Gone are the days when user-generated video content was the domain of the marketing department. In today’s world, where more and more organizations are leveraging hybrid workplace models or ditching the office and transitioning to a fully remote organization, attracting top talent and creating a strong, engaged community within the company has never been more important.
Leadership teams, human resource departments, and internal communications staff are leveraging user-generated video content to accomplish these goals. The authentic, distinctly human element of user-generated video makes it especially effective.
We asked Victor Cora Nazario, COO at SOAR Community Network and certified talent optimization consultant with a passion for helping organizations build C3 communities through compassionate leadership, cohesive teams, and collaborative cultures, to share his expertise with us.
Here are four ideas for ways to leverage user-generated video to attract talent and create stronger communities and the reasons behind why they work.
Idea 1: Showcase Core Values with Video on the Careers Page
Bringing in the right people is critical to creating and maintaining a strong organizational culture. For many organizations, one of the first places where candidates will have the opportunity to learn about an organization is on the Careers page on the website.
Many organizations use the written word to describe their core values on their website, but their employees can speak to the organization’s core values far more effectively and authentically than anything your content team could come up with on their own.
Ask team members across all levels of the organization to talk about how they experience the company’s core values in day-to-day life and showcase their stories on the careers page. We asked Victor why highlighting employees’ perspectives on core values is such an effective strategy. Here’s what he said:
Idea 2: Encourage Candidates to Submit a Video While Applying
Consider giving candidates the option to submit a video during the application process. You can keep it simple by asking them to describe what excites them most about the role or dive a little deeper and ask them to describe how they use the organization’s core values to solve a problem or get through a difficult situation.
Of course, you’ll want to provide an option for candidates to provide a written response as well to ensure that every candidate, regardless of their communication preferences and styles, has the ability to demonstrate their culture fit.
This tactic can help you get an idea for how the candidate would fit into the organization before even getting to an interview. We asked Victor about the types of questions you should consider asking to assess culture fit. Here’s what he said:
Idea 3: Deliver Important Messages from Leadership with Video
When it comes to delivering important messages, sharing key company updates, or simply keeping employees engaged, authentic video content from leadership goes a long way. And, don’t worry about creating videos with high production values. When it comes to video, people are much more interested in authentic content that relates to their interests and passion than they are in production quality.
While this tactic is effective for company-wide communication, it can also be used by department leaders to engage with their teams. This is especially important for organizations that have shifted to hybrid or fully-remote office settings in the wake of Covid-19.
Video can help leaders express empathy and emotion in ways that aren’t as easy to convey with words alone. We asked Victor to share his perspective on why authentic video content is an important part of embodying compassionate leadership. Here’s what he said:
Idea 4: Create an Idea Management System with Video
Great ideas come from anywhere. Whether your team members work remotely or in the office, they will appreciate a simple, asynchronous way to share ideas as they come up. Consider creating an idea management system where employees are empowered to share their great ideas anytime.
When you capture great ideas with video, you can hear the thoughts behind the idea that may not always come through as clearly on paper. Plus, the video content can be used during team meetings as a way to recognize innovative thinkers and brainstorm new approaches to tackling difficult problems.
In our current environment, where many organizations have transitioned to a fully remote work culture or are using a hybrid model, gathering video input from remote employees can help level the playing field. We asked Victor how this idea helps organizations who have remote or hybrid office models maintain inclusive cultures. Here’s what he said:
Conclusion
With user-generated video content, organizations can build stronger, more inclusive cultures. Tell us: how else is your organization using video to drive engagement?
And, if you’re ready for more, we also spoke with Victor Cora Nazario about how to embed diversity, equity and inclusion as core values into your organization. Access the entire replay to keep learning.
About SOAR Community Network
SOAR Community Network helps leaders accountable for employee experience increase engagement to improve performance by about 34%. Our elite advisors have worked with hundreds of leaders to map their purpose, align their people and optimize their talent using our C3 culture building framework.
We utilize behavioral science and evidence based practices to help leaders set strategic priorities, assemble the right talent, design cohesive, high performing teams and align technology to business objectives. We are certified as Talent Optimization Leaders with Predictive Index which enables us to align strategy with talent using science and data analytics. The outcomes for our clients include increased engagement, team cohesion, better communication, higher productivity, increased innovation and higher profitability.
