Most people agree that face-to-face interaction is the best way for management to communicate with employees. Unfortunately, in today's world of global businesses and telecommuting, in-person contact can be difficult to achieve with any regularity. More often, communication from management is comprised of memos and emails. It's quick, but can be impersonal and not necessarily effective. The frustration expressed by both executives and employees with these less than personal communication methods can be summed up with this quote from the film Cool Hand Luke, "What we've got here is a failure to communicate."
In an effort to improve internal communication, businesses are turning to video. Video viewing for personal entertainment and educational purposes has skyrocketed in the past several years among adults ages 18 to 54, and many people are increasingly drawn to video over text when given the option.
In response, businesses are integrating video email into their internal communication action plans. Video mail is an emerging service that gives management a means of communicating with employees in a more personal way - just by recording a quick video from their computer (or phone), then emailing the video link to the desired employees.
Covideo, a leading provider of video mail, saw the potential for this product in 2004 during the initial development. "Millions of people work remotely, having limited contact with an executive team," says Jason Price, co-founder and president of Covideo. "Those employees can easily be dialed into a company's goals and strategies with video mail updates from management."
Video mail is just as effective when communicating to employees under a single roof. "One of our customers is an auto warranty company," Price says. "The CFO recently made a video at his desk explaining the company's new profit-sharing plan, emailing it to more than 200 employees. The whole thing took just a few minutes. His employees get tons of email daily, but they only got one video that day and you can bet they watched it."
An important capability of the Covideo system is tracking. The sender has several reporting options to determine who watched a video, how many times and for how long. Managers can use these analytics to determine the engagement level of employees or how well their message was received. For a more interactive experience, employees with webcams can reply to a video mail with a video of their own - if the option is selected by the sender.
Throughout a business from human resources to the top executives, the use of video mail will transform internal communications by delivering video messages to employees in the most personal way possible - when face-to-face isn't.