When most of us were growing up we received our news and information from a small selection of (somewhat) trustworthy television networks, newspapers, and radio stations. There weren’t a lot of channels, but for the most part the messaging was clear and consistent, and we trusted it.
Fast forward to today, and there is a deluge of sources to collect information from. From Twitter to Facebook, to YouTube, we don’t have to search very far. However, rather than educating us, the abundance of news has had negative consequences. Now, most of us have difficulty knowing what is real and what is fake, leaving of us in the dark.
The same challenge holds true in the workplace. Many of today’s employees are struggling to stay informed, but they don’t always receive clear and direct communication from the executive level. The result? Miscommunication, rumors, and eventual employee turnover.
As the workplace becomes more dispersed, and work schedules more flexible, it is more important than ever that employees receive effective and consistent communication from their executive.
One of the simplest ways to achieve this is through video. With the help of an enterprise video platform, executives can continuously communicate with employees in a visually engaging way. Here are a few ways in which video can help executives achieve consistent communication:
It helps unite remote workers
The number of telecommuting workers has increased 115%, according to a report from Global Workplace Analytics and FlexJobs. The trend in remote workers creates new communication challenges.With no traditional ‘water cooler’ talks with colleagues, remote employees stand to benefit the most from video communication.
It fosters consistency
Communication is an ongoing strategy, not a one time event. If you are relying solely on an annual or even quarterly meetings to communicate with employees, you need to rethink your strategy. Because of the ease with which videos can now be made, executives have no excuses for not communicating consistently. Also, establishing a regular cadence of communication helps increase trust, decrease politics, and sets a clear operational compass for the rest of the organization. And when employees observe their senior executives behaving in a transparent and consistent way, they’re more inspired to adopt those traits themselves.
It encourages participation
Employees now expect direct conversation and communication from their executive. Ideally, this could be done during live executive broadcasts by allowing employees the opportunity to ask questions directly during a video meeting. Another way to encourage discussion is to request that employees make use of the commenting feature, and leave comments on the video.
It’s easily accessible
Even if employees are unable to tune in live to a broadcast, there are still plenty of benefits to recording an executive video message. By uploading the content to a central and accessible video portal, employees can quickly and easily access this content on demand, on their own time. This is especially useful for remote workers or employees in different time zones who may be unable to tune in to live events.
One final word of advice, try to keep your messaging engaging. Like you, employees are busy and don’t have the time or patience to tune into dull or repetitive messaging. The more engaging you can be, the more likely your employees will tune in, and retain your message.
