Video Helps Job-Seekers Buy In

If you caught our last post, you know that companies are discovering the advantages of using user-generated content for their recruiting efforts. Who are the users best-equipped to generate this content? It’s your employees who are often the strongest advocates when it comes to sharing your company culture with prospective candidates.

But user-generated content can take many forms - from carefully edited photos taken by one of your employees, a comprehensive blog entry detailing why your company is a great place to work, comments on a company post-- or what about a video?

Video is your best bet for engagement on your user-generated content.

Why video?

Ever since the advent of TV, brands have known that engaging consumers with video results in the highest levels of engagement.

Combining movement and sound makes all the difference. Both of these play an important role in conveying a message, and when you combine them it leads to better engagement.

Research shows that a viewer remembers 95% of a message when it is watched, compared to 10% when it is read.

This means that consumers, and prospective job candidates, are more likely to remember your message when watching video.

Create content they will remember, that stands out from a sea of regular old text and photos. You'll gain the upper hand in finding and closing your next recruits.

And there are more benefits than just increased engagement!

What? More benefits? You heard us right! User-generated video has tons of bonuses.

Here are some of the top benefits from working with employees on your next recruiting video.

1. Authenticity: In addition to getting more engagement, employee generated video is more authentic than something filmed by a professional production company. Seeing the expressions and body language of employees talking about their work is far more powerful than reading text on social media or a review site. Featuring your employees in videos helps prospective candidates see the team they could be working with. Candidates will be able to get a feel for what it would be like to join your company.

And not only that but for younger job seekers (Millennial and Gen Z talent) authenticity is hugely important. If your recruiting materials feel overwrought or canned in any way, they’re likely to rule you out just based on that! If you’re wondering how to recruit Millennial and Gen Z talent, authenticity is the way to go.

2. Efficiency: If you need to get a lot of information across in a short period of time, video is the way to go. There is no better way than video to easily share a message. Imagine that you’re a job seeker, which would you rather do: read a long job post or watch a quick video that contains the same amount of information? For most people, the answer would be watching a quick video.

3. Awareness: More and more applicants are finding their next position outside of the standard places. Instead of just looking for positions on job boards or job pages, candidates spend time on social media learning about new companies. Even though active job-seekers may spend a lot of their time searching for jobs in places like LinkedIn or Indeed, you will not find passive job-seekers here. Why? Because they’re not actively looking. If you can reach them in places where they’re already spending time (like social media) you’ll have an advantage. But how does video play into any of that? Video is the preferred medium on social media. Engagement soars on social media when there’s video involved. If you want candidates to become aware of you (maybe even before they know they’re looking for a job) posting a video on social media is a pretty good bet.

4. Get ahead of Questions: Last, but certainly not least, creating videos can help you to answer frequently asked questions in a more scalable way, saving you and your team time. Company culture, teammates and bosses are all potential questions that candidates may have, with videos you can answer them quickly, easily and more comprehensively than you can even verbally or through a text post.

Okay, so we’ve covered the benefits of using videos. But what kind of videos are best? Should you create a 20 minute movie giving potential candidates an in-depth view of what their life will be like at your company? Or what about a 10-second video clip of the outside of your work location?

You’ll want to end up in the middle of these two. Twenty minutes is simply too long for even the most interested viewer, and you’ll lose candidates along the way (even if your’s is their dream job!). A 10-second piece doesn’t give you enough time to showcase what makes your company special.

We’ve found that videos around two minutes (give or take) typically work best! And hey, we’re not the only ones. TikTok only lets you record up to three minutes worth of video! Why? Cause they know it is the perfect amount of time to capture attention and share a message without your viewers becoming bored and unengaged. This is an ideal length for visitors to your company career page.

On social media and job sites, the best way to engage with your audience is to create short, social media-length videos. Videos are the next talent sourcing solution: They will help you to showcase your authenticity, get your message across, raise awareness about your company and open positions and get ahead of candidate questions so you can spend less time sorting through unqualified candidates and more time getting the right candidate in the door at your company.

Have we convinced you yet?