Get Better Employee Engagement Data with Interactive Video

By Dana Haase, Director of Project Management – Communications Strategy and Editorial
August 27, 2020

My friend’s son is obsessed with the interactive Captain Underpants movie on Netflix. Let’s see: Giving kids the power to click and guide the story into whatever wild direction they choose while throwing in a healthy dose of bathroom humor – what’s not to love?

As adults, I think the idea of interactive video content is just as appealing. What if those “choose your own adventure” features could be incorporated into the videos you use to communicate with employees? Even better, what if the data behind those interactions could be captured to reveal powerful insights into employee engagement by role, department, or location? With interactive video, both are possible.

Interactive features can include:

Chapterization – When video content is broken down into chapters by topic, viewers can opt to watch just those portions that are of greatest interest to them and view the content in whatever order they choose. Imagine the learnings to be gained from applying chapterization to the recording of a Town Hall webcast. Knowing the most-viewed portions of the Town Hall could inform agenda topics for future events.
Gating – With gating, a question is asked and, based on the response, the viewer is guided down a specific viewing path. This moves video away from the “one narrative fits all” construct and makes the viewing experience more personalized. Perhaps you’re creating a video to help employees understand and internalize your organization’s mission and vision. By asking viewers a question about their role, the video could deliver content that demonstrates how the mission and vision specifically applies to their function within the company.
Like/Dislike/Rating – With interactive video, likes, dislikes and sentiments about the content can be captured at multiple points within the same video. For example, if you’re using video to promote an employee wellness initiative, you can get a better understanding of which aspects of the program are providing the greatest value, fitness challenges, mental health resources, etc.
Forms – Giving employees the ability to fill out and submit forms directly from a video can streamline your communication process. Consider this scenario: You’ve created a video to promote a new employee volunteer program and at the end of the video employees can fill out a registration form right in the video player. Knowing who filled out a form can also be very telling. If registration among managers is low, that may signal the need for additional outreach to that group via email or other channels.

Have you used interactive video in your internal communications efforts? Or do you have thoughts on how this medium could be used to support other initiatives? Tell us in the comments.