In the second installment of a series on on executive Q&A videos, I shared Chip Cruze’s tips for making a video and posting it on the company intranet. For this post, I asked Cruze to give his perspective as communications planner on the benefits of executive Q&A videos.

When deciding if executive Q&A videos are right for your company, consider these facts:

• After a small, one-time investment (Flip UltraHD Video Camera – Black, 8 GB, 2 Hours (3rd Generation) NEWEST MODEL and Flip Video Tripod), the videos cost nothing but the time it takes to make and post them.

• The videos “cultivate a culture of communication” where “everyone feels welcome to ask” and “every question is fair game.”

• The videos can go further to creating an “open door” culture than an actual open door. Many executives and managers say they have an open door policy and they mean it. But it’s hard for many employees to walk through that door. “The majority people just aren’t going to walk into the CEO’s office and ask for a minute,” Cruze reasons. It’s much easier to submit a question for a video Q&A.

• Most videos should take only 5-10 minutes to make (you don’t want them to be too long). It would take most of us exponentially longer to type up, proof, and polish a companywide email or memo with the same amount of information.

Technology for HR: Videos aren’t the only way to use your intranet as an employee engagement tool. Research more options for getting the most out of your intranet online.

In the final post of the series on executive Q&A videos, I’ll talk to some of our company’s executives who participated in Cruze’s videos to get their perspectives.

– Celeste Blackburn

Want to start harnessing the power of your intranet to drive employee engagement, post your handbook, communicate with employees in an emergency, and more? The Technology for HR manual guides you through making the most of your company’s intranet.

In a previous post, I wrote about video Q&As with the C suite from my perspective as an employee just having watched series of said videos. I liked how they were done, giving employees to ask the hard questions anonymously and at the same time showing us that it was our department heads and president answering our questions (instead of rubber stamping an e-mail written by someone else).

For the second installment of the series into executive Q&A videos, I went to Chip Cruze, the executive producer of the series and our internal communications planner, for the inside scoop on making a video and what to do with the finished product. Here are his tips:

• It doesn’t have to be expensive or elaborate.  Cruze shoots with a flip camera on a tripod set up on the interviewee’s desk.

• No reshoots! If at all possible, you want these answers to be unrehearsed. The more polished the answers become, the less genuine they will seem. If the video will feature more than one question, do everything in one take. Don’t splice anything together. “You don’t want to look slick,” Cruze says.

• Even though you want the videos to be “intentionally unscripted,” you can let the executives see the questions beforehand. They just have to promise not to rehearse in front of the bathroom mirror. It’s important to ensure the right people get the right questions.  Send out a list of all the questions and let the executives decide which ones best suit their expertise.

• Don’t be afraid to get a little personal. In their first videos, have the executives start with a little bit of biographical information. Cover the basics like name and a description of the work they do with the company. Then, have them offer up a little bit about themselves outside of work. It will help employees see them as more than the suit in the corner office.

• Post the videos on the company’s intranet. Depending on how you set security for your intranet, this offers an employees-only access option. Also, Cruze points out, “Everybody that is going to be here hasn’t always been here, but they should still have access to these answers and the personal side of these executives.” Posting the videos on your intranet creates an online library that you can use to familiarize new employees with your management team and employees can reference and watch  again if a question comes up.

Technology for HR: Research more options for using your intranet for employee engagement online.

Tune in net week when I investigate the benefits of executive Q&A videos from a communications planer’s perspective.

– Celeste Blackburn

Want to start harnessing the power of your intranet to drive employee engagement, post your handbook, communicate with employees in an emergency, and more? The Technology for HR manual guides you through making the most of your company’s intranet.

It’s the start of a New Year, and we all know what that means…the opening of the International Consumer Electronics Show! The hot gadgets at this year’s CES include: More iPad wannabes than you can shake an app at (Are tablets the future of workplace technology?)…3-D mobile phones… robots…and much more.

For those who want to combine the comfort of a La-Z-Boy with the thrilling coolness of browsing a tablet, I give you the ultimate in tech furniture.

AP reported this week that Apple CEO Steve Jobs hauls in annual salary of just $1. No, that can’t be! However, if you read the fine print, you’ll notice that Jobs has 5.5 million shares of Apple stock, which translates into $1.8 billion. Does Apple give him a payroll check for $1? A dollar bill instead? Curious readers would like to know.

If you live in one of these 27 states, don’t throw away your old tech gadgets. In some cases, you might be breaking the law. Seriously?

What else is happening?

-Ralph Gaillard

Fascinating read on the rise of the YouTube-based college application. What’s even more interesting: College admission officers are driving the YouTube bus, encouraging students to incorporate online videos into their applications. Could YouTube job interviews be far behind?

More evidence that HR managers should worry about social media’s impact on employee productivity: Twitter users can now add photos and videos to their “tweets.”

Halloween came early for me when I read this recent article about the use of robots in the workplace. I’m not kidding. It’s a long article, but it’s worth reading this weekend.

For those who have caught robot fever (Was that the name of a disco song?), here is my favorite headline of the day: CEO Guide To Robots in the Workplace.

What else is happening?

-Ralph Gaillard

Five years ago, you probably never imagined you’d ever have to make a policy regulating which employees could be friends — or if they could be friends at all. But Facebook, the social media monster with half a billion members and growing, has changed what it means to be a “friend.” Once you’ve “friended” someone on Facebook, you usually have access to personal pictures, posts, and other information. While that can build camaraderie amongst coworkers, it can be a sticky situation when supervisors and subordinates become friends.

For instance, unwanted attention or comments during off-duty time could turn into a workplace harassment ordeal. The situation only becomes more complicated when supervisors and subordinates become Facebook friends. A supervisor “friending” one subordinate and not another could lead to claims of favoritism. The revelation of an employee’s alternative lifestyle paired with adverse employment action could lead to a discrimination charge.

read more…

Only 8% of the CFOs who responded said they were “largely” or “highly” satisfied with their HR technology’s usefulness in quantifying the company’s return on human capital investments, according to a study conducted by CFO Research Services in collaboration with Mercer Human Resource Consulting. The authors of the study, “Human capital management: The CFO’s Perspective,” go on to paint an even gloomier picture, writing, “Historically, there’s been little love lost between finance and HR in most companies.” And to top it all off and bring it together, they assert that “the changing business landscape makes it necessary for these two areas to come together in new, more-collaborative ways.”

You want to invest in technology to help your department run more efficiently and provide better service to employees, but you are faced with the daunting task of making the sale to the CFO before any funds are approved. What is an HR person to do? read more…