9 Practices to Create Great Recruitment Videos

The recruitment ecosystem has advanced beyond the times of slapping up a job posting and expecting candidates to beat down your door. The talent war rages on, so it behoves organisations to do their best in order to compete favourably for talent.

One of the things that companies can do is harness recruitment videos. So, just as videos can foster a brand’s marketing ambitions, they can also aid the brand’s recruitment aspirations.

This post details 9 practices to create impressive recruitment videos.

What is a recruitment video?

A recruitment video is a video created to attract candidates to your company. Its ultimate goal is to flaunt your organisation’s brand and culture in a bid to appear impressive to job seekers. It makes your company’s operating model appealing so that candidates will want to join your workforce.

The importance of a recruitment video in your hiring process

Recruitment videos matter a great deal to every brand for a variety of reasons. So, every brand should leverage recruitment videos because:

• Recruitment videos enhance the candidate experience
• Videos can help reach a wider audience
• A recruitment video can boost a brand’s image and enhance the organisation’s branding efforts
• They give viewers insight into the company culture which helps potential candidates determine whether or not the company would be a good fit
• According to Career Builder, job postings with recruitment videos have an application rate 34% higher than job postings without videos. A recruitment video helps attract more applicants.

Seeing how essential a recruitment video can be to a company’s whole aspirations, let’s unpack the 9 practices to create remarkable recruitment videos.  

How to create great recruitment videos

1. Define your goals and have a video script in place before shooting

The first pointer on creating an exceptional recruitment video is to identify what you want to accomplish with the video. Do you want to:

• Add more numbers to your workforce?
• Influence your brand reputation using a recruitment video?
• Boost brand awareness?
• Get the attention of only high-flyers in your industry?

Whichever it is, ascertaining it first will ensure that every other step is executed in accordance with the original goal.

It also helps to have a video script in place before you start shooting the recruitment video. Coming up with a video script typically involves a lot of ideation, but the outcome is usually a fine blueprint of what the video should look like. This blueprint then serves as a guide that ensures that the video is created according to plan.

Instead of randomly tossing elements together during the shoot, a video script guarantees strategic decisions on the various locations, persons to be featured, as well as points to be highlighted in the recruitment video.

2. Ensure the video is of good quality

One of the surest practices to create a great recruitment video is to make sure that the video is of good quality. There should be clear audio and visual elements. If the video quality is poor, it might have a counterproductive effect on your brand.

In this day and age, creating an impressive video doesn’t have to be a chore. With any mobile phone of good quality, some lighting and good equipment, you’re set. However, if you crave professionalism, then you can work with a video crew.

So, in addition to quality picture and sound, add subtitles to the recruitment videos. If your brand has theme music, let it play in the background. Otherwise, you can use a non-copyrighted beat. Background music adds some taste to the video.

3. Keep the video short and sweet

According to Wistia, the average attention span for online videos is only 60 seconds.

What does that mean for recruitment videos?

It simply means that brevity is the watchword. We strongly recommend that your recruitment videos shouldn’t exceed the 5-minute mark no matter how captivating and engaging you think they are. If it can be somewhat less, great!

What you don’t want is potential candidates stopping halfway through the video due to its length.

So, instead of wasting time, get to the point right away with elements that grasp the viewers’ attention. Then highlight the main aspects of your brand that you want potential candidates to know. Thus, viewers won’t get bored or feel that the video is taking up too much time.

4. Include important information and answer candidates’ questions

For your recruitment video to strike a note, it has to provide information. Some details are essential to candidates and the earlier you can provide them, the better. Therefore, ensure that your video answers questions about:

• Your brand’s mission statement, value proposition, and business principles
• The experience of working at your company
• Your company leaders and the job seekers’ potential workmates
• The candidate journey

Brainstorm on essential things viewers and potential candidates might want to know about your brand. Then see to it that the video provides answers.

5. Feature employees at different levels in your company and showcase your company culture

A practice that helps you create exceptional recruitment videos is featuring your employees at different levels in the video. It’s the norm to feature the CEO, however, employees at different levels are worth the feature too.

