely because of this, you need your videos to be easily accessible. There are at least two key places where your pieces must be.
Let’s be frank: many of us skim email threads superficially to go to the important sections—usually those in bold! You and your employees have a lot of tasks to do during the day, so a long mail can be quite tedious to read.
But if you decide to use videos that quickly get to the point, you will be able to communicate your weekly announcements more effectively. Plus, you can make sure that everything that needs to be said is there and clear.
Training Platforms
Ideally, when your employees want to refresh their knowledge of certain tasks, they should be able to access a single online library where all the content is organized by categories and topics.
If your company has an online training platform, it’s a good idea to upload your videos there. The more they are sectioned by titles and short pieces, the better. In case you don’t have that platform, hubs like YouTube allow you to upload private videos and playlists.
Production Tips
Now that we’ve explored the basics of video let’s consider some strategies to optimize the overall quality of your content.
Keep Videos Short and Informative
Keep your videos restricted to one clear message. Having this rule of thumb in mind will help you both to respect your team’s valuable time and to give them precise instructions on the next steps and tasks.
Don’t Neglect the Video’s Quality
Don’t think that because it’s an internal video, you can leave aside the quality of your pieces. You want your message to look professional, as something worthy of your company. Above all, make sure that your audio and visual setups are the best possible.
Connect with Your Team Members
Videos are a great opportunity to have an enjoyable conversation with your team. You don’t want to make a bad impression with a dry message, so as much as possible, try to motivate your employees to engage with your message.
Get them involved with an interesting question or personal anecdote. Or, if the situation calls for it, try to bring out your natural humor in the video!
Conclusion
Using video for your internal communications is a great option for delivering clear and concise messages, provide effective data visualization, and improve communications with your employees. But most of all, this content allows you to interact more closely than you could through an email or a long Zoom meeting.
Many companies have turned to video to engage their workforce. I hope that, with the tips provided in this article, you can author your own success story.
Author bio: Victor Blasco, Audiovisual Designer, Video Marketing Expert, and Founder/CEO of Yum Yum Videos.
Photo credit: Jakob Owens on Unsplash
