If your business is one of the many that has introduced diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the last few years, you might still be finding what works. And we want to help, because knowing you want to encourage and support diversity is one thing. Creating a strategy to do that is a whole other challenge. Here are four types of DEI videos that can help support your diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Reasons To Create DEI Videos
You don’t need us to explain why diversity, equity and inclusion are important, but you might need some support in finding tools to help build a more inclusive workplace. Whether you’re making your workplace more welcoming for BIPOC employees or addressing the needs of neurodiverse team members, video is a valuable part of your DEI toolkit.
Video can:
- Combine visual and auditory elements to make your message immersive
- Allow viewers to go at their own pace when tackling emotionally charged topics
- Give employees a close-up view of different perspectives and lived experiences
- Package information into a story viewers want to engage with
In short, video can help you advance your DEI initiatives by inviting employees to engage deeply with the ideas you’re presenting.
1. DEI Video Can Train People To Create An Inclusive Workplace
We’ve written before about how video can be used for employee training and for hiring and recruiting. The same qualities that make video valuable for those applications apply to DEI videos as well.
Videos, especially animated videos, excel at engaging audiences, laying out goals and strategy, and eliciting an emotional response. By telling stories about the kind of workplace you want to build, you offer employees a blueprint for what such a workplace might look like.
2. Video Can Help People Identify Unconscious Bias
Nobody likes to be told they’re biased. Most people like to think of themselves as fair and inclusive. Yet we know that many people do have unconscious biases that can affect their choices and behavior.
In-person conversations about unconscious bias can be emotionally charged and leave people feeling defensive. Packaging the message into a story told through video can make the message feel less threatening. People naturally engage with a story by imagining themselves as the main character of the tale, and the best videos tell immersive stories.
You can use animated characters or actors to tell stories about bias. Then, you can give people tools to confront and short-circuit their biases.
3. DEI Videos Can Spread The Values Of Equity And Inclusion
Many businesses use video for onboarding and orientation because videos excel at helping employees envision values in action. Your DEI values are part of your company culture and should be shared throughout the organization.
You can use video to capture and share employee stories of how diversity and inclusion are valued within your organization. Helping real employees tell their stories makes the message feel more personal and real.
These videos become tools for recruitment and onboarding that helps set expectations for how people in your organization work with each other and value each others’ viewpoints.
4. Video Can Define The Legal Parameters Of DEI
Video is also ideal for explaining complex or dry topics in engaging ways. You can use DEI video to explain equity and diversity laws so employees understand their rights and know what behaviors are required to comply with the law.
Presenting such topics in video makes them more memorable. Animating these videos can also keep viewers engaged by making a dry topic just that little bit more interesting.
DEI Video Types to Meet Every Goal
To make a difference, DEI has to be more than a policy. It must be a philosophy and way of behaving. In short, DEI needs to be an embedded part of the business culture. Whatever your DEI goals, video can help support them. To explore how video can bring DEI initiatives to life for your employees, contact the HR video experts at IdeaRocket. We make videos in techniques such as 2d and 3d animation, mixed media, whiteboard, motion graphics and live action.
