Home > News > February 2004 > 26-Feb-2004

Stroud & Swindon video communicates business plan to staff

Senior executives at the Stroud & Swindon Building Society have appeared in a corporate video to explain the Society's aims and objectives for 2004 clearly and consistently to its 400 employees.

Developed by Balance Learning, the 20-minute video highlights Stroud & Swindon's corporate plans for the year and the financial and business implications for staff. Introduced by the Society's Chief Executive - and featuring executive directors as well as head office and branch managers - it also highlights customer service and promotional issues together with implications of new regulations in the industry.

"In the past, we've produced printed reports which managers have used to discuss the corporate plans with their teams," said David Greenleaf, Stroud & Swindon's Corporate Communications Manager. "We wanted to produce a video to provide a more accessible, credible and consistent message to staff. Balance Learning have worked with us before on a video project. They're complete professionals and they produced an excellent product."

The video was first screened at an annual conference, for Stroud & Swindon's 90 managers, in January 2004. The managers were then shown how to use the video in team briefings, to cascade the information throughout the organisation. Balance also produced a short, humorous film, featuring out-takes from the main video interspersed with headlines of the Society's successes in 2003, which was used as an ‘ice-breaker' at the conference.

"Feedback from the conference showed that managers really liked the video and they felt that it was a very effective way to deliver our corporate messages," said David Greenleaf.

Balance provided 50 copies of the video which were distributed to Stroud & Swindon's 22 branches - across Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire - and to each head office department. Each manager then showed the video to their team and held discussions with each team member about the key messages and whether these raised individual training or development needs.

"Balance Learning produced a worksheet to help each member of staff record their skills and knowledge needs in the context of the corporate plan," said David Greenleaf. "This also provided us with structured feedback on the key messages in the video. Staff were given three weeks to complete these worksheets and we now have a list of training priorities which we need to address to help us realise our aims and objectives."

To produce the video, Balance Learning filmed a meeting where branch managers questioned the Sales Director on key aspects of the corporate plan. Where appropriate, the video cuts to particular ‘experts' on each issue - such as the marketing or HR Manager - who were filmed separately and provide specific information to answer the questions raised. The Chief Executive and the three executive directors were filmed individually and at a round-table forum where they discussed some of the key issues for 2004. Balance also shot some general scenes of the head office and a branch in operation, which were edited into the finished product.

"Balance Learning were able to film our directors and managers quickly and efficiently, at times that suited us," said David Greenleaf. "The fact that our senior executives are in the video gives the whole project added credibility, particularly for branch-based staff, some of whom may never have seen these managers before."

David Greenleaf says the video proved to be a very successful way of communicating the business plan to all employees.

"The video not only raised employee understanding of our objectives for the year but it also enabled each member of staff to analyse their own training and development needs," he said. "As a result, we're now in a much better position to achieve our operational goals."

Training and development books

Discover books on a variety of training and development topics at the Training Reference Bookshop

Source suppliers

Visit the Training Reference Directory to view supplier details for a wide range of courses, products and services.

Sponsored links

Back to top