3 Videos You'll Need When We Return to the Office
As of writing this blog, April 27, 2020, slowly people have been returning to the office. Today, Governor Walz of Minnesota allowed a select few to return to manufacturing and offices. We’re not out of the woods yet with this whole COVID-19 yet, but what videos will companies need once employees return to work? And more importantly, how long will it take to produce those videos?
Here are three videos that should be produced before you return to the office.
Welcome Back from the CEO (for Employees)
It’s been a trying time to say the least. Employees have had to balance work, teaching their kids, isolating themselves, protecting their families and so much more. When it’s time to get back to the office, a welcome back message from the CEO or management would be a nice touch. This could include:
A simple thank you
What to expect in the next few weeks
An inspirational message
Highlight what employees did to go above and beyond
The most important thing for this video is that it is heart felt. Now IS the time for you to be authentic. Now is NOT the time to seem scripted and robotic. Speaking from the heart and having a few ahhs and umms in the video because you are speaking from your heart will be a lot more effective than a polished script read from a TelePrompTer.
So, how long will it take to produce this video? There is good news here. You have a couple of options.
Option number one, you could do a live Zoom conference with your team to welcome everyone back. There isn’t any cost and it’s done the day everyone returns. The con for this approach is you miss folks who don’t return the you welcome everyone back.
Option number two is a recorded message. You could record this yourself using your phone or computer and make it simple. Or, you could hire a production company to record the video to spruce it up a bit. Either way, employees will appreciate the message. These are strange times. Some reassuring words from their leaders will go a long way in bringing us closer to putting this pandemic behind us.
We’re Open Video (for Customers)
Similar to the Welcome Back video, this video is a welcome back so to speak for customers. Again, the CEO should thank the customers for sticking with them through these tough times. It must be sincere. And I can’t stress enough, please don’t try to sell anything. Simply let the customer know you’re open, thank them for their loyalty and be yourself!
This video is ideal for social media, your website, your showroom if you have one, and anywhere your customers gather.
To save time and costs, you can record this video at the same time you record your Welcome Back Video. You could record this with your phone or computer but I recommend hiring a professional to record this because it is customer facing. You’ll want to make sure the audio is good, the background is clean and your messaging is clear. Make sure you speak from the heart and avoid the TelePrompTer if you can to be authentic!
Producing this video should not take too much time. If you plan for 1-2 weeks prior to everyone returning to work, you should have enough time for a professional to create a nice video.
What Has Changed Video (Safety Video)
When we all get back to the office, things will not be the same. Expect split schedules. Social distancing. No more handshakes. No more potlucks. Etc. The workplace as we know it no longer exists. It will be important to let your employees know what has changed since we went into isolation.
This video doesn’t necessarily need to go into every last detail but it should highlight the main points like staying 6-feet apart from each other, washing your hands every 30-minutes (or whatever the timeframe dictates,) eating lunch at your desk because the lunchroom is closed, etc. Whatever the main changes are, be sure to highlight those in video.
This video will take longer to create. It also will be more complex so I recommend hiring a professional to help pull it together. It sounds like a long time but a video like this could take 3-4 weeks to produce so I highly recommend you start planning for this sooner rather than later.
Be Yourself
Video will be your friend when everyone returns to the office. Use it to communicate messages to your team. Use it to communicate to your customers. But make sure you do so authentically. One thing that hasn’t changed in this crisis, people still don’t want to be sold to so be yourself.