Are They On Mute or Just Not Paying Attention?

We've all been on those calls. The dreaded internal calls; an hour of a disembodied voice droning on about an upcoming marketing campaign or how great the sales team is. Folks in the conference room seem to forget we can hear every side comment, Karen doesn't understand how to mute her phone and Bob (who also can't seem to operate mute) is working from home again and his dog is in an epic war with the local squirrel gang. There are no slides, just talking and dogs and ambient noise. 20 minutes in you drift off. Really, who can blame you?

How can you engage your team? How can your leadership team make a connection with the remote staff without getting involved in that squirrel war?

Gallup found in their Q12 Meta-Analysis Report that employee engagement consistently affects key performance outcomes. It found that businesses with more engaged employees simply have better odds of achieving their revenue, profit, and productivity goals.

So what are some of the best ways to engage your team? You might want to consider video for your next internal town hall. Video town halls are a great way to get your whole team facetime with the C-suite. They're far more engaging than the phone call, even without slides.

A major aspect of internal communications is an employee's ability to retain any significant info as it relates to company or team goals. In a world of microscopic attention spans, are your employees actually paying attention? Studies have shown that adding video is a great way to increase one's ability to retain key messages and concepts, with these effects increasing over time. In fact, viewers have a 95% retention rate of a message when they watch it in a video, as opposed to 10% when reading it in text.

A video production might seem like a big undertaking, but it can be far easier than you think. Video townhalls, CEO messages, earnings reports, and general company announcements are all messages that can be easily relayed to employees in a fun and engaging video and multimedia format. A small video crew and a few pieces of streaming equipment can carry your message easily around your organization and around the globe. Live video of the C-Suite will garner far more interest and engagement with employees than a dry email or conference call ever could. Enhance the messages with the integration of slides, pre-cut videos or animations, and Q&A chat features for a real connection with the rest of your team.

Countless studies have shown that an engaged employee is a far more productive employee. There are few better ways to increase that engagement than incorporating live video into your internal communications strategy.

ABOUT THE EXPERT: Shana Ferriby

Shana has 10 years of experience in webcasting. She has worked with clients worldwide on large scale projects. Shana manages the webcast team and all aspects of the service to make the customer experience seamless. Before joining MultiVu, she worked with the client services team at PR Newswire.

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ABOUT THE EXPERT: Dan Conboy

Dan oversees the operations and special live event projects. He has 17 years of experience with video production, broadcast operations, live events, satellite media tours, and multimedia technology. His team handles MultiVu's video processing and transcoding. Dan also helps manage several special video events and live social media video streaming and technology. Dan holds a bachelor's degree in Communications from Marist College. In his spare time, he is an avid golfer and enthusiastic (and long suffering) Mets and Knicks fan.