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If your staff performance isn’t living up to your business’ expectations, you should take a closer look at your internal communication strategy.

For any organization to thrive, its members need to move in tandem towards the same goals. But that’s only possible if every employee is properly informed of their tasks and has a clear idea of the company’s mission and vision.

A traditional internal communication strategy may be steering your business away from the desired path, and it may be time to revamp it through more effective communication tools, like internal videos.

Videos are the ideal vehicle to convey relevant information company-wide, ensuring every message to your staff is delivered and understood ―even enjoyed! The right video can also serve multiple purposes, depending on the type of information you need to cover.

If you are looking to level up your internal communication strategy with video content, you’ll definitely find this guide useful: we are about to teach you everything about internal videos, ranging from the most popular types to a detailed case study. Read on!

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1. First things first: What are Internal Videos?

You probably have already heard about the many wonders of using video content for your marketing efforts. What you may not know yet is that video is also a powerful tool when it comes to internal communication strategies as well.

Generally known as internal videos, these pieces allow you to deliver messages to your staff ―just like emails, meetings, or your work chat app would do. The key difference is that video has a stronger, longer-lasting effect on the audience than other means of communication, which impacts how effective and well-received your message can be.

As you may already know, internal communications are all about effectively transmitting messages to the staff for them to perform as the company expects. So, it’s an invaluable asset to leverage a tool that can not only tell information but can also make the workforce genuinely understand and even feel the message.

Moreover, video metrics enable you to check things like who has watched your video and how they have interacted with it. That allows you to ensure everyone is on the same page and helps you find potential topics or areas that might need further development.

With all this in mind, imagine the effect such a tool can have on any internal communication strategy. For that reason, it’s more common every day to see companies using video as a communication tool for:

Conveying their mission, vision, and values.
Producing training videos for employees.
Explaining safety protocols and instructions on equipment handling and operation.
Making mass announcements and communicating updates.

And the list goes on and on, as you will learn shortly, as we go into more detail about it. But first, let’s go over some of the key advantages that internal communications videos can bring to the table.

2. Why Does Your Brand Need Them?

Video content brings about some remarkable benefits to your internal communication strategy. Let’s explore some aspects that make them particularly valuable and put them a step ahead of other avenues of internal communication.

They Are Easier to Grasp

Videos often use visual, verbal, and audio resources to explain a topic, breaking down even complex subjects into simple yet descriptive explanations. This is especially true for animated pieces since they can make use of almost unlimited visual elements.

They Allow for Effective, Company-wide Communication.

If the intended audience is too big, carrying out a meeting may not be practical or even possible. But video allows you to send a powerful message company-wide, even to remote workers located in another time zone and to those employees with a different working schedule.

They can click on your video whenever they are available and consume a short piece that effectively conveys your message without taking up too much of their time.

They Make an Impact on Your Staff

Unlike traditional means of internal communications, video involves a multisensory experience ―sight and hearing. As a result, a video’s message tends to be more powerful and memorable, making internal comms videos ideal for striking a chord with your staff.

They Transmit Emotional Context

There are no actual stats, but plenty of workplace-related misunderstandings are caused by mistaking the emotional tone or implied meaning of a written message. That’s hardly ever the case with video content.

Internal communications videos enable the transmission of emotion through sound, images, colors, voice acting, and so on. Taking that into account, the chances of misinterpretation are reduced dramatically, making for a more accurate delivery.

They Allow a Cohesive Brand Voice

If you thought your email’s logo GIF was the ultimate piece of branding, wait to see what video can do for your internal communication strategy! Video content, especially when animated, allows thousands of branding possibilities. Your brand’s color palette, logo, typography, and the like can be introduced in each of your internal communications videos, conveying a cohesive message about your brand to your staff.

3. Types of Internal Videos: When should you use them?

Your company needs to convey different types of messages to its staff. For each of them, there’s an ideal kind of internal video. Take a look and learn which video type can level up your internal communication strategy.

3.1. Recruitment Videos

These videos are meant to attract like-minded people to work in a company. They aren’t strictly internal communications videos as they are intended to be distributed through external channels. That being said, they have gained a spot on this list since they are directed to potential staff.

