Today’s business world is a global world—interconnected and often reliant on customers, staff, vendors and others who could be located locally or in a wide range of international sites. This obviously represents great opportunities, but also great risks. These risks have been sharply brought into focus during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As companies strive to maintain business practices, often in very different ways, one of the tools that holds great promise from a communication standpoint, regardless of audience, is video.

Companies have employees working around the world and, in truth, nationally. The virus situation in all of these locations varies, as do national, regional and local approaches to operating business as usual, with modifications—or not at all.

During a global crisis, video can be used to align employee engagement and align employee goals with corporate objectives. A side benefit? Video can also provide a personal touch and connection for many employees who find themselves now working remotely and missing interactions with others.  

Here, we’ll spotlight some companies that have successfully used video to connect, engage and align employees around their company initiatives and values. During these times especially, says EY: “It is important for companies to be able to monitor the situation, provide a safe workplace and offer their employees the support that they need.” That’s what these companies are doing. The channel they selected: video.

Bertelsmann

Bertelsmann’s “Bertelsmann Health” series, offered through the company’s internal BENET platform that has been in place for 20 years, offers practical advice for employees to help them deal with the stress, anxiety and uncertainty related to COVID-19. Their latest installment—“Childcare While Working from Home”—is one example of how they’re meeting the unique needs of employees during the pandemic.

Best practice: Understand the needs, concerns and interests of your employee audience and create content to address them.

Arnold & Porter

In October, Arnold & Porter’s Seoul office moved to a new location. The international law firm is one of the largest in the world with more than 1000 attorneys located around the world.  To keep everyone in the loop and engaged in the excitement of the new location’s opening, the firm produced a video that provides a video tour of the new facility and its environment—Seoul’s central business district. This is especially important during these times of travel restrictions.

Best practice: Video provides an excellent forum for “show and tell” to keep employees working across a number of different locations and locales in the loop. 

AT&T

AT&T has been named a Fortune 100 Best Company to Work For. That’s an important achievement, one not realized by many other companies. To spread the word among employees, while emphasizing the characteristics that led to the achievement, AT&T turned to video. The video shares news of the award while also reinforcing the company’s commitment to the employee development, community support, diversity and inclusion and continuous improvement. It was also an opportunity to thank employees for their hard work and commitment.

Best practice: Video can provide an impactful way to reinforce corporate culture and engage employees.

BGRS

BGRS is another mission-driven company. The company is focused on talent mobility. It offers quarterly Values Awards to employees who have been recognized by their peers as having gone above and beyond the company’s values to deliver high quality service. The video recognizes those who received the award, providing employees across the company with role models and providing those role models with recognition for their efforts. 

As Forbes reports: “A Gallup study found strengths-based employee feedback resulted in a 12.5 percent increase in productivity.” That’s a great way to align employee goals with corporate objectives.

Best practice: Putting names with faces, especially in very large organizations, can help employees better connect with their colleagues; video offers the perfect channel for doing this. 

The bottom line

Employee engagement videos help align employee engagement and align employee goals with corporate objectives. Video is also an economical and impactful way to connect employees to mission, vision, values and goals. Get in touch: we’ll show you how easy it can be to leverage video for better employee alignment.