Power User Spotlight with Stephanie Robertson

Q: Steph, thanks so much for joining us! Can you start by telling us a little bit about your role and your team?

Yes, so we're quite a large team at Medibank, with around 30 people that sit across the areas of diversity and inclusion. 

That consists of a specialized health recruitment team, a channels team (which is our call center), and our retail network. Then we have a corporate team and a day rate contractor team as well… So yes, it's quite a large team.

And I’ve just recently moved into a new role as a Talent Initiatives Lead, so my focus is everything candidate experience, people leader experience, and talent partner experience… Basically I make sure that everyone's having fun in their jobs. 

And I've loved working with the VideoMyJob tool. We've gotten quite creative with it, so I'm excited to talk about that today.

Q: Well firstly, it sounds like your team is multifaceted and that you sit across various areas. What made you initially explore Video as a solution, and then what led to the implementation of VideoMyJob? 

Yes, so I guess we wanted to find a way to add personality to our content, as well as source candidates beyond static advertisements.

Our brand is really customer centric, and we have a really strong employer brand for the Medibank enterprise that was created around 2019. The challenge was that we have a lot of different brands that sit under the Medibank Enterprise. For example, we have a large health services business and we really wanted to create some content that captured the employee stories across the whole enterprise. 

So even though we had great employer branding, it started at a much higher level and didn't really get into the details of people's lives. And we wanted to be able to easily take that to market really quickly, which is why we chose to go with VideoMyJob.

Q: Great, can you talk us through how you’re currently using VideoMyJob? 

Yeah, definitely! So we have our Story Feed set up, which was where we first started with VideoMyJob. 

I wasn't in this role when VideoMyJob’s Story Feed was initially set up, but I did play a part in collecting a library of video content for it. That involved capturing employee stories and the benefits that Medibank offers on video. 

One of the most common questions we get from candidates is “How often do you go into the office?”, and “What does working at the company look like?”... So why not capture that on video! 

Now if you jump on our careers site, you can see we've got videos across how we work. 

Getting our Story Feed built was our first priority, and then we had to get the team across how VideoMyJob actually works. That also led us to looking across our processes for our frontline teams which is one of the things that I'm most excited about how we've used VideoMyJob. Basically we wanted to remove some of the really transactional conversations our front line teams are having over and over again. 

Things like “This is the roster”, “These are the days that you need to come into the office”, “Do you have a stable WiFi connection?” 

It's not a fun process for the candidate, and it's not fun for the team to have to repeat the same thing 200 times. That’s when we came up with the idea to capture this information on a video and send it to candidates, along with adding personal touches during our process. Things like “this is what an assessment center looks like”, “here's a brief from a recruiter so you can watch it and prepare”, “Congratulations on your offer!” or “Here are the next steps from your background check”. 

By taking those bits out we've saved 6 hours! We’re now reusing that time to have more meaningful conversations, and delving into behavioural questions to understand more about the candidate. 

And it's not only something that the team has really enjoyed, but we've got some great candidate feedback around the process.

We've also, from a corporate team perspective, been focusing on capturing videos from hiring managers alongside our job adverts. Particularly for hard to fill roles where we thought “wouldn't you prefer to hear from your hiring manager rather than me? Because you're going to be talking to me alot during the recruitment process already.” So it’s great that candidates can have that first touch point from their hiring manager. 

We're actually using this approach quite a bit with proactive search, by adding the videos to LinkedIn. Plus we've got lots of employee videos sitting alongside all of our job adverts. For example, on Seek we pop the links to the videos and we've got some really positive feedback. 

And then from an internal perspective, we’ve been using VideoMyJob to capture employee stories. We recently relaunched our diversity and inclusion networks at Medibank. Now that people are back in the office and able to reconnect after COVID, we wanted to put a face to each of the employee network names. So we got the people leading those networks to create a video and kind of drum up some real excitement around that as well.

So yes, those are probably the core ways we’ve been using VideoMyJob. 

Q: Wow, so it sounds like you’re using the video platform across a few different areas. Within our customer base we get a lot of questions about ways to get your people on camera and get that adoption within the business. 

So firstly, can you tell us about any adoption challenges that you faced, and then how you overcame that?

Yeah, I mean, we were having a bit of a giggle before. I think the biggest thing is, people don't like to film themselves… which is totally fair enough! I don't want to look at this screen in front of me right now (lol). 

