In 2011, Rosanna Fiske at the Harvard Business Review wrote, “Having strong corporate values is admirable, but values without proactive employee [understanding] of their importance might as well not exist … employee communications has never been a more important component of a CEO’s management toolbox.”

Effective employee communication is a key component to an organization achieving its goals. Employees need to feel they have a stake in the company’s success, yet the reality is many areremoved from the top executive team, having little or no day-to-day interaction with corporate decision makers. When managers rely on the “bulletin board” method to communicate policies, departmental objectives or sales performance, the information may be factual, but hardly engaging.The same goes for text emails which can feel generic and are open to misinterpretation – leading to misunderstandings.

For companies looking at new solutions to the employee communication quandary, video email is emerging as an effective way to humanize messages from middle and upper management. Jason Price, president and co-founder of Covideo, a leading video email service provider, has seen animpressive uptick in companies using video email for internal communication. “CEO’s are more open than ever to adopting video email as part of their employee communication strategy,” says Price. “Nothing is closer to face-to-face interaction.”

One avid practitioner of video email is APCO, a vehicle service contract provider based in Georgia with more than250 employees. John Marks, CFO, recently rolled out a new profit-sharing plan by way of a video shot at his desk. “Video email messages allow me to speak directly to employees about our company’s goals and the significance of each individual role in helping us achieve them,” he says.

Internal video messages allow executives to clearly express their vision for the company and provide coherent employee expectations. In return, employees can articulate ideas to colleagues and managers, in the same building or across the globe, driving innovation that moves the organization forward.

If a video email has sensitive or private information, Covideo offers a vault feature that limits the number of times a recipient can view the video. Additionally, viewer reports let the sender know who viewed the video, what segments and how many times.

By elevating message quality, clarity and visual appeal, video email increases content value to employees and contributes to a successful culture of engagement.