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Employers Using Video Communications More Frequently to Engage Employees

Jeff Daniels

Jeff Daniels

video communications growth

engage buttonThe explosion of video and mobile in the consumer world is changing how employees consume information at work. With the connected employee infiltrating the workplace, this trend is taking off and is leading companies away from traditional paper, seminar and text-based employee communications and toward interactive video and multimedia-based communications. Demand for more engaging and effective employee video communications solutions has surged in the past few years as a result. Further, demand for better employee benefits and wellness communications has been spurred by rising healthcare costs, uncertainties about Obamacare and changing healthcare legislation.

In the employee communications market, Flimp Media offers a robust multimedia communications platform (Episend) together with custom and generic HR and employee benefits video content and campaign services to transform traditional employee communications into engaging multimedia experiences. Content delivered by Episend is accessible from any device, including mobile, provides an interactive viewer experience and supplies deep analytics on user engagement. The Episend platform enables employers to use video and multimedia content to educate and communicate with employees about complex topics such as medical benefits, healthcare reform, compensation programs, compliance and more. Episend also provides employers with cloud-based access to advanced delivery and tracking tools and analytics to measure and drive employee engagement.

Video Is Being Used More for Employee Benefits Communications

employee benefits package paperworkSpending data from the 2014 Inside Benefits Communication Survey Report published by the National Business Coalition on Health and Benz Communications collected data from 333 benefits professionals, 93% of whom worked for companies with more than 250 employees. Their findings indicate that annual US spending by large companies on employee benefits communications is between $600 million and $1.2 billion. Among the relevant insights:

• Video was used by 22% of 2014 participants versus only 14% in 2013

• 60% of annual benefits communications budgets are less than $25,000, 10% reported budgets between $50,000 – $75,000 and 5% spend over $300,000 annually

• The majority of participants (64%) said they only communicate with employees once a year for annual open enrollment

If 22% of the approximately 20,000 US companies with 500 or more employees (or 4,400 companies) are spending money on video communications and the average video-related spending is $10,000, then the estimated employee benefits video communications US market size is about $44 million and growing. The vast majority of this spending takes place among large, white-collar employers served by major national benefits brokers, like Mercer, Willis, Towers Watson and Aon Hewitt.

Employee Video Communications Market Is Growing Quickly

video communications growthThe 2013 Engaging Employees with Video report, co-authored by Ragan Communications, has the best recent information available on the market size and trends for employee video communications. The report is based on survey results from 713 communicators, including company owners, vice presidents, communications professionals, writer/producers and managers. According to the Ragan Communications Trends Report, roughly 80% of organizations with 1,000 or more employees spend $50,000 or more on employee video communications. And 90% of organizations with 5,000 or more employees that use video for employee communications spend at least $100,000 annually on video communications. Using extrapolated data from the Ragan Communications survey report, we estimate the size of the US employee video communications market to be approximately $995 million, broken down as follows:

• 40% of 90,000 firms with 100-499 employees spend $10,000 annually = $360 million

• 60% of the 9,000 firms with 500-999 employees spend $25,000 annually = $135 million

• 80% of 8,000 firms with 1,000-4,999 employees spend $50,000 annually = $320 million

• 90% of the 2,000 firms with 5,000+ employees spend $100,000 annually = $180 million

Total estimated US market size for employee video communications market = $995 million

Employee Video Communications Market Trends

In terms of employee video communications market trends, the 2013 Ragan Communications survey found that:

• 71% of companies with 100 or more employees use video to communicate with employees

• 72% of respondents planned to increase the use of video for employee communications

• 90% said video played an “important” or “somewhat important” role in their organization

• 90% also indicated they felt video improves employee engagement

• 76% stated audio-visual content improved employee communications

• 51% of respondents work at large organizations with over 5,000 employees

• 29% work for organizations with between 1,000 and 4,999 employees

• 16% work for smaller organizations with between 101 and 999 employees

• 42% of videos created for communications are produced on an “as-needed basis”

• 50% of organizations are creating and distributing employee video content quarterly

• 49% of large organizations produce employee video content on a monthly basis

• 73% of surveyed communicators have in-house video production teams

• 51% use video tracking software to measure the effectiveness of video communications

Surprisingly, the survey results revealed that 31% of communicators said they do not measure the effectiveness of employee video campaigns because they don’t like the analytics tools available or don’t have access to video analytics. In addition, technical issues plague internal communicators. Three in 10 encounter slow video-download times and 51% have dealt with video-buffering issues because they hadn’t set up their video communications systems with a reliable vendor or there were internal programming issues. Communicators listed the following three factors as keys to successful employee video communication campaigns:

1. Gaining positive employee feedback

2. Having a good video experience without technical difficulties

3. Making sure all employees can view the video

Mobile Device Viewing

Most video content created for employee communications is viewed on personal computers. Mobile video optimization is more prevalent in larger organizations with more than 5,000 employees. However, communications access from tablet and smartphone devices is growing at 42% and 35%, respectively.

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