Power User Spotlight with Tayla Noble

Q: First, can you start by telling us about PPD Search - what’s the team set-up, your role, and the core mission for your team?

So PPD Search is a recruitment firm that specialises in healthcare recruitment. 

We're a small team, so there are four of us at the moment altogether. So there's the managing director, Elizabeth Pettit. She's quite hands-on and well-known in the industry. And then we have our two senior recruitment consultants, Scott and Nicole, who are quite experienced as well. Together, they have 30-plus years of experience. And then there is our office manager. While she’s on maternity leave I’m taking on her role.

And that's why I'm here today because I've been doing our marketing and I'm also the resourcing consultant and a recruitment consultant in training. So that's the sense of the team, a small team.

Q: What made you explore a video solution and what led to the implementation of VideoMyJob?

Before I started, we were using VideoMyJob, but things have changed a bit since then. I know the impact that video can have. I know it gets better engagement, so I thought we needed to utilise it better. 

When I first started, we were using VMJ to create videos for our current jobs and we would post them on social media; YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, and also on our SEEK ads. It was just really to improve our applications and get better engagement on LinkedIn as well. Because in recruitment, most of our jobs aren't filled coming from applications, from advertisements, they’re mostly filled from our network or connections on LinkedIn. The people that I've reached out to that I've connected with. 

So it's another reason to post a video. I don't think if I was scrolling through LinkedIn and saw a long job ad, I would stop to read it. 

So it's just a nice way to use video and streamline the process. So that was essentially the reason why we started using VideoMyJob, just to make the process easier for both our candidates and ourselves because it's improving the applications coming through.

Q: So it sounds like you wanted to use video to differentiate yourselves and stand out in the market, and it seems to be working! Can you share how you’re specifically using the product for your candidate experience? 

Primarily, we use it to post on our job ads. 

When people go through SEEK, they click on the ad and the videos come up at the top. So straight away they don't even have to read through to get the information. It just streamlines the whole process because they can watch a video that explains the roles, the essentials, what you need, what the role includes, and what the company is like. 

It’s just enough to get their interest. And then when they apply, it's a lot easier than going through a long ad, having to read through. Therefore it has improved our applications. 

And then again, of course, on social media we're finding that people share our videos, they pass it on to other people. So that's why we've been using it on social media, to network, and connect with more people.

And then a new thing we've introduced; because we've realised that VideoMyJob, we could quite literally use for anything. I could film a video on something that's maybe been frustrating my candidates and then post it to let our clients know that this has been happening in the industry and to fix it, to fix retention.

We’ve started filming videos with two of our consultants about the job. It's basically like a job interview-style video. I've never actually seen anything like it on VideoMyJob. I might be wrong, but it was quite new, kind of something we wanted to introduce. And we have found that we do get more engagement. I think people find it more interesting watching two people having a conversation rather than me sitting in front of a camera just speaking straight to them. So that's basically how we use it for candidates.

Q: I know you’re using it for Customer Relationship Management. Can you share with the audience how you’re doing that? 

So we've been on the client side of things.

You guys introduced Story Feed. A pop-up of our videos on our website. Your customers were using it for ‘why work for us?’ And because we're a smaller agency, we don't recruit for ourselves often.

So we wanted to use it to say, ‘Why work with us?’

Why should our clients work with us? Why should candidates work with us? Why should you collaborate with us? 

Of course, because business development is a huge part of recruitment and building your brand as well. So we thought, let's utilise ourselves. My mentors have fifty-plus years of experience in healthcare recruitment and seventy years all combined of recruitment in general. 

So we thought, let's use that knowledge. Let's highlight that knowledge in a video. So we've been doing informative videos for both our candidates and our clients. In doing this, we're improving companies, giving them advice, advice and feedback we've got from our candidates and how they can improve. So that's for our existing clients.

And then we're also highlighting and showcasing our knowledge and kind of saying to new clients "come work with us, we can help you". We can improve your company. We have all this knowledge and all this experience.

So we film videos on things that are industry trends. For example, my manager just filmed a video last week of three stories that she got from candidates during the week based on bad experiences they had. So it was kind of like to our clients ‘Don't do these things.’ So you can use it for anything. So that's what we've been doing on the client side of things. It's informative videos for both candidates and our clients.

Providing Context: Tayla, you and your team are using Story Feed in quite a unique way. Generally, customers use it to communicate “why you should join” the company, however, PPD Search is using it as a brand awareness tool and a way to differentiate themselves in the market by showcasing their industry knowledge and wealth of industry experience. 

So I wanted to show everyone that’s dialled in what that looks like so you have some context. And really to point out that you can get creative as you’d like with how you use video to connect your talent to your brand.

Q: What adoption challenges did you face getting people to use VideoMyJob and create videos?

