With the digital landscape changing, communication is no longer restricted to lengthy emails and newsletters to get the job done. Instead, internal communication has evolved- especially with the new generation taking over the world with better ways of handling business endeavors, even when they are working remotely.
While communication is a crucial part of remote work, finding a better way of internal communication at the workplace is essential.
In a recent survey, most US companies are now embracing the change in how they communicate internally, like internal videos.
Keeping Millennials and GenZ in mind, companies now agree that videos play a huge role in effective communication.
With engaging visuals and out-of-the-box ideas, videos open a new gate of possibilities to align the work in the best manner.
But before we move on to a video’s role in internal communication, let’s understand what internal comms videos are.
What are internal communication videos?
Internal videos are short company videos that convey essential information to employees. These videos are a crucial tool to drive engagement within the organization.
From company culture videos to the distribution of responsibilities, internal communication videos aim to inform, educate, and engage the employees and build a strongly connected team.
Why do brands need videos in their internal communication strategy?
For one thing, animated videos are the most common internal communication videos. As people increasingly consume videos in their everyday life, it makes sense to use them to capture attention and engage the viewers.
Here are some more reasons why your brand needs internal communication videos-
1. Easy to understand
Suppose you want to discuss a complex topic with your team. Breaking down its points can get a bit difficult and tedious in text. On the other hand, visuals simplify complex information and make it easy to grasp with creativity.
When it comes to animation, you can use various elements to convey your message so that viewers understand.
2. Stronger connection through emotional context
Agree or not, but the workplace is prone to misunderstandings caused by communication errors. Sometimes, a written message is taken emotionally wrong, which makes things hard for teams while working together.
Videos are a great solution to this universal workplace issue. Internal communication videos are drafted with the proper emotional context via sound, images, characters, and voiceovers.
So, the chances of misinterpreting the information are reduced, and things run smoothly.
3. Video highlights the brand's voice
Let’s say you are creating a video for onboarding a new team for an international assignment. You would want your video to be reflecting your brand personality.
While text and images fail to allow a cohesive brand presentation, videos allow hundreds of ways to showcase the features of your brands.
With animated videos, you can use the color palette, typography, and brand logo as the introduction in the video, conveying the onboarding message to the staff.
This video circulates your workplace and even to your specific client with an optimistic impression.
4. Videos are versatile
Unlike written emails or newsletters, videos can be used to communicate anything and everything. Internal comms videos can include animations, humor, and everything that helps information become engaging and digestible.
For example, internal company videos can cover a wide range of topics, including changes in company policies, training materials, and yearly milestones.
Best internal communication video examples
1. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is well-known for producing multiple short videos for personalized onboarding. This video, utilizing the classic brand colors, explains how the Mailchimp mobile app can help scan business cards and transfer contacts to your Mailchimp account.
The voiceover is clear and soothing, with background music that uplifts and entertains the viewer. The visuals and sounds are engaging and do not overpower the educational content.
The use of UI in real-time is clever, and the video clears all doubts with appealing animations and helpful textual instructions.
2. Canity - let them vent
Happy customers are vital for a business’s growth. But dealing with difficult customers is never an easy task. Recognizing this, Canity has created multiple training videos related to customer service.
These animated videos are short, precise, and on-point. The relatable scenarios help employees understand what to expect in a similar situation. The video efficiently explains how employees should respond to angry customers.
These types of internal communication videos are essential to training employees to stay calm and composed in troublesome situations.
3. LMA Recruitment
This internal communication video uses statistics to grab the viewers’ attention right at the start of the video. This visual and script of the video are very engaging. The brand used a limited but vibrant color palette to attract eyeballs.
This recruitment video compiles factual information, storytelling, and amazing animations. The brand used animations to emphasize the benefits of working with LMA.
4. Dupont Corporate explainer video
This internal comms video by DuPont combines the corporate values, mission statement, and brand story. The video uses simplistic animations, a minimal color palette, and a great script to build a story arc around the business’s objective and services.
DuPont’s corporate explainer video quickly explained its varying range of services within 2 minutes in a digestible format
5. Zendesk
Recruitment videos typically feature a person explaining the benefits of joining the business. But Zendesk gave its own twist to this recruitment video. For their internal comms video idea, Zendesk showed its employees and product in the video.
The aim behind the internal communication video strategy was to convey the actual work essence and culture of Zendesk. The video subtly highlights the benefits of working at Zendesk without actually narrating them.
