Recruitment Video Practices for Hiring the Best Team

Finding the right person for your company is getting more and more difficult. Not only does the candidate need to have the appropriate skill set that will help them succeed, they also need to be a culture fit. One way to make sure you hire the right people is to ensure you’re attracting the right person! Not only is video an effective way to showcase your business, it’s also the best way to introduce your organization to someone without unnecessarily having to invest time in the candidate. 

There  are a lot of recruitment videos out there. And if you’re like me, you know this is true, because you’ve watched hundreds of them. While there are a lot of ways to produce a video that will showcase your business, it seems there are some common features in which many businesses take pride: 

1. Companies really like showing off their ping-pong and foosball tables.
2. A lot of companies feel their key differentiator is their customer service.
3. Big companies like Google, Dropbox, and HubSpot drop big dollars into slick recruiting videos.
4. Small and medium-sized companies haven't really maximized the potential of recruitment videos yet.

Ironically, the most effective and attention-grabbing recruitment videos don't mention the job's details. Some don't mention work at all! In many cases, the most memorable videos share a story or experience of the employees in the video. For starters, here are four ways to highlight your unique company culture and help you stand out from your competitors:

1. Showcase an employee

Ideally you showcase the type of person at your organization that you would like to duplicate. Rather than focus on all the unique benefits your business offers, feature an employee who is thriving at your company and have them tell the viewer why they love their job. This is an example of a video that uses this technique:

The target persona, or job candidate, should watch this video and think - that guy’s like me! If he likes that job, maybe I will too!

2. Explain how your organization is making a difference

People want to work for an organization they can get behind and know that their employer is rooted in a passion with which they identify. Focus on your unique cause, or belief, and how the team rallies behind it. A number of businesses have produced anthemic videos that tap into the passion of the company which hopefully resonates with the viewer. Take Aveda, for example. The cosmetics company has a partnership with Charity Water, a nonprofit organization committed to clean water and Aveda makes their corporate social responsibility clear for all who are interested in partnering with their organization:

3. Highlight your work/life balance

Many people appreciate the balance of working from home where they can engage with family or pets as they’d like. This is an opportunity to, again, showcase a top performing employee who has nailed the “work from home” arrangement and also producing quality work. Another example may be a business that allows its employees to blend their personal preferences and lifestyle with work. BambooHR does a nice job with this with their Work/Life Balance Video:

4. Empathize with the viewer

Remember, your video should speak to the qualities of your organization that will not only resonate with your viewer but also answer their questions and address any concerns. Often, organizations think they need to brag about their business to get attention, but that isn't the best way to invite a viewer into the conversation. HubSpot, a marketing software company in Cambridge, MA, is consistently among the top places to work in the United States. In their promotional videos, they do a nice job of showcasing the qualities of the company that appeal most to the prospective employee. Check out one of their recruitment videos below, which highlights the impact one can make while working on a small, driven team (while also showcasing their open, pet-friendly work environment). Look at your organization from the viewer's perspective - would you want to work for your company?

Additional Considerations

Of course, not all recruitment videos are going to fit into a nice, neat little box. There are countless approaches, tips and tricks to help you stand out in your video. Here are some other ways to help distinguish yourself from the competition:

Add Humor. Nothing is harder to pull off in video than humor. Just because you and your co-worker think something is funny doesn’t mean the masses will share your enthusiasm. However, when done well, not only is it memorable, it’s shareable and then you have other people pitching your job opening for you!

Talk About the Good and the Bad of Working at Your Company. If you’d like to hire the right person for your company, be fully transparent about the position you’re hiring and the company you represent. If that means sharing the good and the bad and ugly, so be it. Hiring the wrong person is just about as bad as hiring no one at all. 

Promote Your Recruiting Video. Yes, it's important to make sure the video is on your website, but also make sure it’s easy for people to find on your social media channels and via online job posting services. The more people can find your video, the better chance you have of identifying the right person. 

Attracting the right people for your business is essential to the success of your company. Depending on the size of your organization, one bad hire can change the make-up of your culture. Today, we go online to gather information about products, services and, yes, careers. Not only is this good for your prospective employees, it will also save you from spending time with candidates who are not the right fit for your business.