How to Use Video Content to Attract and Hire Top Talent

Today's talent acquisition specialists can integrate video content, using platforms like YouTube, social media, and landing pages, into the recruitment process. Recruitment video content is a strategic tool used as part of a candidate outreach strategy to attract and engage potential hires.

It's easy to say, "Hey, get an iPad, shoot some video, and publish it to Facebook.". In contrast, it's another discussion regarding the angle of vision, goals, objectives, and forms your recruitment videos can take to meet your holistic recruitment and strategic goals.

A wise man once said, "Anything worth doing is worth doing right." With that in mind, let's explore the five types of video content that can best suit your recruitment and employer branding strategy:

• Day-in-the-life videos
• Employee testimonials
• Exceptional people stories
• Virtual tours
• Orientation videos

Day-in-the-Life Videos

A day-in-the-life video is a type of recruitment content that shows what a specific position looks like within your organization. The premise is simple: to answer key questions for potential candidates, such as what the position's tasks, duties, responsibilities, and obligations are. These videos also explore what kind of individual, in terms of temperament, disposition, and job experience, is best suited to meet the position's requirements.

This is where a day-in-the-life video piece comes in handy. Job-shadowing or following a current employee through the daily activities of their position not only conveys what a particular job entails but does so in a way that so much of social media, snackable content, and other forms of information distribution are based on today.

But as with any other aspect of recruitment content and employer branding strategy, this kind of video content has more depth and nuance. It's one thing to shoot what any given job is all about; it's another thing entirely to incorporate a specific team member's perspective and insight on what makes their role vital and rewarding within your organization.

In short, even though this kind of recruitment video should focus more on the actual position itself, don't forget about the human interest side. Viewers will be more apt to engage with the content and the messaging if they feel connected with the subject on screen.

Employee Testimonial Videos

An employee testimonial video is a format that captures an employee's perspective on their role, the company culture, and their overall experience. While you may have used written testimonials for social media or your website, leveraging employee testimonials in a video format is particularly powerful. This type of recruitment video content lands with the most resonance when it comes straight from an employee, drawing more traffic and providing a residual benefit to company culture and morale.

People like to talk. People want to tell their stories. Employees appreciate being noticed, having their employer take an interest in what they do, why they do it, why they love their work, and how it helps aid your organization's goals. Integrating employee testimonials via video not only puts you in the best-in-class status of global companies that leverage this kind of content, but it also signals respect, admiration, and appreciation for their role within your organization to your employees.

Exceptional People Videos

Exceptional people videos are a type of video content for recruitment that showcases the stories of employees who have achieved remarkable success or demonstrated excellence. The success of any company is built upon its people, and their extraordinary acts are prime moments for employer branding video content.

Perhaps you have an employee who has received several awards or designations for outstanding levels of work. Or, maybe you have an employee with decades of industry experience that achieved significant status or recognition within your organization or industry vertical? Or, even still, perhaps you have an employee who started with an entry-level position and has worked to a senior management position and can speak about that career journey and how such advancement is not only possible within your organization but encouraged and promoted?

These are the stories where recruitment video content can do more heavy lifting and create more significant, long-term resonance with potential candidates. But don't limit the idea of exceptional people to what happens in the office or on campus – your employees might be doing amazing things on their own time that can benefit your company culture and employer branding status.

Do some of your employees volunteer within the community? Do some of them run multiple marathons a year? Do some of them have creative side projects? While these stories aren't necessarily tied to their jobs, they help paint a more vibrant, robust picture of the individuals that thrive within your organization, thus making it more attractive for like-minded job seekers.

Virtual Tour Videos

A virtual tour video is a recruitment tool that provides a digital walkthrough of your company's physical spaces, facilities, and campus. What often goes overlooked when promoting your employer brand is the physical environment your team occupies. Unless you are a 100 percent remote operation, virtual video tours of your facilities and employee amenities are vital for attracting today's top talent.

Let's take Google, for example. The tech giant has several campuses across the world. Each of them is outfitted with such employee amenities as cafeterias, daycares, recreational centers, fitness centers, and other facilities meant to promote and encourage a work-life balance. Today's job seeker is perhaps more attuned than ever to how employers work to integrate an employee's personal life with their professional life. Virtual tours of the spaces and resources you provide your employees demonstrate how you're responding to the needs and desires of today's top professionals.

Orientation Videos for Recruitment

Recruitment-focused orientation videos are content pieces that give candidates a "behind-the-curtain" glimpse at what it is like to work for your organization. More companies are now incorporating what used to be internal training videos into their public recruitment and employer branding strategy to show how company culture is established and propagated throughout the organization.

Whether these are broad-scope videos about the mission, vision, and values of your organization or more focused content pieces about how your company promotes diversity and an inclusive environment across all departments and areas, these videos can play an essential role in showing job seekers how they can fit into your organization and be a contributing partner in attaining your company's overall goals for productivity and growth.