6. A day at Google
Most internal communication videos are produced to explain the company culture to new employees. This internal comms video by Google offers an inside look at what it’s like to work at Google and can help new employees get acclimated to company culture.
This video helps in both employee onboarding and explaining corporate values and mission. By showing the experiences of existing employees, this video helps in fostering an emotional connection with the viewers.
Types of internal communication videos
1. Company culture videos
Company culture videos focus on in-office experiences. These videos capture the work environment, employees, and the work culture of the company.
Company culture videos can attract new recruits by highlighting how enjoyable the work environment is. In addition, company culture videos motivate employees and allow them to connect to the brand’s core values and principles.
2. Recruitment videos
While hiring new employees, it is essential to display what the brand is actually about.
Recruitment videos can show the personality and work culture of a company to attract prospective employees.
These videos highlight the benefits of working with the company.
A great way to attract prospective employees with recruitment videos is by showing the employees’ experience with the company.
By creating fun and engaging recruitment videos, brands can entice prospective employees to check to join the workforce.
This internal communication video also increases the employee engagement rate and helps foster better relationships between employees and the company.
3. Training & Onboarding videos
Onboarding and training new recruits is a crucial internal communication process for brands. But it can be very time-consuming and complicated, especially when the business has multiple offices across the globe.
Internal communication videos, such as training and onboarding videos, can help cut training time and make the content accessible to every employee at the same time.
In addition, animated training and onboarding videos are more engaging and enjoyable to both new and existing employees. This will boost employee satisfaction and allow for more effective internal communication.
4. Announcement videos
Videos are the best medium for conveying important updates to every employee at the same time. Many people would argue that written announcements are equally efficient. But videos have been proven to be a better medium of internal communication with respect to announcements.
Why? Because videos can convey the announcement more concisely and deliver the required emotional tone.
Announcement videos also make it easier to communicate and explain changes in company policies.
5. Explainer videos
Internal communication videos are inefficient without explainer videos. Every business uses different software for the internal processes of the company. Employees with no prior experience with this software can find it challenging to work with.
Brands need explainer videos to explain the working process to new employees or explain recent changes in the software to existing employees. This helps in avoiding confusion and increases productivity in the workplace.
In addition, explainer videos help in explaining the product/services of the company to prospective and existing employees.
If you plan to create both internal and marketing, consider hiring an explainer video company. Most professional explainer video production companies are experienced in producing internal comms videos.
6. FAQ videos
New employees are bound to have many questions. These questions are often the same for each new recruit, and answering them can quickly become time-consuming and vexing.
Brands can compile common questions employees ask in a video and provide them to each employee during onboarding.
How to create compelling internal communication videos for your business?
Besides being captivating and informative, internal communication videos should have features like being straightforward and motivational. To create videos that truly make an impact, we have listed a few tips that could help you while planning your next internal communication video.
1. What's the objective?
While there are many types of internal communication videos, it helps the production team if you convey a clear objective of the video. Get to the bottom of the video requirements and define the goals before you start. Make sure your production team is aligned with the plans so that they can come up with the best outcome.
2. Write it down
Whether creating an animated internal video or not, you should always have a storyboard. Write down the idea and create a script for how the story should go. It helps if you keep things to the point and brief. Summarize the critical information at the end, which needs to be remembered by the viewers.
3. Add fun and humor to the content
Your videos will only work if they have a dynamic element subtly conveying the information. Try to make your videos humorous and entertaining. Go ahead with real-life examples or funny animated characters, or even workplace jokes to make it more engaging for your team members.
4. Measure its impact
When you start using internal communication videos, you need to analyze if it is serving the purpose or not.
To measure performance, feedback and surveys are excellent options to get better at internal videos. Create a feedback form for the viewers to share their experiences while watching the video.
Ask questions like-
- What’s the best thing you liked in the video?
- Do you agree with the context?
- Did you need to watch the video multiple times to understand its purpose fully?
- What is the core idea of this video?
- Rate this video based on engagement.
You can use the data to create better videos and follow the suggestions of the viewers themselves. But creating professional internal communication videos often requires experts.
You should consult with an experienced internal communication video production company that works for your brand.
Over to you!
Videos have come a long way, with brands using them for marketing and internal communication. More and more companies now realize how effective videos can be for internal communication.
Using the examples mentioned above as your inspiration, you can create videos that could play a significant role in building a solid work culture.
In addition, you get a chance to inform and engage your workplace and reduce the chances of miscommunication.
In times of emergency or changes, employees can be effectively informed if you leverage video as an internal communication tool for notifications.