In recent years, changes in technology and culture have made video an increasingly valuable tool for organizational learning. We’re fast approaching the point at which it will be easier to share knowledge with video than it is with text.

Video has proven to be a far more valuable tool than just another supplemental training tool. Video can break through organizational communication barriers. It can accelerate innovation and creative problem solving and give employees a greater sense of connection and purpose within their organizations.

When video is used as a company-wide asset for knowledge sharing and communication, its real value is in cultivating a healthy, innovative workplace culture.

#1 Video Empowers Employees to Be Seen and Heard

When an employee has a new idea, how do they socialize it? In a traditional organizational structure, they may discuss it with their manager, who can, in turn, run it up the management chain for further review.

But what about all of the other people across the company who could benefit from that idea – refining it, expanding its scope, or simply offering support to see it come to life? Too often, tightly controlled communication models and management hierarchy inhibit the flow of ideas across team boundaries.

Video is changing that, and it’s expanding the scope of impact employees can have within the organization. For example, Microsoft launched an “internal YouTube” that allows any employee to record their ideas and share them with co-workers. Within three years of implementation, more than 10,000 videos had been posted to the portal.

Employee-generated video fosters a sense of individual contribution and empowerment. It enables anyone, regardless of rank or title, to share their ideas and insights in a way that easily reaches all members of an organization.

#2 Video Fosters a Cycle of Continuous Innovation

People innovate by observing the subject matter experts around them, learning from them, and then applying their own improvements to the original solution. Most of us are continually testing and finding new ways to be more effective. The key to turning those improvements into organizational best practices and competitive advantage is sharing that knowledge with others.

When organizations encourage employee-generated video, they recognize that every employee is a subject matter expert in something, and that sharing that expertise will lead to a virtuous cycle of imitation, improvement, and innovation.

#3 Video Can Give Employees a Sense of Purpose

Successful companies know that a clearly stated purpose (beyond financial performance) is critical to driving employee loyalty. Yet simply stating organizational purpose isn’t enough. To inspire employees, leaders at all levels need to connect their teams’ day-to-day activities with that mission – and video can help.

Short videos recorded by managers and executives can draw this connection in a way that engages and motivates their employees. Fortunately, for most executives, using video to communicate isn’t new. The opportunity, then, is to make video more than a simple medium for communication – using it to inspire a greater sense of meaning in the workplace.

Examples of Innovative Video Communications

While corporate communications and learning and development videos are most often seen in a business’s video management system, there are plenty of innovative video use cases that can benefit all employees at an organization.

• Asynchronous meetings. With video, there’s no need to spend meetings reviewing information. You can simply send a quick clip with all background information prior to a meeting so you are able to use the time with your team to dive deep and discuss the matter at hand. 
• Social learning. Social learning, or peer-to-peer learning, is easily implemented through video. Employees simply have to record and distribute their unique knowledge, whether that be how to complete a certain task or a walk-through of a new program a team is using. 
• On-site updates. Through video, you can take remote team members with you while visiting off-site locations. Simply record your update to share with the team for them to see visual details of your update. 
• Mobile learning. Meet your employees where they are – on their phones! Through video, learning and development tasks can easily be completed on their preferred device.
• Employee introductions. What better way to get to know new team members than having them create a short intro video? Employee introduction videos are a fun, personal way to connect a distributed workforce and learn about your peers.

 

Try Panopto to see how easy it is to create videos for business

Start a Free Demo