So yeah, generally people don't want to film themselves and that's something that I think isn’t going to change. What you have to get around is really selling why the investment is worth it,  and we had to get really creative around that to be honest. So we tackled it in a couple of different ways… 

Within the Talent Acquisition team, we ran a challenge where we got people to capture videos of their pets, and we had a pet-off competition, which is really fun. Plus my dog won… Wags is officially the cutest dog (lol). 

But that challenge was great because it got people familiar with using VideoMyJob, and they didn't necessarily have to be on video. Instead they got to figure out how to create a video, edit it, and everything!  

That gave us a bit more confidence when we had to go out to the hiring managers because we had examples to show them how it's done, how the links work, and so on. Basically we were able to lead by example, and created challenges with prizes for them too. 

But I did have a case with a team where I was like “okay, I get it, you don’t want to be in front of the camera”. So I decided to lead by example and was the face of that campaign. They were then able to see the value that it added to the campaign, and I could then hand over that campaign for them to run with moving forward. 

So I really think as uncomfortable as you might feel, just jumping in front of the camera and showing people the value of video is a really good way to go about it from a team perspective.

Also, we love a challenge! Everyone likes to be the best in recruitment sometimes. So in the new financial year our corporate team is going to run a challenge where we try to get people to move away from your traditional sourcing channels of job adverts. Instead we're going to run a challenge to use proactive search and VideoMyJob together for as many roles as we can for a month. We'll be kicking that off in the new financial year, and I'm so excited to see how those results go.

Another initiative we did to get hiring manager’s on camera was, we actually went into retail stores and did some filming, and it was really great! We gave the team a heads up that we were coming so it wasn’t a surprise, and then we got them to tell us about their career journey on camera. We got them to prepare scripts, and we came and filmed them telling their stories, and we ended up getting really good content from it. 

To further help with adoption, we also started asking more senior people in the team to film roles - so people at the head of an executive level. The thinking behind this was, if they're a champion of the platform, then it means when you ask someone else in that team, then the senior person can really speak through their experience and lead by example. 

An example recently was one of the heads of a team made a really great video and got some good traction, so it became a competition with the other head of another team. So, you know, apparently medibank's quite competitive is what I'm trying to say! (lol) So that was great! 

And then I guess the other challenge that we have come up against is that you reach out to a hiring manager, and they are enthusiastic and they say yes. Then they get busy, so your video doesn't come back until two weeks later when you've already done all your sourcing, and the job advert has already gone out. So the impact the video could have had is lost a bit. 

Story Feed has been great in helping us solve for this. We can now reach out to people proactively to get videos of their team stories, and then add it to our Story Feed. Particularly in areas where it’s quite difficult to find candidates. We can now source and capture career development stories so that they're proactively there when a candidate applies. That means I’m not chasing someone up saying, “can you please make me a video overnight?” because I need to post job adverts. 

Another thing that is always a challenge is blowing people up to create videos. That’s why we're actually really excited about the Campaign Management tool in VideoMyJob. I was saying before that we’re definitely not experts on it yet, but we are looking to use it across our Talent Acquisition teams to create some lead opportunities, so they can own a campaign for their area.  That will then help us with all the follow ups for the hiring manager, and the video collation to see how teams are tracking.

And you never know, we might make it a competition… why not? (lol) 

But overall, I think it's really just about having a play with the tool. It's really diverse in terms of how you can use content. We know video is really personable. So think about how that aligns with your employer brand, because what I’ve just mentioned are just some of the ways that we use it as a team.

Q: That’s great Steph… It sounds like you guys have gotten quite creative with how you’re using the platform, and really tapped into your team’s competitive spirit to get the adoption going. 

Can you tell us about some of the wins you’ve gotten since incorporating video into your strategy, and how you’re quantifying success?

Yes, definitely! So to reference the recruitment process with our frontline teams that I was speaking about before… I reviewed the processed and was looking at the stats last night. In the last campaign we've saved six and a half hours in terms of conversations within the campaign. 

We've reoriented, so the team can spend time with the candidate delving into things around “how do the candidates problem solve?”, and “are they customer centric?”. 

I think something that's really exciting using VideoMyJob, is you can really track how many minutes you're saving on those conversations if you're using it from a process perspective, which we definitely are. 

From an internal candidate perspective we've also had some really exciting wins. We recently had a risk role, so we created a video of Bruce (the head of the team) talking through the job advert, and then we posted it on Yammer (that’s our internal channel). As a result, we had three internal candidates apply who said that they would not have applied without the video! I think that’s because when you're just reading through a job advert, it can sound really scary. 