The beauty of these videos is that they convey the workplace’s culture and values. That way, applicants know what to expect from the company beforehand, and can check if it suits them. Once they are finally hired, it’s easier for them to adapt to the job since ―thanks to the recruitment video ―they are already familiar with some crucial aspects of the company.

3.2. Onboarding Videos

To start on the right foot, you should welcome new staff members with an onboarding video.

These internal videos go through the basics of the position and the business, conveying the company’s values and the workplace spirit. Sometimes they even feature a tour of the worksite’s premises.

With the help of onboarding videos, newly arrived employees can quickly be on the same page as old-timers, making them a great addition to your internal communication strategy!

3.3. Corporate Training Videos

Jokes aside, using video as an educational tool works great for training purposes 😀 since it tends to be more didactic and understandable than other types of content.

Gone are the days when your staff had to read a long handbook or attend time-consuming training lessons every time they needed to learn something new. Now they can just watch short and compelling corporate training videos, which they can access again whenever they need to refresh their memories on a subject.

Creating training videos for employees is among internal communications best practices, as they allow businesses to reduce training time and costs, and you can always use the help of a knowledgeable video production company to make yours.

“Of special note: During these times that the whole world is facing a global pandemic, many companies have been forced to apply changes to the way they work: new safety and hygiene measures, changes in protocols and procedures, etc. Since face-to-face lessons are unavailable, producing training videos for employees is arguably the best option to teach new work methodologies to your staff.”

3.4 Announcement Videos

In most cases, internal communications videos are the best option for making important announcements to your whole workforce and informing them about big updates, changes, and so on.

As we stated before, videos can convey the emotional tone of a message. This makes your internal communication strategy more human, which is particularly important for certain kinds of announcements.

3.5 Company Culture Videos

It’s not enough to inform your workforce of the company’s mission and vision. It’s also crucial to encourage them to make them their own!

That’s what internal communications videos do best. Through different visual and sound resources, the right video can present your firm’s values, mission, and vision while motivating your workforce. It can make your goals resonate with your staff and ultimately inspire them to commit to them.

3.6. FAQ Videos

You know how this is: newly arrived employees tend to shower their more experienced coworkers with questions, making them waste work time ―and run out of patience. That’s why offering FAQ videos is among internal communications best practices.

These internal communications videos clarify common doubts, presenting the information in a Question-Answer format. They can revolve around a wide range of topics, from information for newcomers to how to act in certain situations, such as a medical emergency.

Like training videos for employees, FAQs should be left at hand for the staff to watch whenever they need them.

4. [Case Study] Brown and Forman’s Internal Video

Brown and Forman approached our explainer video company, Yum Yum Videos, to create a piece for their internal communication strategy that promoted their core values among their employees. The idea was to encourage every staff member of Brown and Forman to help build a healthier working environment, one where everyone felt confident to speak up.

Our mission was to create a compelling video that connected with every employee and showed the specific tools available to contribute to a working environment aligned with the company’s values. It was a challenging endeavor, but we were excited to work on it.

4.1. The Story

Our goal was to create an inspirational and approachable video that resonated with all the different Brown and Forman staff members across the globe. So we thought it would be interesting to tell the story from a character’s perspective ―Anne.

We decided to follow this character across her day at work. By doing so, we could showcase different interactions with her peers and various situations that could arise in an organization.

4.2. The Style

As we were going to mention some serious matters in the story, it was vital to produce an internal communications video with a style and tone that conveyed a certain amount of formality and professionalism. At the same time, the video needed to tell a story with an approachable, humane tone.

To show the scale of the company and its different departments, we needed to create a wide range of workspaces and represent a variety of employees. So we designed detailed and realistic environments that could clearly illustrate the firm’s facilities.

We used lights and shadows to add depth to these compositions, and tried to bring variety to each scene by establishing different camera shots. This helped us create a compelling internal communications video.

4.3. The Color Scheme

Brown and Forman shared with us their Branding guidelines. The Brand had sepia and grey tones as their primary color scheme.

