Moving from Traditional to Digital, Video Makes the Employee Engagement Transition Seamless
Long are the days where employees can communicate using only email, or phone. Between messaging applications like Slack and email chat features, employees no longer need to send long, tedious emails to their team members, and instead can instantaneously communicate with one another, which brings more unity and collaboration as a whole to a company.
Today, most companies are embracing these communications even further and leveraging video to connect employees. We can live stream company meetings, video chat remote employees, or create training videos for new employees that show the ins and the outs of the company. What this means is we not only have the ability to create powerful video content for external communications with customers, prospects, partners, and more, but we can use the same video tools to streamline internal communications and make employee engagement more effective and seamless.
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Here’s why every company should be using more video to boost employee engagement.
Employees are Already Familiar with Video
By 2021, 82% of the internet traffic will be video, which means that if employees are already accustomed to using video on a regular basis, it only makes sense to integrate it into the workplace. By allowing employees to use a form of content that they’re already native to, companies eliminate the learning curve that accompanies most new technologies, and most importantly, keeps their employees engaged to promote a positive work environment.
This is particularly critical in today’s workforce as people have grown to expect communication to be seamless. Therefore, if an organization isn’t measuring up to those expectations, it can lead to a negative work environment overall. Studies even show that businesses that offer compelling workplace experiences generate 22% higher engagement among their workers and those employees are four times more likely to stay at their jobs.
Video is Mobile-Friendly
The reason mobile has become such a staple in many business models today is not just because it’s convenient, but because most adults spend more time on their mobile devices than they do watching TV. In fact, mobile is expected to be a $380 billion industry this year.
Today’s reality is that if it’s digital and not mobile-friendly, it likely won’t be around long – and the same goes for video. According to T-Mobile’s Workplace Mobility Report, 63% of global enterprises see mobility as the most significant factor contributing to competitive advantage, with seven in ten global enterprises citing it as a top priority. More importantly, among the enterprises that implement digitally-enabled workplaces, and allow their employees to use the devices they’re accustomed to, employees report more motivation, higher job satisfaction, and a more positive work/life balance.
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There are several ways that businesses can empower employees to engage in a mobile-friendly way:
- Ensure all videos are on-demand and easily (and securely) accessible from all mobile devices
- Make all videos fully optimized for mobile viewing
- Ensure videos can be searched and discovered quickly for easy viewing
Video is Just…More Engaging
The fact of the matter is, video is more engaging than text, and new employee training is a great example of how traditional models need to be phased out to make room for more modern, digital processes. Training new employees used to mean long hours in a conference room, and reading pages of corporate messaging and policies. Not only are employees’ attention spans lost after a few hours, but the messages don’t resonate, and that equates to valuable time wasted that could have been spent offering value to the business.
When a company uses video to overhaul its training processes, employees can watch videos on their own time and rewatch if they need to refresh on a topic. Companies can also monitor who watched the videos and gather needed metrics for compliance reasons. But the most important factor about using more video, is employees are being put into an environment that aligns with their lifestyle – digitally-driven – and they can feel comfortable using the technologies that they’re learning from.
Studies have shown that employee engagement is highly related to positive business outcomes, so not only is employee retention at stake if companies don’t adapt to a more modern workplace, but the business itself can suffer greatly. Happy and engaged employees result in better communication, more motivation, and most importantly, better efficiency to get work done. Video is no longer a “nice to have” when it comes to employee engagement, but a “need,” so it’s time to ditch the old, traditional communications tactics and leverage more video.
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