Date: FEBRUARY 6, 2019
Written by:
Lisbet Byler
Recently, our work for Listrak was mentioned in a LinkedIn article alongside Apple, BambooHR, and Founders Brewing! The piece, reposted below, discusses harnessing the power of film for talent acquisition. We highly recommend giving it a read!
Written by Shawn Matthew. Originally published on LinkedIn on February 5th, 2019.
Remember Video Killed the Radio Star, the very first music video to air on MTV? Their lyrics proved to be an accurate prophecy, because video continues to "kill" pretty much everything in its path—especially when communicating online. It is estimated that, globally, video accounts for 80% of all consumer Internet traffic. A whopping 81% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a landing page video.
Now think about your challenges as a hiring manager, particularly when it comes to employment marketing and talent acquisition. Attracting solid candidates, meeting the demands of upper management, and staying within the parameters of your job marketing budgets are seemingly impossible tasks.
You leave no stone unturned in the search for great talent. You employ a multi-pronged marketing strategy. You invest in job fairs and online initiatives. You partner with recruiters, consultants, and basically upgrade everything in sight and onsite. Don’t forget the laborious hiring process. On a daily basis, you review as many resumes as there are pages in War and Peace (the average corporate job opening garners more than 250 resumes). Yet, good talent is still so elusive.
When making a big purchase (for example, an exercise bike), would you add it to your cart without watching its video? Would a copy block, droning on about features and benefits, be convincing enough to sell you? How much more likely would you be to drop a big chunk of change if there was an engaging clip, set to compelling music, that didn’t just TELL you, but SHOWED you how this piece of equipment will change your life?
By the time you added that bike to your cart, you’ve already developed a relationship with it. How is it any different when it comes to attracting candidates? In a world where the war for talent has been raging for decades, don’t you want to arm yourself with the most proven tools to give you a winning advantage? This edge lies in the relationship you build with that next great employee…even before their interview.
Why not use your resources on what’s proven to work? You can’t afford not to. A recruitment video is a prime example. It can bring to life the attributes of your company in the most meaningful of ways. For example, growth can be shown in graphs, but it can be felt in video. How else are you to do justice to your rich and diverse corporate world that a prospective employee might not realize exists.
Even the experts agree. Ryan Jenkins, generations speaker and future of work expert (www.ryan-jenkins.com), recently commented: “The most important thing when recruiting the next generation is video…40% of generation Z say they would use YouTube to determine if they want to work for a company. Only 24% of generation Z would use Glassdoor. YouTube’s gravity should not be surprising, considering 94% of 18-24-year-olds use it.”
Ryan continued, “The top challenge the emerging generations have before applying for a job is ‘not clearly understanding what working at the company would be like.’ This explains why generation Z is visiting YouTube. They want to see what it looks like to work at that company.”
Ryan suggested, “We help generation Z to visualize themselves working at your company by sharing videos that highlight the culture, the people that work there, the physical workspace, and even the surrounding city. This is especially important as generation Z is the first generation to be more likely to choose a city before a job.”
Incorporating video in your hiring process can truly be an exciting and gratifying endeavor. Fodder for your next great hiring video is right in front of you. Now you can capture and communicate the millions of reasons to work for your company in just a few minutes, creating a powerful following.
Shanda Trautman, Senior Vice President, Marketing at Old Missouri Bank, which operates 7 locations and has 97 employees offers her insight on the importance of video as part of their comprehensive marketing strategy. "Focusing on original content creation and storytelling through video has been a game changer for our brand," Trautman explains, going on to say, "we’ve seen a significant uptick in market share – but also in retaining and attracting talent to OMB."
Think about the possibilities:
No matter what size your company's recruiting budget is, there are plenty of options nowadays to create professional and high quality visual content. Whether or not you retain the services of a full service production company or handle the entire project internally, there are options to suit every budget.
Sarah Evans, a digital strategist who works with companies worldwide to create and improve their social and digital strategies, recommends recruiters can use online video tools such as Promo.com, one of Evan’s clients, to produce engaging video content. “This is a great tool and resource for people can shoot their own video and then edit quickly for immediate delivery.” This strategy could be combined with hiring an outside firm to produce anchor content, such as the primary outreach video that is broad and evergreen, and then use Promo to create posts for immediate job openings to give them a more personal and timely appeal.
Hiring videos should always be employee focused, industry focused, short (no more than 3 minutes), clever, pithy, honest, visual, musical, engaging, aspirational, and, most of all, authentic.
There are some terrific pieces online that can serve as inspiration. For instance, take Apple’srecruiting video. It gives you the feeling of actually being on their campus in Cupertino, CA. Of course, most companies do not have Apple’s deep pockets, but there are still ideas to be gained here.
Other examples include the fun and whimsical recruitment video from retail analytics firm Listrak. Bamboo HR took the opportunity to showcase work/life balance in their creatively edited culture video. CoxHealth uses video as part of their overall recruitment strategy. Finally, Founder’s Brewing used wonderful visuals and strong storytelling to articulate their values.
At the end of the day, this is about the story of your company as well as its people and culture told in a dynamic, engaging way. Whether your internal content team creates this valuable piece or you hire an outside agency, it is paramount to glean the best your organization has to offer and package it in an incredible piece of video content. This is done by touching on key emotional and psychological triggers to convey a powerful message. Truly, that’s the best way to get an authentic, compelling video that will help you attract and convert the highest caliber of talent into taking action.
For many, offering people a career move may be their greatest life decision—certainly a much bigger choice than buying an exercise bike! You may be asking someone to go out on a limb, perhaps even get on a plane, interview, relocate, possibly uproot their family, making long-term changes. Shouldn’t they have more to go on than a booth at a fair and few phone conversations?
Video might have killed the radio star, and it may just prove to be your most strategic asset in the battle for the best talent.
Trautman, who has been an integral part of OMB's growth over the past few years sums up the importance of video with perfect clarity, "In today’s business landscape, we are all fighting for talent. One important way to win the talent war is to make strategic investments in video content. Video is a powerful storytelling tool for your brand and culture; enabling you to immediately engage the heart of your audience in a unique and meaningful way."
Still not convinced recruitment films work? Check out our case study for further proof.
And be sure to check out our Listrak recruitment film below!
Contact us and let's MAKE some recruitment film magic.
