As one of the most compelling and informative media formats, video is also a preferred recruitment tool. When organizations are looking to hire new employees, they often need to be able to convey the culture, benefits, and goals of their business quickly. Video makes it possible to create an engaging presentation that can be specifically targeted to a core demographic of employees. Here are some of the ways that the largest and most successful companies are currently using video to recruit new talent.
Keep It Simple: Find Your Major Points and Stick to Them
Employees today are entertaining many offers. They’re going to decide whether your company sounds right to them within just a few minutes of time — and then they’re going to move onto the next. Microsoft’s recruitment videos are often just a few minutes long, highlighting a few important points at a time. It’s these points that an employee is most likely to remember: if you have a fusillade of different information, it’s just going to become confusing.
Boil down the benefits of your company to three or four major topics. These are topics that you don’t need to discuss in-depth; if they sound good to your future employees, then they are going to do the research to find out more. Try to isolate what makes your business truly special compared to the competition.
When procuring the best talent, you can already assume that your employees are relatively aware of the market conditions, their job desirability, and competing job offers. You can use this as a jumping off point to truly highlight what separates your organization from the pack.
Be Sincere: Get Some Employee Testimonials
Some of Google’s most effective recruiting videos have very little by way of flash. Instead, they simply focus on employee testimonials: employees themselves telling other prospective employees what makes working for Google great.
Employee testimonials have some major advantages:
- -They show that employees truly have a voice. If an organization is focused on happy employees, they would doubtlessly want to ask current employees what makes their business special.
- -They approach it from the employee perspective. Employees today want work-life balance; work is no longer the most important aspect of their lives. The things that an employee values about their workplace may have little to do with the actual work at all, such as flexible schedules and childcare.
- -They are sincere. A recruiting ad is simply a sales pitch towards a prospective employee. Employees can become skeptical of their truthfulness; employee testimonials are often seen as having greater sincerity.
In addition to all those benefits, employee testimonials are also affordable to shoot, and can be used to develop out a variety of content over time.
Inspire: Feature Your End Product
Apple is a company that is based primarily around innovation and success. So it only makes sense that many of their recruitment videos are actually targeted around their end products: the things that their employees are able to create. A recruitment video doesn’t have to be about the job. Instead, a recruitment video can be about the amazing things that a company is accomplishing… and how the employees are a part of it.
Recruitment videos aren’t just about getting bodies in the door — they’re about finding employees that are a right fit. By promoting what your company does, you can gear your recruitment towards employees who truly believe in the industry and really want to make a difference. These are employees who are going to be more focused on their projects than anything else, which is perfect for more creative, innovative, and cutting-edge businesses.
Inspirational videos can also be an excellent option for start ups, which may still have lean benefits packages. By selling employees on an idea, a business that may not otherwise be able to compete can still procure better talent on the basis of their company culture and mission statement.
Be Unique: Don’t Be Afraid to Get a Little Quirky
Companies such as Shopify have focused their recruiting around quirky little vignettes, thereby making their companies memorable — and highlighting that it’s a fun, interesting place to work. Dropbox even once made a video that featured animated puppets! As mentioned, employees today are looking for more than just a “job.” They are looking at the whole picture: how the employer is going to support their own personal journey and how exciting it will be to go to work each day.
https://youtu.be/OlyAs6INhfE
Quirkier advertising is a good way to ensure that your company is remembered, and to introduce some levity into what is otherwise usually a stressful and highly structured process. Though recruiting and analyzing employees is something that needs to be taken seriously, it doesn’t always have to be a dry and unpleasant experience.
If the voice of your brand is a little out there and unique, it’s a good idea for you to stick to your company culture and incorporate it within your recruitment. Otherwise you run the risk of recruiting employees who don’t quite fit into your company culture — who don’t quite “get it.”
Target Appropriately: Figure Out Your Core Demographics
You’d think a company such as Starbucks would have employees filtering in constantly — and you’d be right, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t still trying to recruit the best and the brightest. As one of the most successful chains in the world, Starbucks is always recruiting for both low-level and high-level employees. And that begins by identifying core demographics.
https://youtu.be/xnHeu0aK3Eg
For most of their employees, Starbucks is focusing on younger individuals and students; people who are looking to build a life and looking for that very first step. But Starbucks isn’t just seeking to be a “stepping stone,” it can also be a final stop: Starbucks offers internal opportunities for advancement. Thus, Starbucks wants to find driven young individuals who have the energy and passion to succeed.
By paring down to their core demographics early on, Starbucks is able to target their advertising effectively — and recruit the best of the best from a larger talent pool. Even though they may have employees already available, they know that they want the best options for their organization.
A recruitment campaign is very likely to include a multitude of videos, so you can try all of these tactics at once. The most important and most universal aspect of all of this is to ensure that your videos are consistent and professional. Prospective employees are going to be looking to these videos for cues as to how your business works and how successful it truly is. A professional and well-made video is going to be your first impression.
Article by Joe Forte, co-owner and producer at D-Mak Productions, a full-service Phoenix video production company.
