As we transition to whatever a post-pandemic workplace might look like, employees are showing a preference for continuing some form of work from home situation. A getABstract survey done in April 2020 showed that nearly 43% of US workers preferred to work from home compared to only 12% who preferred the office. And PWC’s US Remote Work Survey in January of this year showed that “Over half of employees (55%) say they’d like to be remote at least three days a week,” with the largest share being those who’d prefer a fully remote schedule.
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HR managers are now having to grapple with what this looks like for all of their key roles. In their most recent survey of employers, Littler Mendelson writes, “more than half of respondents are either moderately or extremely concerned about maintaining company culture, collaboration and employee loyalty in a remote work environment (57%).”
So how can HR teams adapt the way they recruit, onboard, training and even say goodbye to employees in a hybrid workplace?
By using more videos.
Benefits of HR videos
Studies show that the workers of today and tomorrow prefer videos. They are attracted to, and respond better to, video in a corporate setting just as much as they are in their personal lives. But according to TechSmith’s study, businesses are twice as likely to prefer email use over other forms of internal communication. Reportedly using 50% more email than a few years ago. This can lead to an uninspired, unproductive workforce. A majority of whom rate their corporate communications as outdated. So how can videos in the hands of skilled HR teams help?
Attracting talent: Millennial and Gen Z candidates increasingly rely on video to discover and vet potential employers. CareerBuilder reported job postings that included videos saw 12% more views than those without. Staff writer for HR Technologist, Chiradeep BasuMallick writes,“...modern candidates want to connect with your employer brand through video, and you have 1 minute 36 seconds (on average) to tell your story.”
Teaching employees: According to Kaltura’s The State of Video in the Enterprise Report“...more than two-thirds of the employees who answered our survey let us know that they’d rather use video to learn a new task than have to rely on written instructions.” And the science backs this up. Our brains are hardwired to retain the information we receive from videos better than other forms of media. Couple this with the scalability of using on-demand video-based training, and you can see how useful this would be to offer workers the training they want wherever and whenever they want it.
Boosting productivity: TechSmith’s The Value of Visuals study showed that employee communications using visuals like screencasts and short videos could save US companies $1700 per worker each year. The thinking is that the speed with which viewers absorb the information from videos saves them time. Tasks can be learned and performed quicker. And messages could be relayed more clearly and convincingly. As Joanne Sammer wrote for SHRM,“94% of the employees who viewed a video took some action after doing so, including logging into the online enrollment software and accessing benefits information.”
Easing departure: With the median tenure of today’s workforce remaining at a low 4.2 years, it’s logical to have a plan for their eventual departure. If the split is amicable, this is a great opportunity to quickly capture institutional knowledge before it goes out the door. This video would then serve as a great onboarding resource for whoever is hired to fill that role after them. Like Panopto did when one of their engineers left the company.
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Whether it’s for recruitment, onboarding, or training, video is proving to be an essential part of any HR communicator’s toolbox. And the technology to shoot, edit, animate and host videos is so approachable now. All that’s needed is the willingness and strategy to implement them.