Whereas when you have the hiring manager on video saying they're looking to develop someone, and this is how… it then shows the internal candidate that there's actually thought behind it. It also encourages them to apply and reach out instead of being hesitant. So yeah, something that we are really passionate about is that internal candidate experience as well. 

And with our Story Feed, we've had some really great traction. It's mostly anecdotal. I mean, there's obviously some great analytics that you can look at from a Story Feed perspective, but I think for us it’s been around what are we hearing from candidates and if they are actually engaging with our career site, which they definitely are! 

I think quantifying this is something that we definitely need to get better at, though we did have some issues getting approvals to link our YouTube account up to ours videos, so if you look at our stats, we're doing like 1000% better, but it's because we didn't have YouTube linked up beforehand to actually look at the statistics. 

But from anecdotal feedback, we can definitely see the benefits. Plus our team’s really enjoying using it now.

Q:  Those are some great wins Steph! Can you delve a bit further into how video’s impacted things from an organisational change perspective?

Yes, definitely! I mean, the Channels Team are a prime example as they were having really boring conversations before we introduced video into the process. I mean, them asking repetitive questions like; “can you work on a rotating roster?” is not the most exciting conversation!

You'd much rather, as a recruiter, have a really engaging conversation to understand what motivates people. So from a team perspective, we've had some great feedback from them in terms of how much they’re enjoying the job more since they've been using the VideoMyJob tool, which is awesome. 

And from an organisational perspective, I think the internal candidate experience is something that's really exciting. So, yeah, I think VideoMyJob has been brilliant for us. 

I'm sure we can use it better. As always, I'm excited to hear how other people have been using it too. And I think I was profusely excited by the idea of AI sitting in the scripting. My eyes lit up when you were talking about that before. So yeah, very excited about the new project.

Q: Steph, we have a question come through from the audience - “Do you have any overarching content strategy you're working on for Story Feed? Like what categories or themes are you trying to build or support goals for?”

Yes, so with regards to categories, I think there's a couple of things that we're really trying to focus on. 

The first is building content across our different brands at Medibank. I was mentioning before we've got the Medibank private health insurance brand, but we've also got our AHM brand, and then we've got our Ampla health side of the business, which was only launched in the middle of last year. 

Basically we brought together a number of different health services businesses, and the focus was to capture the employee stories across those different businesses to make sure that it was clear to people when they jumped on, how it relates to the Medibank brand. 

For example, with Ampla, when it was launched to market, it wasn't necessarily clear how it came under the Medibank brand. So that's definitely something we focused on when categorising our Story Feed.

Also from a benefits perspective, like I was saying before, that's the kind of content that we're trying to build - videos showing the benefits Medibank offers, and how we work.

For example, we've got employee stories on our Story Feed around hybrid working and how it shapes their day. I think one of the really exciting things about working at Medibank is the flexibility we offer. 

Another big focus of ours is having the healthiest workplace in Australia. So how does that really big goal actually narrow down into the employee experience? Those are the big strategies that we've been focusing on, and we're pretty happy with where the Story Feed is at the moment.

Q: Thanks Steph! Well I only have one more question left, and that’s to ask if you have any advice for your fellow VMJ users?

Definitely, so I wrote down a few dot points down…

I think number one is to find your advocates and spend time building that advocate network. Particularly, start within your team! Make sure that they're really familiar with VideoMyJob, and make sure that they're familiar with the comms that are going out to the managers as well. 

Also, really sell the strategy and what you want to get out of it, and then broaden those advocates across the business. You only need one person initially. And then build on that! 

We also have really good relationships with our business partnering team, and equally, they have great relationships with the business. This comes in handy when there’s an area where it’s really hard to recruit and we dont get traction. Leaning on them to nudge teams on the shoulder to say “Hey, this actually will make a really big impact. Can you please make a video.” 

And get creative as well. There's the StoryFeed, which is brilliant, but how else can you use VideoMyJob within your processes? 

I think speaking through these examples, one of the things that is most exciting is how we've built the videos into the frontline recruitment processes. For me, I not only see the impact for the candidate, but I also see the impact for our team. And then through the questions and conversations that we're having as a result. 

Also the people leader impact in terms of the quality of candidates that are coming through. And so that came about by getting a bit creative. Like, how else can we pop a video into our process to make it better? And so yeah, have a play. We've definitely messed a few things up, but it's okay. It’s video, so definitely just have some fun with it! 

And lastly lead by example. Personally, and as I mentioned earlier, I did literally just have to get in front of the camera myself. I mean I definitely did it maybe ten times before I was comfortable for it to go to the team, but that's okay.