Press Play on Your Video Recruitment Efforts

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Video Camera

In 2016, you’re reading these words. But if it were 2019, chances are you’d be watchingme tell you this story. Cisco predicts that video will make up 80 percent of all consumer Internet traffic just three years from now (in 2014, this number was 64 percent).

This trend will also impact the way you engage with talent, if it hasn’t already. Failure to press play – now – on a strategy to include video in your recruitment efforts will not only give your competition the chance to fast forward ahead of you, but also cause candidates to hit the pause button on their interest in your organization.

The written word will never be dead, but in cyberspace it will take a backseat to video as the most engaging way to convey a message online (with text probably being relegated to the video description box).

If this sounds worrisome, there is a silver lining. Several companies, including one of our partners, Digi-Me, have created businesses around recruitment videos. Digi-Me company reports that video job ads are 53 times more likely to appear on the first page of Google search results and can improve a candidate’s understanding of a job description by as much as 300 percent.

In our (Alexander Mann Solutions ) recent work with a global banking institution, we saw video job ads yield a 500 percent increase in click-throughs, 50 percent more applications, and a significant improvement in appropriately qualified candidates applying. It also enabled us to reduce media spend by about 30 percent.

OceanIf you’re ready to dip your toes into video, here are some tips to get you started:

  1. Loop in Your Marketing Team: They may already have resources you can use or well-vetted video suppliers they can refer you to. And – this is important – they’ll ensure you stay on-brand.
  2. Create Short, Engaging Videos: We suggest never exceeding three minutes in length.
  3. Don’t Script Your Subjects: Prepare questions and give people enough lead time to think about their answers, but let everyone speak naturally on camera. Reshoot an answer if it doesn’t work the first time. Digital film is free – you can edit out as much as you need to.
  4. Shoot a Collection of Reusable “Stock Footage”: Shots of people working, company logos on the walls, meetings in action, your products being produced, etc.: You can reuse it in future videos. As with written job specs, the only part that needs to be different is the information about the specific role, which will probably only account for 15-30 seconds of footage.
  5. Give Candidates an Inside View: Think about how you can use video to give candidates an inside view of your company, or a role, or the day in the life of an employee. Bringing your company to life through video is a powerful way to attract candidates who fit your culture.
  6. Think About the Other Ways You Can Use Video: You might not be quite ready for live streaming or Periscope, but video interviewing is another way you can use video to breathe more life into the candidate experience (and reduce the cost of travel if you’re interviewing remote candidates). Look at companies like Hirevue, Jobvite, and Sparkhire, which all offer easy-to-use video interviewing platforms.

In less than 24 months, it’s possible that these very words will seem archaic. But the same thing doesn’t need to happen to your job postings. Video content can supercharge your level of engagement with potential candidates and keep your company ahead of the curve in finding and attracting great employees.

Just press play.

By Liz Weeks