Internal Communications Best Practice Guide

Internal communications — communicating to people within your organization — involves more than emailing a newsletter to employees. The most successful organizations use internal communications to improve productivity, performance, and engagement among teams. If you want to engage with employees on a deep level, invest in an internal communication strategy that uses various methods and technologies, including video. Want to jumpstart your video training for your employees? Download our FREE ebook to Video for Training, Learning and Development.

In this internal communications best practice guide, learn the best ways to connect with team members.

1) Strike the Right Tone for Your Internal Communications

Some employers communicate with employees as if they were personal friends. Written communications, such as emails and newsletters, might include slang terms or in-jokes and adopt a casual approach. While internal communications don't have to be formal, they should strike the right balance between casual and professional.

Here lies the dilemma: You must communicate important information to employees, including rules and regulations. However, you don't want to come across as distant or unapproachable. Employees might misinterpret your intentions if you use formal language in written dispatches. There's a solution: Use video.

It's easier to strike the right balance between informal and formal in a video because viewers can see your body language and hear the tone in your voice. You can't get the same type of message across in an email or newsletter. Videos also prove valuable for learning and development. Research shows visual content increases education and information retention.

2) Align Internal Communications With Your Goals and Values

Internal communications can be an effective way to reinforce your organizational goals and values. If teamwork is one of your priorities, you can publicly celebrate employee success in your communications. You could interview a team member who has achieved a goal for your organization and post the video on a custom video website via Viostream. If education is one of your values, create how-to guides or tutorials.

There are various ways to align internal communications with your organization's goals and values, but video is the most effective medium to achieve this aim. Viostream lets you manage interviews, how-to guides, tutorials, and other video content via a secure platform. It's another reason so many businesses in use it for internal communications.  

Read more about internal communication planning here.

Here are some other ways to align internal communications with your goals and values using a video platform like Viostream:

• Use videos to create emotional connections with employees. Convey goals and values with personal narratives and experiences.
• When talking about company values, improve employee engagement by adding interactive chapters to your video content.
• If you adjust or redefine your goals and values, create new video content that informs employees about these changes.

3) Encourage Employee Feedback

Internal communications should engage employees meaningfully. Asking employees for feedback about company policies, product launches, or other initiatives creates a culture of collaboration. It encourages them to play an active role in your organization.

While channels like email, live chat, and surveys collect employee feedback, video is a more engaging medium for fulfilling this task. Encouraging employees to ask questions during a live stream or incorporating a live chat feature enables team members to get involved with almost every aspect of your organization.

Viostream has an incredible amount of integrations for live streaming and video on demand that improve internal communications. These integrations include Slido, a platform that lets you post interactive Q&As and polls during your videos. You can interact with your audience and gather insights about employees that grow your business.

Read our live streaming guide here.

How Viostream Helps

Viostream is a powerful video platform that lets you engage with employees via live streaming and video on demand. Here's how to use the platform to improve internal communications:

• Communicate company developments, organizational changes, and industry developments
• Provide employee feedback to improve performance and productivity
• Align communications with company goals and values
• Get your message across more effectively. Many people, especially millennials, prefer watching videos to reading text

Viostream has the following features to improve internal communications:

• Live URLs: Post links to your videos so remote and at-office employees can access your content.
• Embedded live streams: Embed live streams in your intranet pages so employees can get involved with your organization.
• Private custom websites: Embed videos in a private branded gallery so employees can access all your content from one centralized hub.
• Calls-to-action: Encourage employees to take action after a video (like to fill out a feedback form) with effective calls-to-actions in videos.
• Social sharing: Encourage employees to share customer-friendly video content on their social pages.
• Transcripts: Transcription features that allow more employees to engage with your communications.
• World-class security: Keep your data safe at all times.
• Accessibility: Closed-captioning for video on demand. This accessibility feature improves compliance and ensures all employees can engage with your videos.  
• Analytics: Track how employees engage with your videos.
• HTML5 and 4K video technology.
• Other video management features you won't find on free platforms.

Looking for remote video recording guidelines? Read our post.

Follow this internal communications best practice guide and connect with employees like never before. Using video with other channels enables you to convey critical information at the right time. You'll increase performance and productivity among team members.

It's all made possible with Viostream, the video platform used by governments and businesses for nearly 20 years. With first-class security, privacy, compliance, and video management features, you can optimize internal communications through live streaming and VOD.

Viostream revolutionizes connectivity, engagement, and synchronous communication for employers like you. Start your free trial today and explore your video possibilities.