Blog How short-form video on an intranet improves employee engagement Last updated: June 25, 2026 Calculating… Short form video is here to stay. With digital natives expected to make up 70% of the workforce by 2030, adapting to communication styles that they genuinely engage with are more important than ever. It’s time to explore the use case for short form video in internal communication. Our Gen Z vs Millennials research identified that 73% of Gen Z are frustrated with outdated workplace tech – and 63% of Millennials agree. We cannot ignore the fact that workplace communication needs to catch up, and short form intranet videos are where we’re headed. Why short-form video on an intranet works We’re all busy, aren’t we? Whether your head is in a spreadsheet all day or you’re prepping food, selling holidays or on the manufacturing line, everyone has reduced time budgets. Consider how you’d react seeing a 30-minute long video uploaded to your intranet versus seeing a 90-second long snippet. You’d more than likely opt for the shorter version – get the highlights and crack on with your shift, your break and duties await. Time budgets paired with reduced attention spans mean that short form video is increasingly becoming relied on as a communication channel for key company updates. Short, snappy, snackable content can often drive higher engagement. Even if 50% of your frontline workforce didn’t spend 8 minutes reading the latest company announcement but instead watched the whole 90-second long video which summarised it all, you can rest assured that those colleagues are still up to speed on what’s going on. Short-form internal comms videos also bring authenticity. Your CEO recorded an update sitting in their car in the supermarket car park last night? Nice. A team at the warehouse celebrates a landmark number of shipments for the month? We love to see it. Behind-the-scenes content from events? Yes, show us everything! The unpolished, authentic, in-the-moment content is what reminds us that we’re all human and provide value to the organisation in different ways. These should be celebrated. Who benefits from short-form video content on an intranet? To be honest, everyone can! Whether it’s bringing company culture to life across multiple sites or humanising an often distanced leadership team, there’s a place for many kinds of short form videos on an intranet – it’s just finding the right way to use it that works in your organisation. Short-form intranet video makes bite-sized content accessible to all but is particularly valuable for frontline, on-the-go staff. Without clear communication, frontline and deskless workers can quickly feel isolated from the core mission. This is especially critical in fast-paced sectors where traditional long-form articles simply don’t fit into a busy shift. Bringing TikTok style videos into an employee app might seem like it’s just there to appeal to the younger generation. In reality, it’s a window into the workforce that we haven’t previously had and it’s an opportunity for colleagues to share key updates quickly, forge stronger connections and celebrate the great work they do. How having short-form video analytics can improve your employee engagement strategy We hear time and again from customers that people-based content gets the most interaction, so bringing more personality and opportunities to connect will only elevate this engagement further. Dedicated analytics for internal communication video means that you can truly understand how messages are resonating with your various internal audiences, versus traditional communication methods such as long-form written content and recordings of company Town Hall meetings. Testing short form intranet videos with certain segments of the workforce can aid decision making. See where your messages are landing better than they were previously. This insight can influence whether you choose to integrate snippets and summaries of key information into your internal communication strategy – as well as allowing people to share their own videos such as a ‘Day in the Life’, event recaps, CSR initiatives and more. What companies are using short-form video on their intranet? More and more Oak customers are using short form internal comms videos, or ‘Moments‘, to celebrate the big and small, boost morale and bring the culture to life. Five Guys has launched short form intranet videos on their employee app, Chatty Patty. What was already a very sociable site with restaurants sharing regular updates with their colleagues, now has another channel to celebrate their teams and successes with colleagues. Even with a predominantly desk-based workforce, Pluralsight is reaping the benefits of Moments to keep their dispersed colleagues connected for company and social updates. Scottish Rugby has leant into leadership updates with their CEO paving the way, putting a face to a name and showing that he is human like the rest of us. Defining your objectives to find the right employee app for your organisation The trick with short form intranet video is not to overthink it. It doesn’t need to be perfectly shot, super high quality and you don’t need whizz-kid editing skills. Just film it in portrait mode and you’re onto a winner. With that in mind, here’s how you can encourage others to bring messages to life through video and replace static text with real-world visuals. Whether it’s a 3 minute operational change or a 30 second team shout-out, it’s an opportunity to create a video. Connect with internal creators and invite them to create a short video to accompany their next update. Once they know how it’s done, they’ll be on a roll. Make it as easy as possible Remove as many barriers to entry as you can. The process is easy so create a short video tutorial and share it as a short form video so that others can follow suit. Provide content guidelines if you’re worried about what people will post If you’re opening it up so that anyone in the organisation can share their own updates, share a little light-hearted reminder that we’re still amongst colleagues so to only share appropriate content! Lead by example Invite your leaders to pave the way, sharing their own videos. Whether it’s a weekly roundup, an end of month message or a summary of what went down in the Town Hall, starting small and building this into routine can make your leaders feel much more personable and approachable – plus, their messages are more likely to be listened to – check your analytics to prove it! Level up onboarding Bitesized video to introduce new starters without overwhelming them is a great opportunity to trial short form video with a smaller segment of the workforce. While