How to Convince Your Hiring Manager to Star in Your Next Video Job Ad

It’s no surprise that job seekers want to hear from the people they will be working with, and reporting to, when considering an opportunity. Can you believe that your company’s mission and values, and a long list of responsibilities and requirements (written in the third person) is not the kind of compelling content that makes a candidate click ‘apply now’?

I didn’t think so! I know I’m preaching to the converted here. The challenge is not convincing you, is it? It’s convincing your hiring managers.

So, let’s start with the data, then we’ll move on to the less rational reasons why your Hiring Managers may not want to appear on camera.

The numbers don’t lie

According to research, video from the Hiring Manager makes a candidate 46% more likely to consider a job and 30% more likely to respond to a recruiter or apply.

The same research also found (surprise, surprise) that candidates prefer to see videos of hiring managers more often than a company overview or a recruiter message.

Not only do candidates want to hear from HMs, but video in general will give your recruitment campaign a much higher chance of reaching and engaging with the right people.

• Job postings with a video icon have a 12% higher view rate than postings without them [Career Builder]
• A video with a smiling face thumbnail can increase conversions by up to 10% [Wishpond]
• Video is shared 20X more often than any other type of content on LinkedIn [LinkedIn]
• Video in email leads to a 200-300% increase in click-through rates [Social Media Today]

If that doesn’t convince your HM to give video job adverts a try, I don’t know what will. Who doesn’t want more job post clicks, more video views, more shares and better email engagement with talent pools?!

Let your employees do the talking

I can bombard you with all of the data, but the most convincing argument comes from candidates themselves.

Once you’ve got your first few video job ad hires, make some time to get first-hand feedback on the recruitment process from your new employees and share the success stories back to the business.

Here's one the team at Siemens put together:

Inspiration and motivation

The idea of perfection stops us from doing many things.

It’s important to let your Hiring Managers know that perfection is not the goal, authenticity is. If we wanted polished and insincere, we’d hire an actor (they don’t need convincing, just paying!)

We have a whole library of video job adverts, created by regular people (NOT actors) full of ums, errs and stutters, and no less appealing or effective because of it.

Select a few of your favourites and share them with your HMs to put them at ease and give them something attainable to aspire to.

If you’ve already got a few early adopters in the business who’ve had wins with video, even better—use your own HMs to create mini case studies and share them with the business to demonstrate the positive impact that video can have.

This video for example, featuring first-time video subject Professor Lisa French helped RMIT University’s School of Media & Communication to create a strong shortlist in a record amount of time.

Team techniques

Just because candidates want to see Hiring Managers on camera, doesn’t mean they have to go it alone!

We all feel better trying something new with a buddy. Let your HMs know you’re in it with them, offer to interview them with a few prepared questions until they feel ready to get on camera alone.

You can interview from off-camera, like this: 

 or side-by-side, like this: 

Two person videos really reduce the pressure and help people to relax and speak more naturally.

Make it fun

Everyone loves a bit of reality TV, am I right? Turn your conference room into a temporary TV studio and get everyone excited about video.

1. Book your busiest Hiring Managers in for a half day workshop
2. Ask them to think about the three things they find the most satisfying about their jobs in preparation
3. Invest in a hair and makeup artist to help everyone feel glamorous, confident and just a little bit spoilt
4. Get your HMs to practice a variety of the filming scenarios discussed above with each other
5. Spend 15 minutes with every HM shooting their responses to the prepped question

The beauty of VideoMyJob is that you’re not paying a production team 1000s of dollars an hour to film while your subjects find their video groove.

All you need is a smartphone, somewhere to stabilise your device and a quiet place where your audience can hear you clearly. There’s no limit to the number of takes, new locations or delivery styles.  Take your time and find the right combination for your HM.

Our VidFit coach’s top tip for first time film subjects is actually pretty simple:

Don’t watch your video straight away, keep rolling and do a few takes to watch back and edit later.

This fun little exercise will give you an entire library of HM introductions and B-roll that you can include in your future video job ads. We've got loads more activities to get your team comfortable on camera and ideas to help people overcome any fear of video.

Let us know if you have some tried and tested ideas for convincing Hiring Managers to embark on something new, we’d love to hear from you!