Do I need to remake my corporate video when a featured employee quits?

If your company has invested in video, you likely want that video to serve your organization for years to come. But in today’s corporate environment the average US employee only stays for 4.1 years. So what happens when someone that you feature in your corporate video leaves? Do you edit them out? Reshoot with a new employee? Trash the video? 

As is often the case, the answer is: it depends. Let’s outline a few situations and recommendations.

The Everyday Employee

In most circumstances, when an employee leaves the company, it’s perfectly appropriate to simply leave your video as is. They were an employee when they sat down for the interview, and if the experiences and stories they shared are still representative of the current state of the company, then your content is still relevant and accurate. 

Remember that most viewers won’t know that the employee has since left, and even if they are aware, audiences understand that careers grow and videos age.

If the employee was terminated or left on bad terms, you might consider a re-edit, these can be sensitive situations and removing the employee from the video might be the most respectful path forward.

The New CEO

We firmly believe that getting your CEO in front of a camera is a great way to build healthy culture within your organization. Vern even wrote a book about it. But, when the CEO leaves, what do you do about those videos?

It’s often acceptable to leave old videos of the CEO visible on the company’s YouTube page. These channels are a timestamped archive. However, any videos solely featuring the CEO should be removed from the main pages of the website, or they could confuse site visitors. If the content is an important addition to the site, these videos can be reshot with the new CEO or other members of the leadership team.

In any ensemble videos that feature the CEO as well as multiple employees, a re-edit is likely the most appropriate path forward.

What About Reshooting?

Reshooting new interview clips to insert into an existing video, is not just a matter of sticking the new interviewee in front of an iPhone and having them repeat the same words as the last person. The quality of the footage and the shooting style will need to match. If all of the other interviews in a video took place against the same backdrop, you’ll likely need to recreate that too. Because of these additional considerations, it may make sense to just start fresh with a new video concept entirely

A Note on Casting

This is one of those situations where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. When beginning a corporate video project, think about who at the company is likely to stick around. Even if you have a star employee who you know will be great on camera, if they have one foot out the door, they may not be the best option for your project. Of course, no one can predict the future, but allowing adequate time to assemble the right cast can ensure your video will remain relevant for years to come

The Upshot

In short, an employee leaving the company is rarely a big deal in the world of video, and you’re probably fine to leave your content as is.