It’s important to have a work-life balance, but who said that the (digital) office’s intranet can’t be social, engaging and creative?
‘External’, or public, social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn start to bridge that professional-personal gap. And for the workplace, we have intranets: Once a tool for document and URL storage, they’re being reinvented to be more personalized with features like polls, branding and video posts. Today, the intranet can be used to share messages and as a company-wide collaboration site.
Of course, an intranet is only effective if it’s used by your team. Read on to learn more about how to make the intranet for healthcare, enterprise, manufacturing and logistics more engaging for your workforce to improve communications and make employees feel more connected.
The social intranet videos you need
With the average person in 2021 projected to be watching over 100 minutes of video per day, it’s time to use those video sharing capabilities of your workplace’s intranet.
These intranet video ideas are a great starting point for how to get your employees to use the intranet. By sharing engaging, employee-generated content and more, you can encourage your team to use this collaboration platform every day.
Here are the 5 types and 7 examples of social intranet videos your organization needs. As you’ll see, these intranet engagement ideas span everything from employee training videos to messages from leadership and everything in between.
1. Onboarding & training videos to engage new hires
As a new hire, it’s always a great feeling to be welcomed to the office with open arms.
With the new work world placing us farther apart than usual, video is the next best thing to help connect your workforce no matter where they are. Recorded greetings from c-suite leaders, managers and specialists can really fill the space that feels so much bigger for newcomers.
Everyone is likely already doing this via conference calls and video chats, but why not record those sessions and then log them onto your social intranet? The best solutions allow you to make these posts targeted towards certain employees and teams, too, so clutter is not an issue
Instead of looking at these as a way to replace training via LMS for enterprise, healthcare, manufacturing and logistics and communicating with video calls, think of intranet video posts as a complementary tool to increase the longevity of these messages for onboarding.
You can even create training videos for employees specifically to be shared over the intranet. These bite-size clips can be great resources for new and seasoned employees alike when they need a refresh on processes or procedural changes. Then, you can direct them to the complete, more in-depth training on the company LMS.
When creating videos like this for the intranet, make sure to keep them engaging and to the point so employees understand the key takeaways.
HubSpot, “HubSpot Culture”
2. Employee recognition & shoutout videos
Who doesn’t like being told they’re doing a great job?
Employee recognition is a priority, and for remote offices even more so.
Maybe your team has someone who puts in dozens of volunteer hours a month, or a group pulled together to cover for someone who needed time off. These are great reasons to acknowledge someone’s hard work, but routine shoutouts from leaders are also an excellent idea.
Anyone can do it, too: Record with your phone, upload it to your video client of choice and then embed it onto your social intranet. A few quick words can go a long way to make your employees feel appreciated and recognized!
The best part is you don’t need fancy video editing software to create these shoutouts. These intranet videos can be as extravagant or minimalistic as you like since it’s the messaging that truly matters.
Amazon, “Meet the Amazon People Technology Team”
Adobe, “Meet the Teams | Adobe Creative Cloud”
3. Employee-generated content is highly relevant for your social intranet
It’s great to hear what your coworkers are up to. The trip to the water cooler is usually a nice, fun break from work and announcements, right?
By leaning on internally-generated content, the intranet can have a relaxing and social feeling – just like that stroll to refill your coffee mug.
With rules, conduct and guidelines properly communicated first, videos posted by employees have the potential to be an excellent addition to your intranet’s roster of social content.
This can even include employee-generated learning content. Maybe a team member found a helpful hack or has a process that helps them with their daily priorities. Or perhaps they’re a pro at certain applications. No matter the case, you can ask them to share an effective training video over the intranet even if it’s a simple screen recording of their process.
WestJet, “Father’s Day Surprise”
4. Videos from leadership can increase engagement and visibility on intranets
Simple activities like leaders simply leaving their offices and walking around the business, taking time to stop and authentically say hello, or creating a monthly opportunity where 3-4 employees are randomly selected to have a ‘Kit-Kat’ break with a senior leader where they can ask any question on their mind can go a long way in enhancing engagement. – Insights.com
These visits can be emulated by intranet videos from CEOs that feel personal and even informal. It’s an excellent chance to bring a more ‘human’ quality to your company’s internal communications.
Rand Fishkin & SEOMoz, “Whiteboard Friday”
5. Let everyone know about recent successes with testimonials
Another way to use your employee social channels to show everyone that the work they’re doing is impactful is by sharing snapshots of client testimonials. If you’re in a line of work that doesn’t have a customer roster, instead film intranet videos that act as case studies or explainers of recent additions to your company’s history.
All of it tells a story that firmly places everyone’s role and efforts into a bigger picture. And, it’s a perfect video for a social intranet!
Hootsuite, “Wiley Publishing & Hootsuite”
Zoom, “Box Customer Testimonial”
Mobile-friendly social intranet videos for employee channels
The social intranet is becoming more and more of a buzzword in 2022, thanks to the continuation of remote work-only offices, increased flexibility around hybrid work and the advent of the digital workplace.
Video can make the transition from being in the office to working at home easier – we’ve already seen this with video calls and livestreams. Incorporate social intranet videos into your employee engagement strategy and see for yourself how it can encourage your teams to communicate and collaborate more.
Try out our 5 video ideas for your intranet and let us know how they do!
