Is Video About To Go Mainstream as a Candidate Engagement Tool?

By Tony Restell

Video has always been an effective medium for sharing concepts and promoting brands across multiple channels. It’s become one of the most popular ways for both individuals and companies to express ideas and generate engagement. So it’s perhaps not surprising that innovative businesses have been working on ways to make video a really powerful tool in the professional recruiter’s tool belt.

Myths About Video Recruiting

To date, adoption of video in recruiting has been slow-going for a number of reasons. Foremost amongst them has been the time and cost of putting together a truly engaging piece of video that compels candidates to want to learn more. Other reasons are lack of resources, lack of knowledge about the impact of video on driving candidate engagement, plus uncertainty about how to integrate video into existing recruitment approaches.

Sometimes we come into contact with new businesses that are a real cause for excitement, simply because we can see how significantly they have shifted the goalposts. People aggregators are an example in the sourcing space – and JOBVIDDY certainly ticks that box in the video recruitment market.

We recently had the pleasure of talking with Andy Kerney, Co-Founder and CEO of JOBVIDDY – described as the world's 1st interactive video job description product. What excites me most about the offering is the way that JOBVIDDY can produce an engaging and interactive corporate recruiting video, without a company having to shoot any new video footage. That massively reduces the obstacle to experimenting with video and means they can be produced with the minimum of time commitment on the part of a recruiter or the company’s employees. For me, that’s always been the biggest obstacle to more widespread use of video in recruitment. Anyway, here’s what we learnt from our chat, both in terms of their offering and also broader tips for success when using video in recruitment:

JOBVIDDY features an easy way for organizations to get their career videos and job descriptions out to candidates across social media, using a unique video production system that integrates information that candidates are seeking into existing or new branded video shorts. Kerney shared some valuable insight with us about how recruitment videos can be maximized for candidate engagement.

So how can video be more easily and effectively used in recruitment?
 

Using Video as a Candidate Engagement Tool from the Start

“Everyone talks about candidate engagement, but very few people execute on this. Candidates today have an incredible appetite and an expectation for more than just information about the job. Today they want more content to help them decide about both job and company fit. It’s why there’s so much open discussion about how recruiters need to start being creative, tailoring content to their audience – in reality adding marketing into their toolkit, which is not necessarily a natural step. Companies use video extensively in product, lifestyle and information type marketing, so as consumers of video, candidates get it. If creativity is needed on behalf of the recruiter, looking to video to get their content across could really be the answer.” (Andy Kerney)

When it comes to developing recruitment processes, recruiters still have a long way to go in terms of accurately creating a message that talks to the candidate. Consider that companies know that they need to get their brand out there, and they spend a lot of time and effort doing this. Technological advances mean their brand now gets out there faster and more effectively than ever before. However it doesn’t necessarily do so in a way that really appeals to candidates. They seem to get the short end of the stick. “Pulling together the best components of the whole recruitment process into one package that’s engaging to candidates” is the key to a better performing video recruitment solution.

What Video Recruiting Is Really About

“When you talk to someone about video, they imagine camera crews descending on their office or more recently think you’re talking about video interviewing. When we talk about video recruiting, we’re specifically talking about how companies can better use the great video material that they’ve already created and align it with their EVP or recruitment marketing strategies to attract, engage and deliver a great candidate UX. It’s been created, posted to Youtube or Vimeo, added to the career site and then left, job done, tick in the box. Companies are still relying on a Job Title and Company logo to attract talent through a Job Description posting; I believe they’ve got it the wrong way round. In every facet of our consumer-driven life, we’re bombarded with imagery designed to attract. Car showrooms have shiny, polished, great looking cars; they don’t rely purely on a poster or sign with a bullet point list of a car’s specification in the window; retail shops put the latest fashions in the shop window to entice a shopper to enter and buy. Video recruiting in a nutshell is putting your job, your company in the shop window.”

Video recruitment is about more than just creating a corporate video to make the company look good. It’s about talking to candidates as if they are consumers in your market. In fact, about 99 percent of the videos out there today are designed to sell consumers on the benefits of a product or service. Why not take it further and sell the idea that working for your company has a great many benefits too? Smart companies create recruiting videos that focus on sharing the corporate philosophy in an interactive and engaging way so that others can buy into this ideal.

Why Video is so Powerful in Recruiting

“Aside from all of the commentary about how good the engagement rates are for video when used across social media - and the continuing growth in online video consumption - video is powerful in recruiting for two simple reasons; it can speak to the candidate and is visually engaging - two things that a regular job description can’t do. Used well it can be an incredibly powerful medium. With the interactive features of JOBVIDDY, multiple different content forms can be incorporated, with the ability for one click to direct the candidate back to the careers site or actual job to begin the application process. That’s crucial because as any marketing professional or sales person will attest to, conversion requires you keeping the customer focused on you or your product, As soon as a candidate goes off to find out more about your company, they’re exposed to other outside influences, just think about the other “similar” videos that YouTube promote in the sidebar, it can be a distraction.”

Video, when used well in the recruiting space, can produce very powerful results. Studies have shown that mobile device usage by job seekers is growing rapidly – and video dovetails beautifully as a way to engage potential candidates on their mobile devices.

Video is linked to certain candidate behaviours, including:

• Learning more about the corporate culture to see if there is a good fit for their skills and goals.
• Searching for additional information about the company, its products and services in one place.
• Watching and interacting with videos to gain a better understanding of the benefits to them of joining a company.

Recently, Google released research on recruitment and the use of video, written up on Mervyn Dinnen’s excellent blog. This showed that 87 percent of candidates go to YouTube immediately or soon after spotting a job advertisement online. If accurate, this stat is eye-opening. Consider the resources that businesses devote to developing career portals and a strong social presence; yet on the platform candidates are most likely to turn to immediately after a period of job searching, recruiting brands are generally lacking a compelling presence. Isn’t it time you put this right?

Time You Experimented With Video?

Fortunately, JOBVIDDY has made it very easy for companies to create stunning recruitment videos, using corporate branding videos, clips and images that already exist. Social-Hire readers are being offered the chance to sign up for a free video job ad. Simply provide a few details and include a job description for one of your open positions. JOBVIDDY does the rest. The video is ready within 24 hours, a special link is provided for sharing the unique video, plus it’s featured on their gallery for job seekers. Do give it a try – and we’d love to hear your feedback in due course via the comments section below!

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