12 ways to supercharge your internal communication; the HMX guide to using video to give your people the edge PAGE 1/7
WHY USE VIDEO OVER OTHER MEDIA? A research study by North Carolina State University into effective teaching methods found that respondents retain 10% of what they read, 26% of what they hear, 30% of what they see and 50% of what they see and hear. The London Business School puts it a different way - they ve found we retain 5-10% of information delivered using statistics, but a massive 65-70% through engaging stories. If you want to motivate employees to align with business strategy, if you have an important strategic message to share, or if you want to reassure colleagues and make them feel valued, then using video for that communication is second only to face-to-face delivery. Video - the ideal medium Engage the senses - video taps into more senses than other forms of communication, reinforcing the message and increasing retention Simplicity - video can simplify complicated ideas using storytelling, images and words Endless possibilities - take your audience on a journey and capture their imagination Consistency - video ensures your message remains consistent, no matter how many times it is delivered Efficiency - a video can convey in minutes what might take half an hour in print Perceived value - an audience will recognise and appreciate the importance of a message delivered by video Realised value - a video is cheaper than a live event or meeting, both in terms of time and money, and can reach a much wider audience ROI - footage or interviews captured for one programme can be re-edited and re-used time and again, and a single programme can be designed to remain fresh for some years Flexible delivery - a video can be delivered on DVD, form part of a webcast, be streamed on a website, sent in an email or screened at a live event Global - a video can be translated, subtitled, dubbed, or indeed created without using language, relying on images and sound to tell the story We ve put together some ideas you might be able to use in your business... PAGE 2/7
1 2 3 Get your CEO talking to the team Create awareness about changes within the company The costs associated with face to face meetings means fewer internal conferences and fewer opportunities for those at the leading edge of your business to hear the top level strategic messages from senior management. Many of our clients are finding that a short regular video message from the Managing Partner or CEO to the wider team is proving to be a great way of keeping people in the loop and making them feel valued. In a time of fast moving change it is vital to keep your people abreast of changes within the organization. Email and the intranet need to play their role too, but sometimes introducing new people or explaining why a change was necessary can best be achieved face to face and a short video clip on the intranet is a great way to achieve maximum impact and encourage a wide viewing. Help foster understanding between different parts of your business For example, by giving divisions a platform to promote themselves to the wider business, showing clear examples of situations where divisions working together has proved beneficial to clients. Why not interview clients to illustrate their perspective on how they see your business? These can all give a huge boost to understanding and bring the wider picture to life for your people.
4 5 6 Generate ideas & stimulate creativity CSR and environmental issues Your own internal TV channel Why not hand out small camcorders, or ask people to use their smart phones, and get employees to make a 30 second advert promoting one of your products or services. Screen the entries on your intranet and let your audience vote for the best. Or why not set up a Dragons Den type campaign as we did for Ernst & Young? Senior Partners as Dragons chose to invest the firms money and their time in the best ideas put forward by staff - thrilling to be involved in and hugely engaging for your viewing audience. Sometimes good CSR activity has a tendency to go unnoticed. Some of these initiatives might be organised and funded by the organisation, but a lot more is likely to be done by individuals for their own reasons. Creating a regular video report for the intranet or even setting up your own YouTube channel to encourage staff to promote these activities will make a big difference to the individuals and will make everyone much more aware of what is being done by their colleagues. HMX has developed a system which can give you your own internal TV channel. Hosted on the web, our system enables your audience to search for and then watch hundreds of video clips - making them instantly accessible through a powerful search and display interface. Because it is hosted offsite, is available to your people in the office, at home or abroad, which makes it great for training, for internal communication or just for catching up on those event presentations they missed last month.
7 8 9 Staff feedback Inspiring through storytelling Annual Reporting During a particularly sensitive change programme for one of our clients, we were asked to capture staff feedback using video diary rooms. We provided a cameraman for a day in various regional offices and the event was promoted via email. We had a constant stream of visitors, passionate about the company and forthright enough to share their views on how to make the business more effective. Result: Real insight into how people felt - and staff could see themselves having a real voice. And the client got some great ideas! Identifying some of the outstanding stories in your business and recording them on video for wider distribution can be a great source of inspiration for your people. Whether it s sales stories, personal success or diversity stories, secondment or placement experiences, all will be avidly watched by people across the business. It will also build into a library of great material which can be used for induction, motivation and training purposes. Internal staff are often left behind at Annual Report time. Why not ask the CEO or Chairman to deliver a short video presentation covering the highlights, maybe cut together with some video from around the business, to give people the heads up, in a personal way. Snappy graphics will cover off the key financials and you could ask other staff or Directors to get involved in helping to tell the story. Or why not let your latest graduate intake handle it and let them have a say in the way they present it.
10 11 12 Awards and recognition Motivation Film Festival One of the most powerful incentives to delivering great results is the recognition it brings. Why else would so many organisations spend so much time and effort in developing and promoting powerful incentive and reward schemes? Using video to heighten awareness of your strongest performers works for them, but crucially works for the audience too. Why not build a library of lessons from the top, collating a great resource and making the top performers feel valued at the same time. How about interviewing your top sales performers and finding out what makes them tick? Think through the areas you want to cover and draft up some killer questions to draw out the answers you need remember we re here to help. You will soon have a top ten of sales techniques and tips which other sales staff can use immediately and which can be saved and re-used for future training programmes. To create a sense of brand identity internally, why not stage an online Film Festival giving your people an opportunity to describe the business, and what it means to them, in their own words. All the equipment is easily and cheaply available. We can help put a process in place, host the programmes online and enable voting for the winners. It s a great way to create a great sense of engagement with your brand, for not much cash!
HMX can handle all aspects of video production, from helping you refine and develop the messages through to providing crews and managing all the complicated stuff. And it can cost less than you might think. Clearly, each video is a unique production, so for a no-obligation completely free initial consultancy session, call Tim Horrox at HMX on 01296 642070 to discuss your requirements. Let HMX help you create your own video programme. And if you want to know more about how you could use video in your business, ask us about the other HMX Guides... CONTACT HMX corporate communication ltd THE STABLE BLOCK The firs HIGH STREET whitchurch Aylesbury HP22 4SJ TEL +44 (0)1296 642070 EMAIL timhorrox@hmx.cc