After layoffs, GM buoys morale with video contest

A quick, inexpensive way to stoke staff creativity and collegiality

As round upon round of layoffs have hit, communicators in many industries have faced a recurring challenge: what to say to their surviving staff.

At General Motors, the job cuts were major gashes—21,000 hourly and salaried employees were terminated last year. And that was in the United States alone.

There needed to be more than just a static memo with corporate talking points to restore and sustain morale.

So, GM turned to video. But it wasn’t a corporate video churned out by the communications staff. Instead, the carmaker issued a challenge to its remaining 70,100 U.S. employees: an internal video contest to get employees talking about GM’s brands. It turned out to be a quick and inexpensive way to instill company pride.

One employee offered this comment on an internal blog: “These videos are awesome; some sent chills down my spine. It felt good to be a GM-er again. I felt the GM pride coming back watching many of them.”