Recruitment in the Video Age

Candidate engagement is a prerequisite to employee engagement. Video allows you to show the world what it is like to work in your organization and gives candidates an opportunity to connect and picture themselves fitting in.

Giving people the opportunity to opt in on the basis of knowing the reality of your environment sets a firm foundation and reduces the risk of buyer's remorse. Thinking about putting your own recruitment video online? From our experience creating our own video, here is our tip list;

Keep it Short
2 minutes is the magic number. After 2 minutes most will move on to something else on your site or leave it altogether. We know. Our 5 minute video gets watched on average for 2 minutes.

Let Employees Say What They Want
You can’t edit reality. Your employees need to be allowed to say what it is really like. On our Culture page we asked each participant these questions and then asked them to use part of the question in their answer.

• Why did you decide to apply with us?
• What was it like going through the HiringSmart process with our company?
• Why do you stay at HiringSmart?
• In one word how would you describe working at HiringSmart?

If you were to ask these questions to your people today, what would they tell you? If it is something that you would be scared to put on the internet then you may have just uncovered your biggest attraction problem.

Show, Don't Tell
Bring in a video camera to the office and let people just pick it up and make their own video of co-workers throughout the day. Take a run through the building and show what it looks like. This is more effective than telling prospective recruits that you have a laid back atmosphere.

Know Your Message
Do you want to emphasize a fun atmosphere, lots of advancement opportunities, or promote particular groups, such as women or minorities?

Do It Right
The cost of a good quality video is cheaper than you think. We used Duncan Moss at Moss Media Productions for putting together the final edited version. A little professional lighting can do wonders for the final look.

Promote it Everywhere
Create your own YouTube Channel, attach the videos into your company’s FaceBook group, link to them from your company website, provide links everywhere.Your video will be part of the employment brand promise that is out there on the web just like your product brand is out there. Some will see themselves in your world and others will decide it is not for them. That is the goal – to have candidates self-select themselves out of the process before you hire the wrong fit.

For great examples of other recruitment videos visit some of our clients at www.HiringSmart.com/Gallery