Twice a month I record a short video to share internally at Grunder Landscaping Co. Called the Team Builder, it’s a simple but effective way to keep us all connected and to intentionally build our culture.
This biweekly video has always been a good method for me to communicate with my team but it’s become even more so with the current social-distancing measures that are limiting our ability to gather in person. Here’s an example of a Team Builder video we sent recently:
With a little bit of planning, you can easily create a video series like this for your company. Here’s how we do it at GLC:
Appoint a Champion
When a task has multiple owners, it essentially has no owner. At GLC, our administrative assistant, Emma, compiles a list of recent and upcoming birthdays, new hires, and work anniversaries; schedules time for the video to be shot and operates the camera; and distributes the video to our team. She keeps everything—and everyone—organized and on track.
Use Your Smartphone
Assuming your smartphone is not horribly out of date, you can use it to shoot these videos—that’s all we use at GLC. If you want to up your production value, a tripod and a lavalier microphone are inexpensive ways to make a big impact.
After shooting the video, Emma uploads it to YouTube and marks it “unlisted” to create an easy link for sharing without making it publicly available. Then she shares the video via text to team members with company phones and over our internal Facebook page.
Standardize the Structure
We follow a set of guidelines for our Team Builder videos. These work for us, but you should certainly tweak them to serve your own company’s needs.
We keep our videos under three minutes in length.
I almost always introduce the video, but other team members will join in when they have an important message to share.
We always start by reiterating GLC’s mission, vision, and core values and then recognize upcoming birthdays, work anniversaries, new hires, promotions, and any other administrative announcements. If clients have complimented our team or if we’ve noticed a team member doing exceptional work, we’ll highlight that as well.
We keep the rest of the video focused on a single message that we want our team to focus on in the coming weeks. This may be a safety topic, a tip to improve work quality, or an overview of a process.
We always end on a positive note. We want our team members to feel good about our company and their contribution to it.
Our Team Builder videos are not the only way we show our appreciation and engage our team, and they aren’t meant to replace our managers directly recognizing team members on their birthdays and work anniversaries and for their hard work. But they are a relatively simple method for me to stay connected and for us to build and reinforce our company culture. Give it a try and see if this can work for you!
As always, if you have any questions or an idea to share, drop us a line at grow@growgroupinc.com.
President & CEO
The Grow Group & Grunder Landscaping Co.
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