Do your employees feel connected to your company?
Connected employees understand their company’s mission and align with its values. They know what their job is and how to do it well. And more often than not, they’ve formed bonds with their colleagues that extend beyond the workplace.
Unfortunately, modern work environments don’t always foster connection.
Departments are often siloed, each working independently with very little interaction with each other. CEOs, especially at larger companies. Not because they want to be, but because there are so many people between them and the average employee.
Hybrid and remote work separates teams even more by putting physical space between employees and everyone they work with.
Company-wide video announcements are an effective internal communication tool for keeping employees at all levels aligned and connected to the organization — and to one another. As you build out your internal comms videos, here are six ideas to get you started.
1. Weekly happenings
A weekly happenings video does exactly what it sounds like: tell employees what’s happening over the next five days or so. These videos can be sent every Monday to keep people informed, or on Fridays to prepare them for the next week of work.
What makes this type of internal communications video so effective? Generally speaking, it helps prepare employees to do their jobs. But the benefits run deeper than that.
Weekly happenings videos also make employees feel like they’re a part of something greater. It’s easy to forget that other people work for your company when you’re so focused on your own projects. Weekly happening videos make employees aware of what’s going on around them.
Tips for making a weekly happenings video
Keep it informal
This type of video doesn’t have to be buttoned up and polished; it can have a more relaxed vibe. Imagine you’ve run into your employees at the water cooler and you’re telling them about the things you’re working on. That’s kind of how your weekly happening videos should feel.
60 seconds or less
Most weekly happening videos should be about 60 seconds long. There are exceptions to this rule, of course. But generally speaking, a minute is just enough time to tell employees what’s going on without boring them to death.
Get leadership involved
Create an even bigger impact by getting leadership involved in the video. This can be as simple as asking your CEO to record a quick, 15-second video intro to make the information more personal.
2. Recurring updates
Recurring update videos are a great way to share monthly, quarterly, and even yearly results with employees. Think of them as the big brother to the weekly happenings video. As such, they often deal with big-picture issues.
Think product launch results, the number of leads marketing brought in, and the number of deals sales closed.
In terms of employee connection, these videos inform people about what’s happening in other departments. Again, this level of knowledge helps them connect to the organization on a deeper level by serving up a subtle reminder that everyone is working toward the same goal: the success of your company.
Tips for making recurring update videos
Aim for polished
Recurring update videos are usually more formal than weekly happenings videos. Give them a professional vibe. That doesn’t mean they have to be stuffy and boring (they definitely shouldn’t be). But they should have an extra air of importance when compared to your weekly happenings videos.
Use numbers
If possible, use numbers in your recurring updates videos — especially if you’re reporting on results achieved. Numbers let people know exactly how well they’ve performed. They also make recurring updates feel more personal, like you’re sharing a bit of inside information.
Two minutes max
Recurring update videos can be longer than weekly happenings videos. But don’t get crazy. Try to keep these videos to a maximum of two minutes. Keep employees informed without boring them.
3. New hire intros
You just hired a new employee. Time to introduce them to the rest of the company.
New hire shout-out videos have two benefits. One, they make new employees feel welcome and connected to your company from the very beginning. Two, they help other employees learn about and connect to their new colleagues.
This is especially important for hybrid and remote employees who might not ever meet face-to-face.
Tips for making new hire intro videos
Give new employees the floor
The best new hire shout-out videos include footage of, you guessed it, new employees. It’s easier for people to connect with someone when they can see them. Use the Record feature in Biteable Teams to easily request video footage from new employees.
Allow new employees to show off their personalities
Make your new hire shout-out videos interesting by allowing your subjects to show off a bit. What makes them, them? Ask people to share a bit about themselves — their favorite food, the number one item on their bucket list, etc.
4. Employee recognition
In most circumstances, you’ll create an employee recognition video and send it directly to the employee it recognizes. It’s a way to let them know you appreciate their efforts.
But sometimes, the achievement is big enough to warrant a company-wide announcement: your marketing team creates a viral campaign; a sales rep lands a massive account; your customer service department wins an industry award.
If you work for a small company, you might consider creating birthday and work anniversary messages to broadcast to your entire team, too.
Employee recognition videos are great connection builders. They let the employee being recognized know their work is valued, and they let the rest of your company know the kind of accomplishments leadership deems valuable.
Tips for making employee recognition videos
Use them sparingly
We don’t suggest sending company-wide employee recognition videos on a regular basis. Save these for major wins.
Recognize teams and individuals alike
There aren’t any hard and fast rules here. You can make a company-wide video to recognize your entire marketing team for creating a viral campaign, or you can recognize the specific individual who spearheaded the campaign. It’s up to you.
Just make sure you spread the love and don’t always recognize the same individual or team.
5. Recruiting
In most circumstances, you’ll create an employee recognition video and send it directly to the employee it recognizes. It’s a way to let them know you appreciate their efforts.
But sometimes, the achievement is big enough to warrant a company-wide announcement: your marketing team creates a viral campaign; a sales rep lands a massive account; your customer service department wins an industry award.
If you work for a small company, you might consider creating birthday and work anniversary messages to broadcast to your entire team, too.
Employee recognition videos are great connection builders. They let the employee being recognized know their work is valued, and they let the rest of your company know the kind of accomplishments leadership deems valuable.
Tips for making a recruiting video
Use first-person footage
Personalize your recruiting video by including footage of your company’s CEO, department head, or hiring manager talking about the position.
Talk up your company
Why should potential candidates want to work here? In addition to being a good external resource, this information also helps current employees explain to their contacts why you’re a great employer.
Share your vision
People don’t connect to free lunches and extra vacation time (though these perks are definitely awesome). They connect to a company’s vision and the people working to make it a reality. Don’t forget to include these details.
6. Customer testimonials
Finally, we have customer testimonials, a sometimes forgotten category of company-wide announcement.
Unless they’re in customer service or sales, employees don’t always hear the wonderful things people say about your company. But this is an important part of understanding the impact their work makes.
If you receive an especially meaningful customer testimonial, consider sending it out as a company-wide video. Or, gather a few samples of customer feedback from the past quarter and send them out together.
Tips for making a customer testimonial video
Don’t sweat about footage
If you can snag footage of customers giving positive feedback, by all means use it. But don’t worry if this isn’t feasible. Written quotes work just fine also. Take advantage of the animations available in Biteable Teams to bring these quotes to life.
Make this a regular occurrence
Calendar out these customer testimonial videos so you remember to make them on a regular basis. Quarterly is a good frequency. It’s an important way to help employees stay in touch with the “why” behind their work.
