Corporate video: communicate your arrivals and departures

In a period where telecommuting is widespread, the production of corporate video in your business allows you to announce the arrival of new employees and the departure of old ones

Due to the current health context, remote work spread widely. Many of your employees have left to live with their families, and only communicate with you through media web tools such as Zoom or Google Meet, and no longer in a boardroom as it was the case in the previous years.

However, your company is always hiring new people, while other employees prefer to leave you for other adventures. To keep people connected, it’s important to communicate about these events, and corporate video remains the major successful tool to deal with the distance and to include in your strategy.

Here are some winning tips, best practices, essential information before you produce the video, either your brand is and either company is in France or in the United Kingdom. We hope it will guide you though the whole process. Become winners of corporate video! It will be both insitutional and entertainment.

Announce new arrivals on video

Beforehand

For the first step, you can make a short video montage to announce the arrival of new people in the upcoming weeks or months. Ideally, start the teasing a month or so in advance: that way, you don’t announce it at the last moment, and don’t let the information get diluted by taking too much in advance.

You can, of course, make a single video to announce the arrival of several people, especially if they are going to join the same team, or if their first day falls more or less on the same date.

This announcement must contain at least :

• their first name,
• their function,
• the team they will join.

Pitchoune’s advice: adding a photo is always a plus. This way, when your employees meet them for the first time, they will recognize them. You can even hang these photos in a strategic place in your premises.

If you want to go further, it can be interesting to add in this corporate video :

• the newcomers’ hobbies,
• nicknames, which your employees can find for them if it is part of your culture,
• ask for volunteers to become their godparents, or simply to designate them yourself,

Encourage alumni to come up with an original way to welcome them, even from a distance (for example, an online game night).

If you regularly share an internal newsletter, this is the ideal opportunity to announce new hires.

You can put this strategy into place with the help of human resources and the marketing/communication team.

Introduction of new recruits trhough an effective video

Beforehand

For the first step and an effective approach, before creating the content, you can make a short video montage to announce the full arrival of new people in the upcoming weeks or months. Ideally, start the teasing a month or so in advance: that way, you don’t announce it at the last moment, and don’t let the information get diluted by taking too much in advance.

You can, of course, make a single video to announce the arrival of several people, especially if they are going to join the same team, or if their first day falls more or less on the same date.

This announcement must contain at least :

• their first name,
• their function,
• the team they will join.

Advice from Pitchy: adding a photo is always a plus. This way, when your employees meet them for the first time, they will recognize them. You can even hang these photos in a strategic place in your premises.

If you want to go further, it can be interesting to add in this version:

• animated newcomers’ hobbies,
• nicknames, which your employees can find for them if it is part of your culture,
• ask for volunteers to become their godparents, or simply to designate them yourself,

Encourage alumni to come up with an original way to welcome them, even from a distance (for example, an online game night).

If you regularly share an internal newsletter, this is the ideal opportunity to announce new hires.

You can put this strategy into place with the help of human resources and the marketing/communication team.

At the time of their arrival

Remember this figure: a person (even a director) who has been successfully included in your company will have their willingness to stay increased by 50%. This video presentation is therefore part of the onboarding process.

Ideally, when a new employee joins your organization, you should present them in a video. You can do this in several ways:

If the person is shy:

If the newcomer does not wish to express himself or herself directly or be filmed, encourage the person to give you a photo, as well as a few elements of his or her history and hobbies (education, place of origin, etc.). The marketing/communication team, or the HR team if they have the time, can put together a short video to share internally (email, internal newsletter, Slack…).

For this, you can use an online video editor, without technical skills.

If the person agrees to be filmed:

Do yourself a favor: find an interview format that allows them to present themselves in an original way.

The Fast and Curious interview: this format, launched by Konbini, became very popular during quarantine, asks the interviewee to answer different types of questions, more professional or lighter, such as:

• Are you an early bird or a night owl?
• Mac or Windows?

…

This format makes it possible for viewers to scroll through the question sequences, where the screen is split, with the two options to choose from, and the answer sequences, which should leave room for spontaneity (without voiceover).

An offbeat interview of this type can quickly break the ice and reassure new recruits.

The employee interview: you can ask binary questions, as in the Fast & Curious interview, while including more open-ended questions, such as: “What is your morning routine? What are your main tasks? How would you describe the reception?”…

Once edited, these videos can be included in your internal newsletter, but also posted on your social networks. Although LinkedIn is more appropriate, you can, if you wish, share these videos elsewhere: for example, on recruitment websites, such as Welcome To The Jungle.

To discover other video interview formats, please read our article on this subject.

Announce departures on video

Upstream

If a departure is neither announced nor celebrated, the team’s mood is likely to take a hit.

That’s why you need to give at least a month’s notice if one of your employees is leaving for a new professional adventure. It is a way to pay tribute to them, to thank them for their investment, and to keep in touch (which reinforces the feeling of community, of “tribe” within your structure).

Then, this departure can be the opportunity to suggest original ideas to celebrate it, together or remotely:

• Ask employees to film themselves saying a kind word to the person who is leaving,
• Encourage volunteers to make a kind of video clip, to dance to one of the departing person’s favorite song,
• Prepare a list of questions for the person who is leaving: “What did you remember the most? What will you not regret at all? Which colleague will you miss the most?
• Encourage the person to film themselves and answer these questions,
• You can even send a video in an email or internal newsletter that provides a sort of assessment: how long did the person spend with you? What did they do to move the company forward? Do you have any memorable moments with them?

Advice from Pitchy: anticipate the time to devote to this kind of project. If you’re editing the final video, plan well in advance so that you can get the content out when you want it.

At the time of departure

When it’s time to say goodbye, you can broadcast what has been done for the employee concerned:

• a tribute video with nice words from several employees,
• a slightly parodic video montage recalling the employee’s great moments,
• broadcast the interview you may have conducted with the departing employee.

Advice from Pitchy: why not keep this type of interview for recruitment sites? Of course, if you make this choice, you have to keep a minimum of professionalism, which does not prevent you from looking nice. But for future candidates, it can be interesting to watch the testimonies of former candidates who left: they can even give them advice on how to blend well through testimonials 😉

You have to prepare a departure or an arrival and would like to make a video without technical skills? Discover the Pitchy solution. And check out our library, hosting lot of of ebooks (useful, awesome and exciting explainer content) to download. Make the best corporate videos! You’re the experts of your storytelling!