After talking with their representatives, we decided to use these colors as a starting point. We expanded the palette, adding more warm and cool tones to the video’s definitive color scheme. This enabled us to create a vast color palette while maintaining the harmonious sepia tones characteristic to the company.

Including cool tones also allowed us to add visual variety and create a contrast between the different compositions.

4.4. Light & Color

The staff needed to understand the concept of seeing or hearing a potential core value violation in a working environment. To make this clear, it was essential to express the different emotions Anne feels throughout the story when she witnesses an ethical violation.

Her expression says it all: something is bothering her…

We also created various compositions in which the color and light helped us tell her story. We used a contrast of light and shadows throughout the whole video to add a sense of depth.

In these scenes, for example, the muted colors and the dim lighting highlight her discomfort and help the viewers understand how she feels.

4.5. The Characters

For this particular internal comms video, it was imperative to create characters that could express emotions effectively, as well as to showcase plenty of interactions between them. So we decided to create a stylized but semi-realistic design with detailed facial features for the characters.

Having the overall style, we came up with several designs for the protagonist. This character exploration, for example, helped the client to decide which model suited their company and their staff best.

4.6. The Animation

Animations and transitions also needed to be well-paced, with the right time for the staff to absorb the information.

As said earlier, it was essential to create a character animation that conveyed many of the emotions that an employee could have in a situation similar to the one depicted in the video. It was especially important to transmit one particular feeling Brown and Forman calls “the knot.” We needed to show this mixture of uncertainty and anxiety for not speaking up against an ethics violation. How well our main character expressed this feeling was critical for the video to work ―and we reckon we did a pretty great job of it.

4.7. The Result

Having a character-driven story allowed us to fully describe the dynamics of the Brown and Forman working space, and many of the situations employees may deal with.

With a clear message, this internal comms video helps the company inform and highlight its values. Bringing a sense of encouragement to their employees while inspiring them to collaborate to build a healthy workplace environment.

5. How to Measure Your Internal Communications Videos’ Impact

We can’t talk about internal communications best practices without mentioning video metrics. By using video hosting sites to distribute the content within your company, you can obtain critical analytical data about your staff’s interaction with your videos.

But before we get to that, let’s first consider some key aspects you should bear in mind.

5.1. Choosing the Right Video Hosting Site

Some video hosting sites can have little or no charge, like YouTube or Vimeo. These popular platforms allow you to set your internal communications videos to private, so only your staff can watch them.

Still, they aren’t the best option out there in terms of private sharing. They require that the uploader enables access to the employee who is trying to watch the video, which can be cumbersome for both parties ―doubly so if we are talking about a large company. More importantly, the uploader can slip up and end up enabling access to unknown viewers.

One of internal communications’ best practices is to go for private video hosting sites, such as Wistia, Vidyard, and Brightcove. These platforms are significantly more costly, but their features usually pay off.

These hosting sites allow you to share your content as much as you decide. You can leave your video on your company’s account just for your staff to see, but if you ever wish to show it outside your internal communication strategy, you can then embed it on your blog or website as well.

Hosting sites ―whether private or free ―offer multiple other features, but the ones we are interested in today, are their metric tool.

5.2. Analyzing your Video’s Data

Don’t you ever wish you were able to get inside your staff’s heads and know if they were actually listening to what you were saying?

Well, when you use internal communications videos… you can’t do that either. But, through video metrics, you do get plenty of information regarding how your employees have interacted with your message, which is the next best thing. For example, you can learn:

How many employees have watched a specific video?
How much of the video they have watched?
How many times they’ve watched it?
Which devices they have used to watch your video?

How is this data useful for your internal communication strategy? For starters, it helps you realize if there’s a video or a specific bit from a video that’s being played repeatedly by various staff members. This may be a sign that a topic in question is particularly hard to understand, and you may need to reinforce it.

It also sheds light on the types of videos your workforce tends to engage with the most ―e.g., animated or live-action. This allows you to make informed decisions about your future internal video content, customizing it according to your audience’s preferences.

