In today's digital age, video has emerged as the dominant form of communication, revolutionizing how organizations connect with their audiences and potential hires. Through the integration of video content within the recruitment strategy, companies can offer valuable glimpses into the employee experience, thus enriching the candidate journey and fostering a better candidate experience.
While businesses recognize the importance of video, it's surprising to discover that 43% lack a video strategy. If a company is interested in enhancing their approach, here are nine tips to consider.
Seventy-seven percent of job seekers consider a company's culture before applying, and 79% consider a company’s mission and purpose. Videos can aid with this by showcasing to candidates who the company is and what they stand for. By offering videos highlighting information about a company, hiring professionals can provide interested candidates with a better understanding of the company's values and culture, enabling them to assess whether it aligns with their beliefs.
When a brand demonstrates its authenticity and values, it establishes a stronger connection with both consumers and employees. By fostering this relationship, organizations can create a sense of belonging and loyalty, making individuals feel more connected to the brand and its mission.
Tip: Look beyond superficial perks (like free snacks and pizza parties) and highlight how collaborative the team is, the support provided to employees, and any commitment to work/life balance. Highlighting aspects like these gives candidates a genuine glimpse into the company culture. This allows the company to not just “talk the talk,” but “walk the walk” about their commitment to their team and their values.
With users spending an average of 88% more time on pages with videos, there is an amazing opportunity for hiring managers to distinguish the company, amplify exposure, and increase engagement. However, a big issue for companies is how to implement video production strategies into their schedules or how to ramp up production efforts.
Embracing technology and video production platforms allow companies to efficiently streamline their projects, thus saving time and resources while maintaining a high-quality output of recruitment videos.
Jamyr offers an all-in-one video platform for creating and sharing various types of video content, including video job postings, culture content, employee testimonials, onboarding guides, and internal communications. The platform provides easy-to-use tools and customizable solutions for creating engaging video content that showcases the employer brand, attracts top talent, and streamlines the onboarding process. Jamyr enables organizations of all sizes to deliver employee-generated video content at scale, allowing them to engage job seekers with exceptional and relevant videos strategically.
Having highly produced videos are great, but audiences seek real, raw content when it comes to employer branding videos. Platforms like Jamyr help create videos that allow employees to easily create content and share their authentic stories when and where they please.
Engaging candidates and effectively communicating a company's unique attributes are essential in attracting top talent. A crucial aspect of achieving this lies in cultivating and showcasing a thoughtful, authentic employer brand.
Harnessing the power of employee storytelling can significantly benefit the employer brand. According to Career Arc, candidates trust a company's employees three times more than the company itself when it comes to providing credible information about what it's like to work there.
Encouraging employees to share their stories makes the content more relatable and fosters stronger connections with viewers. These videos help humanize the employer brand, establishing a more personal connection with prospective candidates. Also, companies can increase the likelihood of attracting top talent by allowing candidates to "meet" potential coworkers, catch a glimpse of the office environment, and hear firsthand why employees recommend working at a company.
Leveraging employee-generated content, like testimonial videos, allows candidates to hear directly from enthusiastic and motivated employees – enhancing employer branding efforts by demonstrating that the company values and appreciates their employees. To ensure authenticity in the videos, companies need to steer clear of scripts. Instead, seek out employees who are comfortable on camera and are willing to speak from the heart. This helps create content that’s easier to relate to.
Tip: When creating videos, hearing from leadership is excellent, but it’s crucial to also share employee stories from across the company (no matter their title). This creates an opportunity for candidates to connect to someone they might potentially work with, which helps them envision themselves at the company easier.
There has been a 30% decline in the average attention span in the last 15 years, resulting in people now being able to focus for only 8.25 seconds, as opposed to the previous 12-second capacity. This showcases how companies need to quickly grab the audience’s attention and get to the point.
To elaborate, sometimes video content might be over three minutes long, scripted, cheesy, and boring. Switching to user-generated content (UGC), or employee-generated content, is still new for many companies from a brand perspective, but that's how the world sells stuff – and how audiences engage in the content. When creating videos, companies must ensure they are creating content that the audience seeks and expects.
