Distributed workplaces are becoming more… well, distributed. We’re including workers from locations all over the world in our work groups, enabling them to collaborate and communicate with each other in real time through better employee communication videos and HR videos technology.
With teams distributed across different continents, employee engagement, even with the use of HR videos becomes more difficult. In addition to trying to reach employees across multiple time zones and (possibly) the international date line, you’re also reaching across cultural lines and, in many cases, need to communicate in multiple languages. An agile employee video communications strategy can help you create the structure and processes necessary for producing company videos in multiple languages to reach everyone on your team, no matter where they are.
How to Make Employee Communication Videos Work
Real-time video communications are the key when building teams across continents and languages. Half of communication is body language, tone of voice and the multitude of other visual indicators that improve messaging and comprehension. The further your workers are spread around the world, the more you should utilize employee videos to engage and communicate with them.
You can’t simply buy a few video cameras and hastily write a script or two. Employees won’t engage with sloppy videos they can’t access and watch whenever they need to. Employees will avoid the extra work of communicating with each other across time zones altogether if your video communications software doesn’t make it easy.
Two of the factors that make communication across distributed teams easier, according to Forbes Business Council’s Nicole Sahin, are over-communicating, and always using video. One of the team activities described in Sahin’s article is an internal “get to know your co-worker” video series, which helps all employees learn more about each other and fill in the gaps left by email and written communications. Over-communicating, or repeating certain messages, is for the benefit of not only foreign workers but everyone collaborating through a screen. It can be difficult, at times, to remember every aspect of projects or instructions if the person issuing those orders isn’t in the room with you.
Employee communication videos help get messages across quickly and efficiently with as little ambiguity as possible. They also make over-communication easier, and, with cloud-based software, you can store and save videos for review at your employees’ convenience.
Which Video Works for You?
There are several types of employee communication videos out there. Generally, unless your workforce responds especially well to one type or another, you’ll should try a mix of animated videos, live-action instructional and orientation videos, and the ability to use video messaging both internally and externally. Getting all these options in place and coordinated can be tricky, but when you develop an integrated and comprehensive video communications program, it can revolutionize communications in a distributed workplace.