Be sure to pick an employee from each level, from the C-suite all the way down to interns. This is crucial because it improves the likelihood of potential candidates viewing the video finding someone they can relate to. However, if your target is to attract candidates for a specific position, feature employees mainly at that level.

From detailing their experience in your company to singing praises about what they like, the reports of employees help recruitment videos strike a note.

Additionally, it’s good to put your company culture on display. What’s it really like working in your company? Your recruitment video will really pop if it flaunts your company's uniqueness as well as the general office atmosphere. Let the video offer a glimpse of day to day life at the office.

Do employees engage in fun activities during a break? Is there a cafe for meals? Are there spots where staff can go to decompress? Show that as well!

6. Different videos for different roles

For a recruitment video to make its mark, it needs to be tailored for the target audience. So, when creating recruitment videos, understand that different roles have different audiences who, in turn, have different expectations.

Attempting to create just 1 video that targets practically every role might make the video seem overly generic. Also, the video would be unnecessarily long and your viewers may not watch the entire clip. It’s fine to have a general recruitment video as long as it's not struggling to cater to every role.

However, it’s smarter to have other recruitment videos specifically crafted for the various roles.

7. Make it authentic and exciting

The essence of recruiting videos is for viewers to see them and say “That must be a cool place to work at!”.

Therefore, to create a winning recruitment video, you have to ensure that it’s genuine and exciting. The video should be brimming with life and passion. Also, there should be a natural flow to it; the interviews of the employees shouldn’t seem forced.

Here are some practices to guarantee that the recruitment videos are imbued with genuineness and fun:

• Avoid scripting the employees’ responses; their responses should be conversational
• Don’t stuff the video with boring corporate buzzwords
• Capture multiple locations that add energy to the video; it shouldn’t be restricted to the office premises
• Highlight some challenges your brand might have faced and how you all surmounted it as a company
• Throw in some light-hearted humour to entertain the viewers
• Add an innovative feature, such as a clip of employees working out or gaming; it’s a bold statement about your company culture!

Authenticity and excitement in recruitment videos indicate that you’re being honest about what you say. They also suggest that your organisation prioritises work-life balance.

Your company is run by humans. Let that human side be seen!

8. End it with a clear call to action

Another tip for creating an excellent recruitment video is to include a call to action.

Failing to cap off the recruitment video with a CTA might mean wasted efforts at the end of the day. 

Why? Because your viewers might be interested in applying for a position at your company, but be at a total loss as to where to apply!

So, ensure that there’s a direct call to action that tells the viewer what next you want them to do after watching the video. It could be to:

• Apply for a job / submit their resume
• Visit your company’s website’s career page
• Read your brand’s job application FAQs
• Take a look at the available job opportunities
• Subscribe to your newsletters for updates on open job positions

Keep the call to action brief and punchy. Also, make use of power words that are proven to instil a sense of urgency and encourage action. Noteworthy is the fact that the CTA doesn’t have to only be at the end of the video; you can scatter it throughout the video, but be sure to include it at the end.

9. Share relentlessly

It’s tempting to think that your work is done after creating the recruitment video. However, that’s the furthest thing from the truth because your target audience would be totally unaware of the video. That defeats the whole purpose.

So, bring the ultimate dream of creating the recruitment video to life by promoting it intensively for the world to see. One way to do that is by posting it on your brand’s website’s career page. Visitors looking for employment opportunities have a high chance of seeing the recruitment video there and watching it.

Also, make the most of social media by sharing the video on your brand’s social media channels. Whether LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other social media platform, sharing your company’s recruitment videos on social platforms boosts its reach.

Encourage your employees to share the videos on their personal social media accounts. The more, the merrier. After all, if it’s been shown that videos are winning on social media, it’s up to you to leverage social media as much as you can.

Take advantage of email marketing as well by including the recruitment video in your company’s newsletter. Include it in the email signature of the recruiting team. It will keep your talent pipeline up to date.

Some other notable options include video platforms such as YouTube and company review sites such as Glassdoor. Bear in mind that the recruitment videos should always be a part of your job ads when you post on job boards.

These tips are worth their weight in gold. Implement them to increase your chances of attracting talent. Book a demo with Shine to learn about other ways videos can help your recruitment efforts.