Eighty percent of people agree that a video about a job helps them better understand the role. When candidates are provided a comprehensive understanding of the role they are applying for, they are better equipped to make informed decisions – which can improve employee retention rates.
Videos can be used to address common questions and concerns during the early stages of the interview process. This helps organizations ensure that candidates are on the same page from the start. These kinds of videos can address topics such as promotion opportunities, paid time off (PTO), flexible working models, and other common questions that candidates typically have when job searching. This approach helps to limit the number of recruits who drop out of the interviewing process after the first round. Ultimately, this leads to a more efficient and productive interviewing process for both candidates and organizations.
Also, job postings that include videos experience a 34% increase in application rates compared to those without videos. This highlights how helpful videos can be for sharing more detail about the job. Consider sharing a day in the life from an actual employee who shares the same role, or a video from the hiring manager with more context about the job.
In recruitment videos, it is crucial to prioritize the candidate's perspective and put them first. Hiring professionals can start this process by identifying their target audience – individuals seen as an ideal fit – and tailoring the message to resonate with them.
For instance, Fiverr has a light-hearted identity to attract laid-back, easy-going individuals. By aligning recruitment videos with the characteristics and values of the target audience, companies can increase the likelihood of attracting the right talent.
Tip: Creating candidate personas can help hiring professionals create content that speaks directly to their target audience.
A clear call to action (CTA) is crucial in recruitment videos, prompting viewers to take specific actions after watching. It’s important to include a distinct CTA at the end of the video so viewers have a way to engage further with a company. To elaborate, the CTA can prompt viewers to apply for the role immediately, encourage them to share the video on social media platforms or invite them to forward it to potential candidates who may be a good fit.
By incorporating a persuasive and enticing CTA, recruitment videos can effectively increase engagement and maximize the impact of the content.
Tip: Keep the CTA short, concise, and clear on what to do after watching the video. This can include language such as “Follow us on social media,” “Click below to learn more,” “Apply Now,” etc.
Forty-six percent of candidates are more likely to consider a job opportunity when a hiring manager records a video. An excellent way for a hiring professional to incorporate video is by reviewing every step of the hiring process. This video should set realistic expectations for candidates, ensuring they clearly understand what to expect – which can help foster a strong candidate experience.
Ensure this video goes in-depth about the hiring process, from the application to the onboarding process. By offering this level of visibility, candidates and the talent acquisition team can have a seamless and positive experience throughout the recruitment journey.
Tip: Review and audit the hiring process every few months to ensure it’s optimal and efficient. This way, companies can update the video if there are any changes. To elaborate, suppose the video isn’t updated and shares an incorrect hiring process. This might mislead candidates – leading to a poor experience with the company (which can damage their reputation and employer brand).
For both candidates and employees, it’s essential to meet them where they are.
To effectively engage candidates, it is crucial to incorporate recruitment videos into various touchpoints in the candidate journey. This can include the company’s website, social channels, company profiles, and job listing pages – ensuring maximum exposure and reach. Also, company newsletters serve as an excellent platform to engage an already interested audience, making it an ideal medium to showcase the company in a new, dynamic way.
Allowing employees to share their authentic stories internally and externally is a powerful way to strengthen the brand. Internally, platforms like Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), Slack channels, and company newsletters provide avenues for employees to share their experiences – contributing to a sense of community and fostering a sense of belonging. Encouraging employees to share their stories might inspire them to share these videos with their peers, extending the reach of the content. This amplifies the employer brand and increases the chances of attracting top talent who resonate with the genuine experiences being shared by employees.
Incorporating video content into the recruitment strategy is an effective way to showcase the company’s employer brand, attract top talent, reduce recruitment costs, and enhance the candidate experience. By following the tips outlined in this blog post, organizations can create engaging and authentic recruitment videos that help to differentiate themselves from competitors and resonate with top talent.
The team at Recruitics has a passion for making talent acquisition easier for you. We’ve created products, like Jamyr, to make it easy to attract and hire top talent. Get in touch with the team today and see how we can help you make sharing employee stories easy.