That said, hard data is not all it takes to know what aspects of your internal communication strategy needs reinforcing ―qualitative information is instrumental as well. So, don’t miss the chance of asking your staff for feedback. This is another way of learning if a video was understood and enjoyed by employees.

6. Examples of Internal Communications Videos

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel to create an internal comms video that hits the spot! We are about to give you some tried-and-true tips on the subject, inspired by some companies who’ve nailed it.

6.1. Be true to your style: This is Zendesk

Most recruitment videos out there feature a talking head explaining the benefits of working in a particular company. But that wouldn’t have fit a creative and modern firm like Zendesk! So for their internal communication strategy, they took a different approach that suited their style better.

The result was a video that oozes the company’s essence and gives a crystal-clear idea of how the worksite environment and culture are. In fact, the workplace is described in such a comprehensive way I dare to say the video can double as an onboarding video for new members as well!

6.2. Motivate your staff from the get-go: Welcome to Waste Management Services, Edmonton

As the popular saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

That’s especially true when it comes to welcoming new employees to your business. You want to make a great first impression and prompt them to engage with their jobs from day one. And few things motivate workers more effectively than knowing they are making a difference through their work.

That’s why the onboarding video from the Waste Management Department of the Canadian city of Edmonton manages to hit it out of the park. It portrays different employees referring to their tasks not so much as a job but as a significant contribution to the environment.

It’s also worth noting that the video features employees with distinct posts, which transmits the idea that the whole workforce, no matter their position, is one big team, working together towards the same environmental goals.

6.3. Be clear and precise: Dealing with Difficult Clients

Customer service may be no rocket science, but it’s certainly no easy task either, especially when dealing with demanding clients. And yet, keeping customers happy is vital for any company out there, so it’s imperative that the staff learn to handle angry clients ―without losing their own heads while they are at it!

Since this type of lesson is so important, you can leave no room for misunderstandings. One of internal communications’ best practices is to go for precise, on-point training videos for employees, like the short animation above! It doesn’t waste a single second beating around the bush. It goes straight to the point, leveraging a clear script and a simple aesthetic.

This piece is actually part of a series of training videos for employees, but it works totally fine as an individual piece as well, as any good video should!

6.4. Demonstrate leadership: Pittsburgh’s International Airport Update

When a firm is going through times of uncertainty and distress, its staff is likely to have knots in their stomachs. Then more than ever, the company’s leader has the mission of providing them with calm and relief. That’s what the CEO of Pittsburgh’s International Airport did amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, to mitigate internal and external audiences’ concerns.

Although it was scripted, Mrs. Cassotis’ message sounds natural, and she is clearly at ease in front of the camera. Even though she refers to a severe situation, the calm and professionalism in her voice are simply remarkable ―just what the staff needed!

6.5. Effective branding: H&M’s Values

Many companies wrongly believe that, because internal communications videos will only target their own staff, there’s no need to put as much effort into them as into a video directed to customers. With that mindset, they neglect to brand their internal content accordingly. But that’s not the case here.

H&M created an internal video to get its values across while sustaining its brand’s presence throughout the whole piece. They’ve successfully managed to include their distinctive brand aesthetic into the video: their color scheme, typography, logo, and the like.

The fast-fashion company teaches us how important it is to maintain a consistent and recognizable style through every channel a company handles, whether internal or external.

7. The Takeaway

Video content is often featured as one of the key internal communications best practices since it can serve plenty of purposes and target any type of employee, from newcomers to old-timers. In fact, internal communications videos can guide an employee through almost every stage of their work journey inside your firm:

A recruitment video may be what attracts someone to work in your company. Once they are hired, an onboarding video can help them adapt faster to their new workplace.

Later on, they can clear up their doubts with FAQs and learn everything they need to know through training videos for employees, saving your business time and money.

In times of crisis or changes, employees can be effectively informed if you leverage video as a communication tool for announcements.

And last but certainly not least, an internal comms video can inspire your whole staff to work under the same values and toward the same objectives: your company’s mission and vision.

Top 6 Internal Communications Videos for Your Business