Video is everywhere – from YouTube to Google search results and social media. It’s no surprise that video has become so universally popular, given its ability to inspire, educate, and entertain. It adds the human element to digital communications like no other medium, helping to build transparency and trust with viewers. The impact is so broad that nearly 92% of people watch some kind of video every week.
In recruitment, video is particularly powerful because it can engage candidates from the moment of awareness to the end of the application process. As part of a comprehensive employer branding strategy, video can mean the difference between struggling to compete for talent and cultivating eager and highly-interested applicants.
Videos create rich, visual storytelling that builds connections between brands, their customers, the public, and prospective employees. Here are five key reasons why employers should use video extensively in every stage of the recruitment process:
From TikTok videos to Instagram Reels, video has exploded on social media. Videos are entertaining, educational, inspiring, and perhaps most of all, easy to make. Smartphones with high-quality recording features and video editing apps have made it easier than ever to record creative videos that resonate with viewers.
According to a 2023 study, video represents 65% of all internet traffic. Thus the power of video lies not just in its impact today, but also in its potential for the future. The youngest and most digitally-connected generation yet, Gen Z, loves video. A Morning Consult survey found that over half of Gen Zers spend four or more hours daily on social media, with video-rich platforms (YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok) ranking among their favorites.
Digital content that tells a human-first, transparent story about the workplace has never been more critical. As Generation Z continues to enter the workforce, it will be necessary for employers trying to recruit them to incorporate video into their strategy. For this generation of talent, video isn’t just a nice add-on; it is an integral component of all recruitment marketing activities.
Tip: Gen Z isn’t the only generation that responds to video, and social media is just one of several media channels employers can use to promote brand videos. By using video across multiple channels, employers can increase the odds of engaging prospective candidates across generations.
Over the last few years, the pandemic has moved several recruitment activities online. Though many companies have gradually returned to physical offices after years of working from home, several digital interactions and events have remained. Now, it’s common to conduct video interviews and meet candidates at virtual career fairs and networking events vs. sitting face-to-face across a table. However, since many candidates may never visit their prospective employer’s workplace, or may only get a glimpse at the very end of the hiring process, video can help bridge the gap. It offers candidates a holistic view of what makes an employer unique and a great place to work.
Transparency during the hiring process helps candidates develop an honest view of the company, the role, and the work they can expect as an employee. By incorporating video in branding and recruitment activities, employees don’t have to rely only on interview conversations to form a view about their potential fit in an organization’s culture; they can see it for themselves. Also, videos can help candidates decide that they don't want to work at a company, leading to a higher quality candidate pool.
Recruitment videos can come in any of the following formats:
Trust and transparency go hand-in-hand in the candidate journey. After all, it’s one thing to “talk the talk” about company culture and the benefits of working for a company, but it’s another to showcase real employees demonstrating the cultural values alive in the organization. For this reason, there’s almost no better advocate of a strong company culture than current employees. Employees are the company's biggest culture carriers and champions. They drive the employer brand and promote its reputation.
Tip: Candidates trust a company's employees three times more than the company to provide honest information on what it's like to work there. By enlisting employees to record videos highlighting their employee experience, employers can give candidates an authentic look inside their company and culture.
Whether organizations post employee videos about being promoted, the first day at work, or what employees love about their team, they can use those videos to highlight many of the qualities candidates seek in an employer, including:
Employers benefit from each video produced and promoted across the company career site, job postings, and social media. As employees share videos, tell their personal stories on LinkedIn, and build interest among their extended professional network, their employers can enjoy a growing pool of potential applicants.
Also, highlighting employee experiences on video strengthens a company’s brand and employee value proposition (EVP), ultimately helping candidates become enthusiastic applicants and future promoters.
Tip: Make sure to have a good balance of videos that are positive, but also include some videos that talk about the challenges that the company is working through. This helps make sure the company is being authentic and builds more trust – because hiring professionals are not only sharing video from the “highlight reel.”
Considering that up to 70% of prospective candidates may be passive and not in an active job search, employers can be more effective in getting their attention with video. A key reason has to do with how Google ranks search results. Simply put, video adds richness and variety to content, which helps Google’s algorithm determine the content’s relevance and position in search results. By adding videos to Google Job Ads, employers can potentially get even more space on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Similar opportunities exist to attract candidates via social media. A Wyzowl survey found that 51% of people are more likely to share video than any other type of content. As an employer’s video content is shared across LinkedIn, Instagram, and other platforms, passive candidates are likely to become more educated about employer brands that weren’t on their radar before. As they begin to click on videos and other company content, they will become more acquainted with the brand and potentially more likely to apply.
Also, when it comes to retaining information, viewers have a remarkable advantage. Studies show that individuals retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, while only retaining 10% when they read it in text. This showcases that people have a stronger recollection of what they see compared to what they read.
Tip: The click-through rate (CTR) of branding content and job ads is just one measure of candidates’ interest in an employer. Tracking recruitment analytics can help employers understand which branding videos and other content yield the most candidate engagement.
The candidate journey is comprised of several touchpoints, including conversations with recruiters, interactions with branding content, and feedback from current and former employees. When employers incorporate video into each stage of the candidate journey, they maximize opportunities to engage candidates and encourage more applications.
Here are just a few examples of how video impacts the three candidate stages of awareness, consideration, and decision:
The evidence points toward the value of video in recruitment marketing, and it’s not too late for employers to make video an integral part of their employer brand strategy. Regardless of budget, employers can use video to tell the story of their company culture and bring it to life.
For help easily implementing video into your recruitment strategy, Jamyr is a great place to start! Jamyr helps employers scale video content for recruiting, making it easy to produce and add videos to any web page, social media platform, or job posting.
—
The team at Recruitics is skilled with creating recruitment strategies unique to individual companies to attract and hire great talent. To learn more about how Recruitics can help your recruitment strategies and why Jamyr can help scale your video production efforts, reach out and start the conversation.