Initially, when I started, it was one video per recruiter per week. Now we've increased so that we have a job video for every single job ad. 

And we have seen results, we have seen more applications, and the process of filling the role has been faster. And I do think it is because of the video aspect. Not all of my colleagues are as tech-savvy. But that's okay. I'm here to teach them. I'm very hands-on with them. I'll show them how to do it. I'll go step by step, and sometimes it might take a couple of times to show them how to do it, but they've gotten the handle on it now. It comes naturally to me. 

But my team's great with it now. They understand how to use the platform. 

Another issue was time. We get so busy and we have such hectic weeks that I can start in the morning and have nothing for the rest of the day. And then by an hour into work, my whole day is booked up.

So it's very important that we put that time aside in the week. And that's how we kind of fix that issue, because it's not an excuse anymore of, “Oh, I didn't have time this week.” 

As much as you need to prioritise tasks, it's a priority because that's going to bring us the applications, that's going to bring us the brand awareness. 

So at the beginning of the week, we have a meeting. We decide what videos are going to be filmed and we put aside time. I might even put aside time on Friday at the beginning of my week because then I know I've got a week, so I'll put it aside on Friday so it gets done. Because if you don't have a time set, it won't be done.

I do some hands-on teaching, especially with our VideoMyJob account manager as well. Ara has been very, very helpful. I can email him and say, "can you help me with this? My team's struggling." He'll be back to me within the next hour. He's offered to do learning sessions with my team. He shows me how others are using it, and gives me examples. Example of how to use use Story Feed. 

I was doing repetitive content titles, as you might have seen previously, when you showed it up, the titles were very repetitive, and he gave me feedback. 

He said, “Change the titles up, make them more specific.” Otherwise, it looks like it's the same video over and over again. So he gave me feedback and that so easily improved my engagement and views.

Q: Can you talk us through the wins or outcomes you’re getting from incorporating Video into your strategy?

With our videos being published on SEEK and LinkedIn, we've definitely seen an increase in job applications, which of course is great. 

In recruitment, we need those applications. 

And then with posting on LinkedIn, I've seen an increase in our views. Obviously, they fluctuate, but when we first started posting job videos, we would probably get maybe 50 views, and now we're getting probably a range of 150 to sometimes 300, sometimes more. 

But that's a big increase. And I think that's because we're posting more regularly rather than here and there. So that's been a big win, of course. Because that's more engagement for us on our page. If people are sharing those videos, and posting on their feeds, that's more people seeing the videos. It's just visibility and credibility for us. We're building our online presence. So that's been a big win.

It’s a good feeling because you know, we're doing something right, it's getting to the right people. And that's always great.

One of the big things as well is that it gives us an excuse to touch base with people. It's important in recruitment that you're constantly doing business development, which includes you, we need those jobs on, which includes reaching out and constantly touching base with people. 

It gives us an excuse to just ping them an email, or message them on LinkedIn, “Hi, client, I've filmed this video on so and so. You might find it interesting or might be helpful.” 

It's an excuse to initiate a conversation that could lead to a job or that could lead to a connection. 

They could say, “Oh, I'm not recruiting a role at the moment, but I know this person is recruiting a role. So it's a great excuse to touch base and expand our network, which will bring us more opportunities.

Q: And lastly, what advice would you give your fellow VMJ community who might be struggling with adoption or getting people on camera?

I would say definitely putting that time aside in the week. It's not a long process, especially if you're posting a job video.

You just have to write a script. Using the copy in your advertisement, pulling the information from that, writing a script, and then filming a video isn't a long process, once you're comfortable and you know how to use the program. So it's not hard. All you need is 30 minutes.

These days I take ten minutes, but I'm saying maybe 30 minutes max. So just put time away, time aside in the week in advance so that the video gets done. And then I would definitely say think outside the box that you can use VMJ for literally anything. For example, me and our business are looking to introduce a new feature soon and we're planning on doing a VMJ video on it just to get awareness to promote it. You could film it on any topic, really, of course, work-related.

But just think outside the box. If you feel passionate about something and you want your clients, or candidates to know, just film a video and you'll get more engagement than you’d expect. And, it can improve your relationships with those candidates and clients. 

And then with getting them to film the videos as well. How we do that is we do WIP meetings at the beginning of the week and we assign it, we brainstorm, talk about things that are happening, what trends in the industry or maybe something that's happened in the last week that they think would be a good idea for a video. It gets everyone a bit excited, and a bit passionate about it, so they want to film the video. 

And then, of course, reach out to your account manager if you need help. That's the biggest one. That's what Ara in your Customer Success team is there for, to help me if I need it. Ara's always been lovely and happy to help me, so that's my best advice. If I had a question or needed anything, I'd reach out to him and he gets back to me with the answer so quickly.