MetLife has seen a positive shift in UK employee engagement and collaboration through the launch of an innovative new online internal platform for capturing and sharing employee-generated videos.

The idea for OneVoice – a “YouTube-style” intranet site – was conceived by employees at a MetLife Innovation Program meeting. A cross-functional working group of employees then delivered OneVoice in under five months.

Employees can upload short videos highlighting how their work is helping deliver the strategy. Colleagues can like, comment, tag and share videos. Following a successful UK pilot, OneVoice has been rolled out to a further eight countries.
 

 
MetLife’s OneVoice internal video platform has driven an exciting new wave of employee engagement.

UK employees have engaged actively with the “YouTube-style” platform that enables them to upload short videos explaining how they are helping to deliver the strategy and tag, like, comment and share on videos.

More than 120 employee-generated videos have been uploaded since launch in June 2014. 350 employees have registered on the site, with over 3,000 individual views averaging just under a minute plus 300 likes and 100 comments.

OneVoice has also created searchable pools of strategic video content, driving collaboration and best practice sharing.
 

 
OneVoice was an employee-generated idea – conceived and developed as part of a “MetLife Innovation Program” meeting.

A representative sample of employees were invited to innovate around specific business challenges – in this case “How do we build and maintain employee engagement with the strategy”.

In just a few hours of structured brainstorming and filtering of concepts, the idea for OneVoice emerged. It was presented back to employees and then voted on against other initiatives.

Seed funding was provided for a rapid pilot process, taking OneVoice from idea to launch in less than 5 months.
 

 
Believe that employees hold the solutions to your questions and challenges. There is a vast resource of knowledge, experience, creativity and ideas waiting to be tapped.

Involving employees in developing new approaches builds ownership of the solution and drives engagement.

Also, sometimes the best things in life really are free (well, almost). Creating a simple, internal process to unlock employee ideas and innovation saves money, is fast and is “consultant-free”; while a ready acceptance of potential failure offers a safe environment to test and learn.