So you’ve mastered the video job ad… don’t stop there! Now that the team is comfortable on camera and engagement is beginning to climb, it’s time to review and spice up other areas of your communications and recruitment marketing strategy.
Engaging your employees to help inject a bit more video (and a lot more human connection) into your day-to-day recruitment and human resources communications can deliver real business results. Video as a format can deliver higher open rates, improve response rates and create deeper connections with your candidates. Understanding which metric matters most will set you up for long-term content success.
From nurturing talent and screening video applications to finessing the recruitment workflow, here’s a list of creative ideas and the metrics that actually matter.
You’ve spent a lot of time and effort building your talent pool, don’t forget to keep them engaged by nurturing them!
Providing value to this audience through topical content will ensure you remain front of mind as a potential employer. Consider these your 'explainer' videos, a type of visual content helping you arm candidates with new knowledge in trends, industry and professional development.
You might need to experiment depending on the make-up of your group, and whether you’re an agency or an in-house talent team, but here’s a few ideas to get you started:
The most popular channel to nurture talent is email, as it allows for personalization and customized journeys. For this video type, the metric that matters is play rate. Entice candidates to learn more through watching video by keeping your email copy under 200 words. According to LinkedIn research, less words can actually lead to higher response rates.
# unique plays / # total email sends = play rate
Track a secondary metric by adding a share with a friend button in your email template. This will help you measure content relevancy with candidates and also potentially expand your pool with like-minded talent.
Aim for 2 to 4 minutes when it comes to editing your nurturing videos. The decent length allows you to repurpose into shorter pieces, giving your content a longer shelf-life and more amplification opportunities across a range of channels.
Timely brand or industry updates are important when creating content for your nurturing campaign. But the videos that will continue to add value to your talent pool are timeless. This content can be defined as evergreen and according to HubSpot has the potential to stand the test of time. Although mostly referred to as a tactic to increase SEO and traffic, considering the life-cycle of content in your nurturing campaigns can help you justify employee time taken to help you create the video. Action driven topics like how-to create a video biography are a great place to start.
Video applications or cover letters can help recruiters and hiring managers to screen resumes more effectively. This is especially true for high-volume roles. Setting a task for applicants to complete on video, or requesting a video for customer-facing or creative roles, for example, can really help you to quickly identify the less desirable candidates while moving the most qualified talent to your shortlist.
If you’re requesting candidates to participate with video, it makes sense to compliment your pre-interview communications with… you guessed it, video. Showing them the process, calming any nerves and setting them up for success, can really enhance the candidate experience.
The objective of this tactic is to get across important information about the application and interview process in a more engaging format. The metric of success is therefore completion rate. If candidates are dropping off and missing vital information towards the end, re-editing the video to caption the most important takeaways at the beginning could improve your results.
# unique completed views / # unique plays = completion rate
These videos should be short, authentic and no longer than 1 minute. They are primarily used to jazz up your communications and make candidates feel more prepared for the selection process.
Be human with your content and provide value through acknowledging people's vulnerability. Very few people love seeing or listening to themselves on camera so encourage your potential candidates to take their time with video, and provide strategies to help them master the format.
Effective communication is the cornerstone of a successful hiring strategy and an engaged workforce. And yet, an astounding 46% of job applicants receive no communication from the organization after applying for an advertised position.
Application process videos are great for providing candidates (and Hiring Managers) with information about how things are done, use these videos to discuss in simple steps how to tackle the key challenges commonly faced during the application and interview process.
Replacing or supplementing your text-heavy email templates or ATS content with video is a great way to keep candidates in your recruitment workflow informed and engaged with your people and process.
The goal of this video tactic is to provide an engaging candidate experience so that good talent remains in your talent pool if not selected for the role, and to ensure that word of mouth about your recruitment process is positive.
Ensure the last video includes a call to action to view a new piece of nurturing content, this could be a professional development event, online webinar or another valuable evergreen video. Measure success by how many quality candidates in the application process clicked through and are therefore still interested in the brand or agency for future employment opportunities.
# of unique clicks to nurturing video / # of rejected candidates = Click Through Rate (CTR) %
These videos are mainly process or status updates and should be no longer than 30 seconds. Often running alongside existing comms, make sure you convey your update in the most visually engaging way.
Application process content can easily fall to the dull side, especially when it’s delivered to applicants via impersonal formats or channels. The candidate rejection is your last touch-point during this part of the recruitment process and could be make or break when it comes to replenishing the talent pool. Use video to humanise these communications and a call to action to measure the impact.
Improve the candidate experience and reduce dropout with video. Simple ideas such as a welcome video from the hiring manager or new colleagues can delight and reassure someone that they have made the right decision. Talent Board’s Candidate Experience research tells us that communicating with new hires prior to their start date is critical to ensuring retention and building the bridge from candidate to employee.
Create a library of short, sharp videos that show-off your workplace and welcome your new employee. Start with:
Measure the impact of video during the onboarding process by conversion rate. Include a call to action in the video for the new recruit to let you know something about them, perhaps their favourite food. This personalized tactic can create a deeper connection with new hires and also give you insight on where to take them for lunch on their first day. It’s a win win!
# introduction actions completed / # total new hires to receive onboarding video = conversion rate %
These videos are purely for the eyes of the new hire and can therefore range from 5 to 10 minutes. Due to the longer length of this video type, it’s super important to keep viewers engaged. Think about how you can do this creatively and inject a bit of personality or culture. Maybe interrupt the footage with a clip of Timothy the analyst getting down at last year’s Christmas party. Show them some workplace fun to look forward to.
Onboarding videos can really be championed by your employees as they are the heartbeat of your organisation. Take new hires on a virtual walking tour through the office, introduce them to the team and make them feel right at home before they’ve even stepped through the front door.
So there you have it. Nailing the almighty job ad is only the beginning and there are many types of employee-generated videos for you to branch out into. Keep your metric that matters in mind when choosing an idea so you know exactly how to measure success.
Most importantly, having tangible results will help you communicate the value of video and hopefully provide you with fuel to build your internal content creation team - your employees