The two biggest challenges facing HR this year are employee engagement (41%) and retention (35%). 

It’s not hard to see why, when some companies value profit over people. Low employee engagement often results from employees not feeling valued, a lack of development opportunities, a lack of trust in leadership, and a toxic company culture. 

However, employee engagement and retention are two sides of the same coin, and are crucial to business success. Highly engaged employees are less likely to leave, and employees who stay are more likely to be highly engaged.  

So how can you boost employee engagement? And how can your organisation use video to do so?

With the increased adoption of social media platforms like Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram, we have become accustomed to consuming content via video. We watch news, what our friends did over the weekend, learn new ways of doing things and connect with others. 

Considering millennials and Gen Zs will make up 50% of the global workforce by 2020, and already account for the highest consumers of video content – spending between 18 - 53 minutes a week watching videos – it makes sense for companies to communicate with them in a way they can relate to. 

Here are our top 5 tips for how companies can use video to boost employee engagement. 

1. Company values

There’s a proven link between employee engagement and effective communication.

When employees are clear on a company’s goals, mission and vision they are more likely to be engaged - this is particularly important when there are internal changes happening. 

It also humanises the business when employees can see their CEO or leadership team delivering information directly to them, as opposed to simply reading the company’s mission statement on a page. 

2. Business announcements

There are many ways a company can deliver business announcements and updates to their staff, including  face-to-face meetings, emails, newsletters, and the company intranet. But as a company scales and it needs to reach more people, or even reach people who work in different office locations, using video is a highly scalable and effective choice.

Delivering company announcements over video makes the announcement memorable and relatable. It also eliminates any ambiguity you might get from simply reading an announcement in an email or newsletter. 

3. Onboarding

Correctly onboarding employees is a crucial element of any business strategy. The onboarding process and first week of a new hire’s employment is so important as it sets the tone for the employee’s interactions with the company. 

Using video to onboard employees not only increases information retention as you are using a highly visual format, but it enables the employee to familiarise themself with the company’s CEO, key leadership staff or team. 

4. Learning and Development

A key insight of Deloitte’s recent Millennial Survey Report revealed that young workers are interested in companies that provided them with more ‘training and education opportunities’ as this increases their loyalty and engagement within that company.

Video is a great tool to deliver training and education. First, it blends audio and visual formats for increased information retention and second, the employee can revisit the video in their own time and on an as needed basis.

Ultimately, using video to conduct learning and development means high quality training can be provided as scale and free up valuable resources by not having to conduct trainings in person several times per year.  

5. Timely business updates and real-time feedback

Companies can use video to quickly share thoughts on topical issues and get real time feedback from employees. 

For example, if a corporation is announcing a significant policy change it’s easy for the tone of written communication to come across as dry or callus.

Using video to communicate its views, is a more effective tool as all employees can connect with the person giving the message and not misconstrue any sensitivities one could do if it were written.

Using video to communicate timely updates allows for real-time data and feedback. Companies can track how well videos are being received, and how engaged they were with the content.

Tim Moylan, CTO and Co-founder of Video tech startup, Shootsta.