How To Transform Your Internal Communication Strategy with Video

With workforce demographics changing, the old ways of internal communication are no longer sufficient. Recent data shows how urgently companies need to adapt: employee engagement is faltering, workplace communication feels fragmented, and maintaining a successful internal communications strategy with distributed teams presents unprecedented challenges.

Consider the sobering statistic from Gallup, stating that employee engagement in the U.S. hit a decade low in 2024, with only 31% of employees feeling engaged. It isn’t just a luxury issue, either. McKinsey research highlights that when HR processes genuinely align with strategic talent-to-value initiatives, employee engagement can soar by 50%, training costs can plummet by 50%, and productivity can jump by 40%. Yet, the same study found that only a quarter of respondents felt their organization’s leaders were engaged and passionate.

This gap underscores a critical need for dynamic, human, and effective communication methods. Amidst these challenges, video emerges as a uniquely effective internal communication tool. It offers a way to cut through the noise, foster genuine connection, clarify complexity, and align teams around project management objectives. If your internal communication strategy feels stuck in the past, now is the time to develop your video communication strategy.

• Low engagement metrics: Consistently poor results on employee surveys, low participation in employee communication, and company events are red flags.
• Information silos: Departments operate in isolation due to a lack of organizational strategy. This isn’t just an enterprise concern; even governmental bodies recognize that breaking down information silos is crucial for internal communication strategies.
• Leadership disconnects: If leaders aren’t visible or their communication efforts aren’t resonating, trust erodes.
• Rampant rumor mill: When internal communication tools are slow, unclear, or untrusted, informal grapevines take over, often spreading misinformation and fueling anxiety.
• Corporate communication and vision confusion: Employees lack a clear understanding of the company’s purpose, strategic direction, or how their individual roles contribute to the bigger picture.
• Change resistance: Interestingly, recent data shows managers are 56% more likely to experience extensive disruptive change than individual contributors. This suggests that change management needs to support leaders and employees, as managers themselves are navigating significant turbulence.
• Remote/hybrid workforce feeling isolated: Distributed employees feel disconnected from the company culture and struggle to build strong working relationships. But it’s more complex than deciding whether to offer flexible work options: While 58% of white-collar workers prefer remote work, a significant 25% of remote employees report daily loneliness. This highlights that enabling remote work requires a robust internal comms strategy to foster belonging and alignment.
• Increasing employee turnover: High attrition rates, particularly among valuable employees, often point to underlying issues with communication, culture, and engagement.

If several of these signs resonate, it’s time to move beyond incremental tweaks and consider a fundamental transformation of your internal communication efforts and organizational goals.

Nine Best Practices for Your Internal Communications Plan

Once you have the key elements and a focus on video, implementing best practices will sustain momentum and ensure ongoing effectiveness:

1. Communication governance: Establish clear roles, responsibilities, and approval workflows for creating and distributing communications, especially video. Platforms offering robust video content management often include features for managing these workflows.
2. Channel optimization: Use video for high-impact announcements, emotional storytelling, or complex explanations. Use email for concise updates or documentation links. Use collaboration platforms for project-specific discussions.
3. User-generated content: Empower employees to share their own team updates or knowledge-sharing snippets. This fosters authenticity and engagement, and it can sometimes be repurposed for external marketing.
4. Timing and frequency: Schedule communications strategically to maximize impact and avoid contributing to information overload. Consider time zones for global teams.
5. Visual consistency: Maintain brand standards (logos, colors, fonts) across all internal communications, including video overlays, thumbnails, and virtual backgrounds. Look for video asset management systems that allow easy branding customization and watermarking while helping maintain consistency.
6. Live events and on-demand access: Combine the immediacy and engagement of live video events (town halls, AMAs) with the convenience of on-demand recordings for those who couldn’t attend live or wish to review the content. Vbrick excels in providing seamless live streaming and VOD capabilities.
7. Metrics-driven refinement: Continuously analyze communication performance data (viewership, engagement, feedback) and use these insights to iterate and improve your strategy and content.
8. Inclusive communication: Actively seek out and feature diverse perspectives and experiences in your communications. Ensure language is inclusive and imagery represents your workforce accurately.
9. Recognition integration: Use communication channels, including video shout-outs, to regularly recognize employee achievements, milestones, and contributions, reinforcing desired behaviors and boosting morale.

Transforming internal communications requires the right technological toolkit. While an exhaustive list is long, here are key categories to consider to match the modern workforce’s expectations:

• Enterprise Video Platforms (EVP): A central hub for all internal video content. Solutions like Vbrick provide secure, scalable hosting, robust video content management, detailed analytics, live streaming capabilities, and efficient distribution. 
• Intranet platforms: Central repositories for company news, documents, resources, and directories. While Vbrick doesn’t replace a full document-based intranet, its open API allows seamless integration, embedding videos directly within intranet pages.
• Digital signage: Displays in physical workspaces (lobbies, break rooms, manufacturing floors) for high-visibility announcements and reminders.
• Employee advocacy and internal social platforms: Tools enabling employees to easily share approved company content on their personal social media networks and foster informal knowledge sharing.

The key is not to adopt every tool, but to select an integrated set that best meets your organization’s specific needs, objectives, and employee preferences. While other tools cover various business contexts or project- vs. mission-oriented communications, video is the one medium that permeates them all and reflects today’s employees’ expectations around engagement. So, whatever tools you choose, a powerful EVP like Vbrick should be at the core of your communication strategy initiatives.