While many businesses and Human Resource (HR) managers have acknowledged how important communicating with video has become, many have been slow to implement it into their internal HR and Communications strategy. With all the transformations video has brought the digital workspace, why haven’t more organisations adopted the tool?
Organisations and their HR managers may all cite a different reason for their inability to embrace a change in communication structure within their workspace. Some will say it’s not needed. Others will say internal communication videos are too expensive.
Whatever their reasons, the fact remains that the workforce is the greatest asset of any company and effective HR are essential to the success of any business. An HR department has to find the best hires, develop and retain talent, and keep the entire company informed about regulatory changes. All of these duties have one thing in common: Effective communications is mandatory.
The inability to speak to every team and each team member serves as a common impediment to effective internal communications.
There’s a simple solution to all of this, and it involves the ability to speak to anyone, anywhere, at any time, through any device; Video Communications.
Below are the top six ways HR professionals are using Video Communications to ensure effective communications:
1.Broaden your talent pool
In a world where remote working is getting more popular, it’s time to take a hard look at the traditional business model of having all workers present in the office. Today, it’s likely that the best person to lead your sales team may not live in the same part of the country where your HQ is based. In that scenario, Video Communications crossed that geographical divide.
Having that kind of reach – combined with the ability to offer any current or potential candidate the possibility of working from home – significantly increases your chances of finding and then retaining the most talented individuals. In an era where you can communicate with someone thousands of miles away face-to-face with such clarity – combined with a host of project management and file sharing services – the world has now become a much more accessible talent pool.
2.Video interviews give flexibility
Today, it is possible to send a link to your instant meeting via any device you like, or you can start a one-click meeting via chat. Scheduling meetings becomes less of an administrative nightmare when your attendees can just click to join.
In addition to instant gratification enjoyed by existing staff, arranging meetings from home can be easier on future job candidates. By meeting through video, you also get the added benefit of reducing the costs of both the company and interviewee. They no longer have to travel to you just for the long-shot of getting the job. They can be in a comfortable, familiar location, which means you’re more likely to learn more about them, rather than through the lens of stress and jangled nerves. And, there’s a higher chance that, thanks to smoother interviews, the time taken to find the right person for the job is reduced, so your business isn’t compromised by the struggle to find and appoint new talent.
3.Internal communication is simpler
Once newcomers are on-board, video-based webinars can make large-scale training a breeze, but there is even more to it than that; after large-scale training sessions, you can use the meeting platform to divide people into groups via video breakout rooms, where they can work on team-building exercises and other projects without disturbing teams working on other activities.
4.Share information quickly and easily
From what we know about the Future of Work, email is quickly being pushed out the enterprise market and replaced by instant messaging (just like it did in the consumer market). But HR departments still have to keep the organisation up-to-date on industry standards and regulations, ensuring that new and current compliance regulations are honoured. To be certain that everyone “gets the memo,” the best way to communicate new information company-wide is to establish a webinar. Those who attend live can ask questions and participate via Q/A and polling. Those who can’t make it can have access to a recording with which they can review all of the questions asked and replay it as many times as they wish. The benefit – aside from the convenience – is that no one misses out on anything.
5. Retain your best employees
A Deloitte survey sponsored by Facebook asked C-suite executives for their perspectives on the future of work. Their responses reveal six themes about the future workplace—and six lessons to help leaders ease the transition.
One of their lessons was that “businesses should be proactive in improving transparency in communications, adopting more collaborative systems and reinterpreting corporate culture around digital workplace; or they risk losing productivity, employees and potentially, customers.”
By 2020, millennials will constitute 50 per cent of the workforce. This is particularly important given only a third of millennials feel their company has appropriate digital tools to be efficient, and 66 per cent expect to leave their employer in less than five years.
So the takeaway from that is to ensure you’re offering staff tools that are relevant and aid communication within the company.
6. Strengthen diverse teams
If good results come from good talent, then try to imagine those results if a talented group takes a project head-on with a sense of camaraderie.
That can be difficult if you’re managing a focused team composed of individuals from different corners of the world, but with video communication you can build cohesion between them.
Virtually meeting face-to-face with colleagues makes a significant difference. It positively impacts the group dynamic and allows for more fluid communication. Getting video into the mix might just be the magic wand you need to increase productivity among remote teams.
Video collaboration technologies have a place in many parts of a company, but they’re especially useful when it comes to HR departments. After all, HR professionals are in the people business, and video can help foster more connections and enhance collaborations among those who use it.
Daniel manages the UK & Ireland for Zoom, a company that offers remote conferencing services and provides support and sales functions to its customers in region with a goal of spreading happiness both internally and to Zoom's new and existing clients and partners.
