Are you planning to produce internally-focussed video for your company this year? If not, you’re missing out on a trick.
By now, it’s fair to assume that most businesses have a relatively firm grasp on the importance of video when it comes to using this form of content to market their brand.
Given the ‘sticky’ nature of video, it’s brilliantly adept at keeping website visitors engaged for longer and can be a good way to promote products and encourage shares.
So, why not use video in the same vein internally? If it can capture the attention of potential and returning customers, why can’t it do the same for employees?
Good news – it absolutely can, and in this post, we’re going to explore seven uses of video that can boost productivity and collaboration for businesses of all sizes.
1. Onboarding
At some stage during our working lives, we all experience a less than satisfactory on boarding process.
You’re shown to your new desk, asked to create username for the network and left to read a bunch of manuals, compliance documents and forge a path largely on your own.
Some people relish opportunities like that, but the vast majority of new hires need a far better helping hand to get them on board with the business and off to the best possible start.
As previously noted, video is an incredibly engaging medium; it draws people in and encourages them to watch for the duration. Now, imagine swapping that pile of manuals and compliance documents for a bunch of well-produced, lighthearted onboarding videos. You’d watch them, wouldn’t you?
By using video to gradually introduce new employees to the business, you’ll be sure to grab their attention instantly and demonstrate that the company is fully up-to-speed with modern onboarding methods.
2. Training
There is still a place for traditional, classroom-based tutoring in business, but training delivered via videois become far more commonplace.
This is for one very simple reason: training delivered via video can be chopped up into smaller, digestible chunks and devoured at a time of the student’s choosing.
If those students are members of staff, they’ll greatly appreciate the ability to dip in and out of training material when they feel most inspired to learn.
And with video now a medium that can be viewed on devices that rest within our pockets and bags, it’s perfectly suited to deliver training sessions that might otherwise have been held in soulless classrooms full of people desperate to be somewhere else.
There are several ways to provide training via video. If you have a sense of adventure but little experience in front of camera, there’s nothing wrong with trying it yourself, or you could hire the services of a professional tutor.
Remember – if you opt for the latter, you’ll greatly reduce the investment required, because the tutor in question will only have to provide the training once (to camera) thus avoiding the need to continually book their time for multiple classes.
3. Recruitment
If truth be told, the recruitment process is ripe for change. There’s nothing wrong with the traditional interview, and it remains the best way to find new talent, but video technology is capable of bringing it into the 21st century.
With video conferencing now freely available, using it as a way to recruit new members of staff can significantly speed up the process for both the job seeker and company.
Video interviews avoid the need to schedule back-and-forth interviews and cut out travel costs entirely, but pre-recorded video content can also be incredibly useful during the recruitment process.
For example, a video that introduces the company and role in question will provide candidates with a brilliant introduction to the business and enable them to prepare precisely for the interview. It will also demonstrate that your business is one that embraces video, and may well sway their decision if they’re considering an identical offer from another company.
4. Internal comms
As noted at the start of this blog, video is great for sharing.
If you’re on Facebook, take a quick look at your news feed. Chances are, it’ll be adorned with shares of videos, and while the majority will probably be of cute cats and skateboard mishaps, it proves that this form of content is something people proactively share with their friends.
The same goes in business. If you use video to communicate important company information or product updates, word will quickly get around. Those that are first to see the video will be encouraged to share it with their colleagues, and will likely be impressed by the personality the content gives the business.
Video will also break down existing barriers within teams and negate any geographical issues relating to sharing company information on a global scale.
It is, quite simply, a brilliant way to communicate.
5. Conferencing
Telephone conferences are usually expensive, cumbersome ways to conduct meetings with disparate attendees. Video conferencing, on the other hand, is available to anyone with a smartphone, tablet or laptop and is free to use.
Services such as Skype have made remote working anything but remote and have fast become the go-to tool when it comes to conferencing.
With more people working remotely and a collective desire to ensure modern meetings are fast and efficient, video conferencing is an absolute dream.
6. Knowledge sharing
There’s that word again. Learning new skills in business is often a collaborative effort, and video’s inherent portability makes it the perfect medium to encourage knowledge sharing.
Best practices, how-to tutorials, FAQs and new compliance requirements are far more likely to be digested by the team as a whole if they’re delivered via a form of content that can be easily shared.
There are few devices we own that aren’t capable of displaying video in some form, and that makes it incredibly simple to digest new stuff whenever we feel most inclined to do so.
Video can also be repurposed by integrating it into other forms of content (i.e. blog posts). This gives us the ability to customise the original video content for our own means and for the benefit of others, thus dramatically increasing its shelf life and ensuring it gets viewed by as many people as possible.
7. Events
Despite the fact we’re now living and working firmly in the digital age, businesses still benefit considerably from attending events in person.
Unfortunately, there’s rarely a time when every employee can attend each event, and in the past, this has meant they’d miss out on what is likely to be an insightful day out for the company.
That was, until live video streaming arrived. Now, business events, conferences and product launches can be easily streamed back to base with minimal (sometimes, zero) investment.
This keeps everyone in the loop and ensures employees on every branch of the company tree feel connected to the organisation as a whole, no matter where it is or what it happens to be doing.
Wrapping up
Still think video is purely a marketing tool?
The best thing about video content is that it can be experimented with. The kit, skills and broadcast methods required are now available to all, and while it certainly makes sense to invest in the services of a professional video production company if you really want to get serious about internal video, there’s an awful lot you can do yourself.
Get that smartphone out and start shooting!