your new hires still need to get to grips with everything, short videos to introduce different teams, business units and high level info can break up the monotony of reading long documents and watching training videos. Plus, seeing this kind of content from day one could mean they’re more inclined to get involved with sharing their own updates once they’re fully integrated into the team. Consider a phased approach If you already have internal content creators and content champions in different departments, why not only give them access to share departmental updates at first, so they can vet what their teams want to upload before opening up access to the wider workforce. Get competitive Some kind of incentive to get involved often works well. Whether it’s a company-wide game or a departmental competition, there will be plenty of creative ways that your teams can get involved in content creation and get familiar with how the process works. The more that people see their peers getting involved, the more likely the behaviours will start to catch on and they’ll visit their intranet hub increasingly often. Short form internal communication video FAQs How do I upload short form video content to Oak? We’ve made uploading Moments to your intranet super simple. As long as the user has permission granted to upload short form intranet videos, all they need to do is: Upload a video direct from their device to the media library Any video under 3 minutes auto-categorised as a Moment If you’d prefer it to upload as a standard video, you can toggle it off Add a caption and click to upload, give it a little bit of time and it’ll appear on your preferred pages! Can we measure the success of short-form internal comms videos? Instead of just looking at standard views, you can utilise Oak’s analytics to track: Watch time / retention rate: Are employees dropping off after 5 seconds, or are they watching the full 90 seconds? Engagement rates: Look at the ratio of likes, comments, and shares to total views. Reach by department: Is your frontline workforce engaging with the videos more than your desk-based teams? Comparing these metrics against the readership of traditional long-form text articles will give you a clear picture of what resonates best. What if employees post inappropriate content on our employee app? This is a common concern, but in practice, workplace accountability keeps content professional. Because employees are posting under their real names and profiles, peer accountability is incredibly high. To mitigate risk, you can grant specific people permission to create moments/video content where only designated content champions have upload permissions initially. Do we need professional editing tools or equipment to get started? Not at all! In fact, high-production, heavily edited videos can actually feel clinical and less genuine. The most successful TikTok-style videos on an employee app are filmed right from a smartphone in portrait mode. Authenticity beats high production value every time. A steady hand and clear audio (stepping away from loud machinery or wind) are all you need. And if you want to invest in some mini mics, they can help too! How can we encourage shy executives to get in front of the camera? Remind them that they don’t need to deliver a flawless, scripted speech. The goal of leadership video updates is to humanise the executive team. Encourage them to start small: a 45-second phone video recapping the highlights of a board meeting, or a quick “thank you” message to a specific team. Once they see the positive comments and high engagement analytics from employees, their confidence will grow.
Short form video is here to stay. With digital natives expected to make up 70% of the workforce by 2030, adapting to communication styles that they genuinely engage with are more important than ever. It’s time to explore the use case for short form video in internal communication. Our Gen Z vs Millennials research identified that 73% of Gen Z are frustrated with outdated workplace tech – and 63% of Millennials agree. We cannot ignore the fact that workplace communication needs to catch up, and short form intranet videos are where we’re headed.
Why short-form video on an intranet works We’re all busy, aren’t we? Whether your head is in a spreadsheet all day or you’re prepping food, selling holidays or on the manufacturing line, everyone has reduced time budgets. Consider how you’d react seeing a 30-minute long video uploaded to your intranet versus seeing a 90-second long snippet. You’d more than likely opt for the shorter version – get the highlights and crack on with your shift, your break and duties await. Time budgets paired with reduced attention spans mean that short form video is increasingly becoming relied on as a communication channel for key company updates. Short, snappy, snackable content can often drive higher engagement. Even if 50% of your frontline workforce didn’t spend 8 minutes reading the latest company announcement but instead watched the whole 90-second long video which summarised it all, you can rest assured that those colleagues are still up to speed on what’s going on. Short-form internal comms videos also bring authenticity. Your CEO recorded an update sitting in their car in the supermarket car park last night? Nice. A team at the warehouse celebrates a landmark number of shipments for the month? We love to see it. Behind-the-scenes content from events? Yes, show us everything! The unpolished, authentic, in-the-moment content is what reminds us that we’re all human and provide value to the organisation in different ways. These should be celebrated.
Who benefits from short-form video content on an intranet? To be honest, everyone can! Whether it’s bringing company culture to life across multiple sites or humanising an often distanced leadership team, there’s a place for many kinds of short form videos on an intranet – it’s just finding the right way to use it that works in your organisation. Short-form intranet video makes bite-sized content accessible to all but is particularly valuable for frontline, on-the-go staff. Without clear communication, frontline and deskless workers can quickly feel isolated from the core mission. This is especially critical in fast-paced sectors where traditional long-form articles simply don’t fit into a busy shift. Bringing TikTok style videos into an employee app might seem like it’s just there to appeal to the younger generation. In reality, it’s a window into the workforce that we haven’t previously had and it’s an opportunity for colleagues to share key updates quickly, forge stronger connections and celebrate the great work they do.
