Of late, the fastest growing trend when it comes to internal communication within teams and organizations is live streaming. Aside from its constant social media presence, organizations have recently started seeing the benefits internal videos offer, leading to mass adoption in various industries – from healthcare to technology and more.
Anyone who has ever worked within a large organization or with extraordinarily large teams knows how hard it is to connect with each other. An internal video portal offers a simple solution to real-time communication between team members. Here, we discuss the various ways organizations use video management systems to facilitate easier communication.
Why use video portals for employees?
The most notable company that’s hailed the adoption of the platform for industrial use is Oracle. In their report, they claimed to have saved over $10 million just by using team communication videos rather than having to arrange meetings. Ernst & Young (EY) also reported having saved the amount of time it took to train new employees by 52%, simply by using training videos instead of having it done physically.
Similarly, according to a report by Forbes, one of the biggest problems being faced by large corporations today is an engagement crisis among employees. In order to sort this problem, the most widely accepted solution so far has been to create a rapport among users – to improve relations.
Psychologically, the most effective way of achieving this is by having people see each other as often as they can without having their personal space intruded upon. People should associate, but only as much as is healthy. For instance, leaders who have face-to-face meetings with their juniors are more trusted.
Another often overlooked benefit of using an always-on video portal is the fact that it offers a significant increase in efficiency. Since team members are always connected, getting updates is as easy as talking to someone in the same room as you. In case of an emergency or any other situation that warrants an impromptu conversation, communication is all the more simple.
Furthermore, research in the field has shown that internal videos lead to fostering of innovation within the workplace. Aside from the obvious convenience they offer, having a video portal for internal communication has incredible positive workplace repercussions.
How to use a video portal internally
Corporate Communications
The most widespread use of internal videos within organizations is for communication vertically and horizontally (to juniors and among similar ranking officials.) As with most things, the larger a team gets, the harder it is to have messages passed to different arms and keeping it interconnected. Another common problem is the loss of information as the chain of communication increases.
Using team communication videos is the simplest solution to the conundrum created by varying conditions such as this constant growth. Live streaming solves the second mentioned problem: since the information is passed to everyone at the same time, no information is lost along the way. The best example of a company executing this successfully is Deloitte.
The company uses an internally developed video portal that executives and employees use to communicate on a personal level. Among the features, their internal communication tool offers is impromptu communication with employees and management. Reportedly, the portal was a huge success. The company announced that engagement within the company employees shot up by as much as 75, an extremely amazing achievement at that scale.
Training videos
Even the best of experts need a refresher once in a while on the topic they specialize in. The same goes for employees from virtually every field. Regular training is an important part of helping employees get better at their jobs – there’s nothing more important as growing skills in their jobs.
However, there’s an obvious problem when it comes to location – not every organization has enough space to host their employees in one room. Even if they could, however, the attention span of everyone in the room decreases exponentially every row back from the speaker the users are. That’s where training videos come in. In fact, one of the greatest advantages of live streaming videos rather than training employees at a physical location is passing a consistent message across the board.
However, having a range of training videos alone is rarely ever enough. In order to retain employees’ attention, training videos have to be created in such a way that they are entertaining enough to keep their awareness intact.
A simple way to do this is to either use elements that can be interacted with such as polls or quizzes. These two methods are also convenient since they allow management to track whether the polls and quizzes have been clicked on or not. As such, valuable employee data and approximate effectiveness of the test can be collected and measured.
Onboarding
Onboarding is an essential part of welcoming employees and helping them get a feel for how the company operates. However, imagine how cumbersome it is for HR to introduce every new member to the rest of the team and explain every single thing from scratch. Instead, jumping onto the computer and watching the content online or broadcasting the company’s policies, structure and such to everyone all at once is a lot more convenient.
In fact, some companies go as far as letting every fresh hire introduce themselves in real time to the rest of the company. This leads to the immediate creation of rapport, thus creating an emotional connection while decreasing the training costs. Information like company culture and values can also be imparted to new employees in the same way.
Conclusion
When thinking of your brand, remember that what the outside world thinks of your company is just as important as internal opinion. Employees with more morale, who are better connected emotionally and have a relative feeling of trust with both management and their co-workers. This can be fostered through constant communication among team members.
Remember, however, to start small. You can start by replacing email communication and proceed incrementally from there.
