How to Make the Shift to Virtual Internal Communication

With 90% of offices making the shift to remote work, communication is vital now more than ever. Traversing the virtual world is a new territory for most. The best way to navigate this new path and keep your team engaged and connected is through the power of video.

Even though video has proven the highest response, engagement, and retention rates of all communication forms, most companies aren’t yet using video for their corporate events. If you make the shift to video, you’ll be at the forefront of the in-house communication revolution. Your team will appreciate and value the effort you put into creating videos for internal communication and branding.

What are the benefits of using video for internal corporate communications?

Video…

• Communicates complex information in an understandable way
• Stirs up excitement and engagement
• Increases response rate
• Enhances information retention and learning
• Consistently and quickly disseminates information at scale
• Connects brand with employees/stakeholders in an authentic, human way
• Facilitates a forward-thinking environment of tech and communication
• Shares the emotion and tone behind a message
• Encourages employees to discuss video’s information with one another

The benefits prove themselves after just one use. So how can you try this out and implement a video campaign for your internal communications?

How to use video for remote working

There are two ways video can be incorporated into your corporate communication

1. To record and disseminate information to your team during “remote working”, like filming a training session, or getting a message out quickly to all of your offices.
2. To enhance an in-person or virtual event, like a training video or product explainer

Here are some instances that video can help with internal communication.

1. Message from the CEO

Now more than ever, it’s important that your CEO is at the forefront of communication with employees. This is a time of uncertainty, and the team needs to hear from their leader.

CEOs are busy, so they often don’t have enough time to get face time with everyone on the team. But it’s important for employee engagement and retention for the organization to see and know their leaders on a personal level.

Utilizing video is a great way for the CEO to share announcements and connect with employees. This builds a level of trust and transparency that resonates with the team. We like to think of CEO messages as virtual events. Your executives are creating a digital experience that tells a story, manages change, and interacts with the audience.

Whether it’s a live broadcast with an announcement, a CEO spotlight, or your leaders just saying ‘hey,’ a video is a great way to create a conversation, spread information, and engender the company culture from the top down.

2. Meetings

Meetings are inherently boring, right? Not with video! Whether it’s a small team meeting, a sales department meeting, or a town hall, video is an effective tool to make meetings more enjoyable. You can add a video before the meeting starts to get people excited and to share the purpose of the meeting in a fun, stimulating way. Or you can transform the meeting into a virtual discussion, with prerecorded information paired with live streams of participants. People will be much more engaged with the material and more likely to collaborate when provoked with an on-topic video and interactive digital tools.

Also, record your meetings. If someone’s missing from the meeting or you have teams in multiple locations, you can disseminate the same information by sending them a link to the meeting virtually, or send a recap video afterwards. This is a fast and consistent way to get information out to your team.

You can also live stream the meeting to encourage collaboration across the country or across the globe. Everyone is in the loop and in on the innovative process together.

3. Board meetings

Do the same thing but for your shareholder updates and board meetings. Your board members don’t want another plain old packet of information. Use video reports to highlight what stakeholders need to know in your brand tone. The professionalism of a video shows the time and care your team puts into the shareholder meetings, which demonstrates a level of care for the business overall. Video is the best way to “wow” your shareholders to show them exactly what they’re invested in (and why).

Have board members all over the country or globe? We love using video for virtual board meetings to disseminate consistent information and include all voices in the meeting.

You may also want to record board meetings for future purposes or record keeping. Some companies even use recorded board meetings to their employees for 100% organizational transparency.

4. Training + onboarding

Make your training fun and engaging. Videos are the most successful way to showcase your values and culture to employees. If you show the culture, people are more likely to reflect their own behaviors accordingly. For example, you might show the CEO and a few employee testimonials to get the culture across, and then use product explainer videos to discuss the details of how to sell a product. Whether it’s new or experienced employees, a “culture video” can help keep people engaged with the brand and what they’re doing in their roles. This can be paired with on-job training or totally virtual.

Also, the majority of people learn better through visual and audio stimuli. Training with videos gets their attention while reinforcing the learning process, so people are more likely to remember and recall what they learned in the training. If you want the greatest return on your investment with learning and development, interactive videos and exercises are the way to go.

Like the other examples, recording your training sessions means you can disseminate training across all departments and locations to ensure consistency and engagement. Prerecord trainings for online classes, or you can also record in-person trainings and turn them into online videos to train other teams or offer online resources.

5. Recruitment videos

You can also use video before you even get employees in the door. Recruitment videos help you cut through the noise of the job search. Just like video works to attract customers, it can work wonders to attract employees too.

Recruitment videos work especially well at corporate events or college fairs to attract talent. Most of your competitors will have flyers and brochures, but your enticing video with employee testimonials and brand values can get people excited about your business. Plus, you can curate the video to demonstrate the type of employee you want to hire and the culture you want to create. So the people you attract will be those interested in the brand culture you’re looking to create.

We also like putting recruitment videos on your careers page on your website to share information with curious candidates. You may even want to create a virtual recruitment campaign, centered on prerecorded videos that intrigue potential talent.

P.S. Testimonial videos from current employees can be your secret weapon during the recruitment process. They work like customer testimonials, but to sell the “product” of your brand!

6. Investment events

There’s a lot of competition to find investors, especially on investor days or at financing corporate events. Loop videos about your brand and products/services are one of the most effective ways to catch the right investor’s attention. An incredible, emotion-driven video will stay in their minds long after the day is over—when they’re ready to open their wallets.

We offer video boards to make your vision come to life at trade shows or investor days. Check out our vision boards services here.

7. Company culture

Fun clips from your employees can show off your culture in recruitment videos or as marketing clips (if you’re service-based).

Plus, like any event, your employees want to relive the fun times. Creating a sizzle reel of your past internal corporate events is a fun way to keep your employees engaged and happy (which also boosts retention).

A lot of organizations are also seeing success by creating a digital culture. Move your trainings and experiences online–especially if you’re moving more towards a work-from-home sort of mentality. This enables a more global and interconnected team, and your employees will love the tech advancements, quality videos, and virtual interactions.

Ready to use video for remote work?

If you think right now is the time you can lean on video, storytelling or live streaming,True Film Production would be happy to get on a call–even if you just want to get feedback on your current virtual communications strategy.

Remember that the majority of communication is non-verbal. If you want to take charge of corporate transitions, engage your team, get people excited for updates or changes, and cultivate your company culture, the emotions and tone of your video can be the key to your internal communications strategy.

Do you want to take your engagement, retention, and company culture to the next level, both in-person and digitally?

Reach out to us for a FREE consultation about how to implement videos for your corporate events. Whether you’re live streaming an announcement, sharing information at a training event, or encouraging investors to finance your company, we can help your video visions come to life. We look forward to hearing from you to start brainstorming.