How having short-form video analytics can improve your employee engagement strategy We hear time and again from customers that people-based content gets the most interaction, so bringing more personality and opportunities to connect will only elevate this engagement further. Dedicated analytics for internal communication video means that you can truly understand how messages are resonating with your various internal audiences, versus traditional communication methods such as long-form written content and recordings of company Town Hall meetings. Testing short form intranet videos with certain segments of the workforce can aid decision making. See where your messages are landing better than they were previously. This insight can influence whether you choose to integrate snippets and summaries of key information into your internal communication strategy – as well as allowing people to share their own videos such as a ‘Day in the Life’, event recaps, CSR initiatives and more.
What companies are using short-form video on their intranet? More and more Oak customers are using short form internal comms videos, or ‘Moments‘, to celebrate the big and small, boost morale and bring the culture to life. Five Guys has launched short form intranet videos on their employee app, Chatty Patty. What was already a very sociable site with restaurants sharing regular updates with their colleagues, now has another channel to celebrate their teams and successes with colleagues. Even with a predominantly desk-based workforce, Pluralsight is reaping the benefits of Moments to keep their dispersed colleagues connected for company and social updates. Scottish Rugby has leant into leadership updates with their CEO paving the way, putting a face to a name and showing that he is human like the rest of us.
Defining your objectives to find the right employee app for your organisation The trick with short form intranet video is not to overthink it. It doesn’t need to be perfectly shot, super high quality and you don’t need whizz-kid editing skills. Just film it in portrait mode and you’re onto a winner. With that in mind, here’s how you can encourage others to bring messages to life through video and replace static text with real-world visuals. Whether it’s a 3 minute operational change or a 30 second team shout-out, it’s an opportunity to create a video. Connect with internal creators and invite them to create a short video to accompany their next update. Once they know how it’s done, they’ll be on a roll. Make it as easy as possible Remove as many barriers to entry as you can. The process is easy so create a short video tutorial and share it as a short form video so that others can follow suit. Provide content guidelines if you’re worried about what people will post If you’re opening it up so that anyone in the organisation can share their own updates, share a little light-hearted reminder that we’re still amongst colleagues so to only share appropriate content! Lead by example Invite your leaders to pave the way, sharing their own videos. Whether it’s a weekly roundup, an end of month message or a summary of what went down in the Town Hall, starting small and building this into routine can make your leaders feel much more personable and approachable – plus, their messages are more likely to be listened to – check your analytics to prove it! Level up onboarding Bitesized video to introduce new starters without overwhelming them is a great opportunity to trial short form video with a smaller segment of the workforce. While your new hires still need to get to grips with everything, short videos to introduce different teams, business units and high level info can break up the monotony of reading long documents and watching training videos. Plus, seeing this kind of content from day one could mean they’re more inclined to get involved with sharing their own updates once they’re fully integrated into the team. Consider a phased approach If you already have internal content creators and content champions in different departments, why not only give them access to share departmental updates at first, so they can vet what their teams want to upload before opening up access to the wider workforce. Get competitive Some kind of incentive to get involved often works well. Whether it’s a company-wide game or a departmental competition, there will be plenty of creative ways that your teams can get involved in content creation and get familiar with how the process works. The more that people see their peers getting involved, the more likely the behaviours will start to catch on and they’ll visit their intranet hub increasingly often.
Short form internal communication video FAQs How do I upload short form video content to Oak? We’ve made uploading Moments to your intranet super simple. As long as the user has permission granted to upload short form intranet videos, all they need to do is: Upload a video direct from their device to the media library Any video under 3 minutes auto-categorised as a Moment If you’d prefer it to upload as a standard video, you can toggle it off Add a caption and click to upload, give it a little bit of time and it’ll appear on your preferred pages! Can we measure the success of short-form internal comms videos? Instead of just looking at standard views, you can utilise Oak’s analytics to track: Watch time / retention rate: Are employees dropping off after 5 seconds, or are they watching the full 90 seconds? Engagement rates: Look at the ratio of likes, comments, and shares to total views. Reach by department: Is your frontline workforce engaging with the videos more than your desk-based teams? Comparing these metrics against the readership of traditional long-form text articles will give you a clear picture of what resonates best. What if employees post inappropriate content on our employee app? This is a common concern, but in practice, workplace accountability keeps content professional. Because employees are posting under their real names and profiles, peer accountability is incredibly high. To mitigate risk, you can grant specific people permission to create moments/video content where only designated content champions have upload permissions initially. Do we need professional editing tools or equipment to get started? Not at all! In fact, high-production, heavily edited videos can actually feel clinical and less genuine. The most successful TikTok-style videos on an employee app are filmed right from a smartphone in portrait mode. Authenticity beats high production value every time. A steady hand and clear audio (stepping away from loud machinery or wind) are all you need. And if you want to invest in some mini mics, they can help too! How can we encourage shy executives to get in front of the camera? Remind them that they don’t need to deliver a flawless, scripted speech. The goal of leadership video updates is to humanise the executive team. Encourage them to start small: a 45-second phone video recapping the highlights of a board meeting, or a quick “thank you” message to a specific team. Once they see the positive comments and high engagement analytics from employees, their confidence will grow.
