With so many of us working remotely now, it’s no surprise that today’s employees are disengaged and disconnected. While remote work has provided many with the flexibility to work more efficiently and achieve better work-life balance, the loss of in-person camaraderie has threatened workplace culture. That’s why many HR and internal community teams are turning to video to amplify employee voices, tell authentic stories, create a sense of community, and build a strong employer brand.
In our Creator Economy webinar series, host Katie Martell spoke with panelists Erin Fletcher, director of HR strategy & associate experience at Walmart, and Trish Fontanilla, head of community at Simplr. Their discussion centered around leveraging video to tell authentic stories across the enterprise — and build stronger workplace communities.
How Walmart empowers employee storytellers
According to Fletcher, feeling like we belong transcends business — it’s a basic human need. And video is a powerful tool in dispersed workplaces to facilitate that sense of belonging.
Walmart Workplace — the retailer’s digital town square that connects its associates and teams to Walmart’s strategy, business, and one another — was designed to empower the diverse voices of its one million+ employees. With so many employees working across every state in the U.S., video is crucial to building company culture.
In fact, Walmart equips its employees with video creation devices to encourage them to share their own stories with one another. They rely on video for everything from peer-to-peer training to recognizing associates for living up to specific Walmart values.
Walmart also builds employee community through The Difference Podcast, a weekly series highlighting Walmart leaders making a difference in their teams, stores, and communities. The podcast is recorded on video and available for on-demand consumption on YouTube.
Learn more about Socialive’s new one-click audio capture automation capabilities here.
How Simplr drives deeper connections
One of Fontanilla’s favorite quotes is from American writer Allan Gurganus: “Stories only happen to people who can tell them.” To that end, one of her core tenets as a community builder is to amplify diverse employee voices. And she relies on video to do just that.
One way Simplr builds community is by showcasing the impact that working at the tech company has on the lives of its employees. The internal video series features employees talking about how working at Simplr has enabled them to buy homes and start families, which Fontanilla says was very uplifting to watch around the holidays. By giving employees the video tools they need to share their authentic stories, Simplr is able to drive deeper connections and build a stronger culture.
Fontanilla also uses video to create personalized asynchronous videos — pre-recorded messages tailored to the unique recipient that can be viewed on their own time. After interviewing strong job candidates, for example, Fontanilla will follow up with a personalized thank you video, which can move the needle in today’s candidate-driven market. Fontanilla also regularly sends employee appreciation videos to team members, making them feel valued for their contributions.
