How to Create an Engaging and Great Recruitment Video: 12 Tips from Professionals

Recruitment videos are a valuable tool for recruiters and job seekers alike, and when done right, help recruiters find quality candidates who are truly enthusiastic about getting on board. That makes knowing how to create a recruiting video an important step in finding new employees.

Here's how it's done.

Why You Need Recruitment Videos

There's only so much you can do with text. Sure, you can write the job expectations in a bullet-point format, you can describe the candidate you're looking for, and you can list the qualities that make your business great – but candidates won't fully understand what it's like to work with your team and understand your company's culture.

The best recruitment videos give you an opportunity to show what your offices or facility look like, giving potential candidates a chance to see what an average day at work looks like. You can introduce your team, show the environment that job candidates will be working in, and do short interviews with current employees about how they like the place.

It's a great way to make people feel engaged and excited about applying, resulting in more applications for your job posting, as well as a better recruitment process overall.

Tell Authentic Employee Stories

A credible story is much more than an employee testimonial. A compelling story is personal, relatable, and inspires the listener to action.

Your recruiting video production needs to capture a personal experience from an employee. A recitation of the company values might sound nice, but it’s not going to excite a job candidate. You need to showcase the qualities of your company that will appeal to and attract the best candidate.

Do you offer a flexible working environment? Ask an employee to talk about their personal experience with this arrangement. Does it allow them to better manage their household, care for someone else, or even pursue a personal passion?

Is volunteerism a core value? Film your team giving back as a group, ensuring your video highlights the best of the best for your target audience.

Are your team members driven to deliver excellent customer experiences? Have an employee tell a specific story about how they went above and beyond for a customer.

Some of these stories may not appeal to some prospective candidates. That’s a good thing! You want the right people to apply for your open positions and those that may not be a good fit to opt-out. Depicting your authentic work experience will help you attract candidates who are actually excited to work for you.

Recruiting Videos Work for Large and Small Employers

Whether you’re a multi-billion dollar company building an army of top-notch employees or a family-owned business looking for just one perfect hire, video marketing can be an effective tool.

A good employee recruitment video allows prospective employees to picture themselves in your space. Your video can include footage of the working environment, such as an office building, factory floor, or home office. Your video also serves to introduce the candidate to at least one of their future co-workers.

And if you’re wondering who should be interviewed in the video, pick employees with diverse experiences who are thriving at your company. Remember, you are not trying to attract just anyone to your company. You are using your video content to appeal to the people you would most love to hire.

How Long a Recruiting Video Should Be

How long should a recruiting video be? If you keep asking yourself this question, the answer is “as long as it needs to be”. You want to convey a compelling story, not just make a generic recruitment video like so many recruitment videos before. This could take one minute or five minutes.

But in general, recruiting videos are 1-3 minutes in length.

What Every Good Recruitment Video Needs: Tips How to Make a Recruitment Video

Company recruitment videos can be highly effective, but they need to be done right. A good recruitment campaign will fit the following criteria to perform two functions; demonstrating that your company is a great place to work and making clear precisely what you expect from job candidates.

Company Culture

Your culture is what makes you unique. Your company culture video should demonstrate what it's like to work with your team, your values, and your goals.

Keep It Concise

Your video shouldn't be too long. You want to keep things clear, concise, and easy to understand. It should also be casual but not unprofessional and friendly without appearing fake. Be careful when creating a funny recruitment video you need to be sure you're focusing on what matters.

Information about the Role

Job candidates need to know what is expected of them, so your video will need to serve as a job posting. Explain what you are looking for in a new employee, the roles and responsibilities of the job, and the kind of people for which you're looking in these video job descriptions.

Testimonials

Testimonials allow you to give current team members a chance to talk about what it's like working for you. Your current employees are perhaps the best tool for giving new candidates confidence that your company is the right place to choose.

Benefits

Finally, don't forget to list the benefits of working at your company. Whether it's the positive working atmosphere or the retirement and health plans, don't forget to touch on them during the film. It's shocking how many people forget this in their own recruiting video.

Some More Tips On Creating Great Job Advertisement Videos

Let's get specific. Here are some of Gillespie Productions' top tips for producing creative recruitment videos that attract quality candidates. These tips will help you make better videos, not just for recruitment for internal communication, and even marketing purposes.

Make a Plan

For some people, making a plan starts with a recruitment video script. For others, it starts with creating an overall idea of what you want the video to be. At Gillespie Productions company, we tend to avoid overly-scripted videos and opt for something more natural instead.

Be Sure that You've Included Key Information

Before moving on to production, be sure that your plan includes all the necessary information. There's nothing worse in video production when you realize you forgot to include something after finishing filming. So write a list of what your video needs to include, and stick to it!

Answer Main Candidate's Questions

Be sure to answer the main questions candidates will have when applying for the position. Not sure what to include? Talk to your current employees and see what questions they had during the recruitment and interview process.

Video Should Be Short

It might feel like you have a lot to pack in, but your video shouldn't be any longer than a few minutes. Anything longer than that, and you risk losing the attention of candidates. With a clear and concise video, potential candidates will be more compelled to apply for the position soon after watching the video.

Keep It Fun!

It should go without saying, but it's important to keep your video fun. Experiment with a few different recruitment video ideas in your planning stage, and be sure to choose the most upbeat idea that demonstrates what it's like to work at your company. A fun workplace is every employee's dream.

Add Subtitles

Believe it or not, people watch videos without the audio on fairly often these days. Perhaps a viewer is in a public place without headphones, or you're looking to quickly catch the attention of somebody casually scrolling online. With subtitles, people can watch and understand the clip in full without even turning on the audio – and if they are suitably intrigued part-way through watching, they can simply turn on the audio.

Showcase Your Company Culture

Your company culture is what makes you unique, and it's also a great way to capture the attention of potential applicants. Try doing a run-through of the average day in your office, speak to managers and team members, and discuss your ethics and goals.

Add Call to Action

A call to action encourages people to get in touch or submit an application immediately when the video ends. A great way to get people to take action is to stress how quick and easy it is to make their application, and if the quality of the video was good, potential applicants should feel inspired to make their application quickly.

Find Matching Music You Can Use

An upbeat and lively tune helps people feel an emotional connection to your brand when watching a recruitment video, but it's important to find something that isn't protected by copyright. If it is protected by copyright, you must either get permission to use the audio or pay for the rights to use it before producing the short film.

The music should be positive and upbeat but shouldn't overpower what people say in the video.

Promote the Video

A quality video isn't much use if people don't see it. Once the video is ready, make sure it is easy to find on your company's social media, website, and recruitment websites. If you're looking to cast a wide net, you may even want to consider paying for social media advertising to target people based on location, profession, or interests with your recruitment video highlights.

Update Your Videos

It's important to keep your video up to date. If it's a hyper-specific video, you'll need to update the video every time the job position changes. If it's a more general recruitment video, be sure to update it at least every couple of years as your business changes.

Choose the Right Production Team

Finally, it's essential to choose the right production team. At Gillespie Productions, we give Wisconsin businesses an easy way to develop internal communication, marketing, and recruitment videos.

Our team of professional videographers creates recruitment videos that perfectly encapsulate your brand, vision, and culture. To find out more about how we can expertly handle all your recruitment video needs, call our team today and hire us!