6 Tips for Using Video to Improve Corporate Culture

We’ve often written about the power video carries to communicate effectively.  So it makes good sense to incorporate it into corporate culture initiatives. Forward thinking companies understand video can be a powerful tool to create the kind of setting that retains employees as well as attracts the highest quality ones.

After all, communication is the key to disseminating a company’s core values. And corporate culture does count. As Forbes says, it can be the thin slice that separates a successful company from its competitors.

Done well, a video-based program can help to secure employee buy in and create a more competitive organization while simultaneously reducing employee churn. It can also play a key role in communicating that culture to those outside the organization: potential employees, investors, the surrounding community, among others.

Using video to communicate culture internally
We were thinking about this recently during a session we heard at an industry association event. There, a large, international company talked about how it’s using video to help create a better corporate culture. This company is just one of the many on the cusp of reorienting their internal communications to include more video. Their size often slows down communication, so speeding up cultural change is difficult.

There’s a great article in an International Association of Business Communicators’ online publication that reinforces what we heard at the association event. The article outlines the key benefits video brings to the employee/organization conversation.

In an economy where top companies are in pitched battles to recruit the best and brightest, it simply doesn’t make sense to lose great employees because of a less than transparent, low frequency communications approach.

Tips:

1. When developing a video-based corporate culture program, first talk to a representative of your employee population. These conversations will give you a good idea of what’s good about your culture, content you can spotlight in your videos.
2. Use employees to tell these stories.
3. These conversations can also point to cultural issues that need improvement. Here, videos can be helpful in visually demonstrating the steps you’re taking to better deal with these challenges.

Using video to communicate externally
Speaking of pitched battles, the competition for the best and brightest is becoming fiercer by the nanosecond. According to the experts at recruiting.com, video can be just as powerful a tool for attracting talent as it is for keeping it. So don’t restrict your video use to internal use only.

According to smartrecruiters.com, using video to tell your organization’s story is a good way to ensure a match between company and hire. Here, they give some some great examples of companies using video effectively to emphasize the cultural benefits of their organizations in order to reach prospective employees.

Tips:

1. Add video into your job postings - transparency into what it's really like to work at your company will attract top talent. Don't just interview management, interview employees at every level of your organization.
2. Embed video to your website on the “About Us” page - this is where you can reinforce your employer brand
3. Include video links on your social media profiles. Many companies focus their use of social media on marketing and customer support but it can be another great way to communicate your brand as an employer.

It’s amazing how many ways video is challenging and changing how we do business: from sales and marketing to corporate culture. More evidence that video is a must-have for any business that means business.