To attract top candidates, improve retention and foster a positive company culture, you have to invest in your employer brand.
The Review-led Talent Acquisitions & Employer Branding Series is designed to guide human resources professionals in thinking about how to capitalize on the power of the employee voice by capturing and distributing their thoughts effectively in forward-thinking recruitment marketing tactics.
In part 2, we will discuss the ways in which you can use Invite Video internally to grow and promote your business. If you missed part 1, check out How to Build Trust with Job Seekers Using Glassdoor Reviews.
At their core, talent acquisition and employer branding are forms of marketing. Yes, as a recruiter your main goal is to fulfill 100% of the hiring plan, but on a more nuanced level, your job is to increase employer recognition and awareness in their target market. This is where video becomes essential.
Video is a go-to tool for marketers, with over 92% deeming it an important part of their marketing strategy. It’s attention-grabbing and efficient. For recruiters and talent acquisition professionals, video has transformed the hiring process for the better.
When used effectively, video can give direct insight into your workplace culture. This makes your company seem more authentic and relatable to prospective employees, giving you a competitive advantage in attracting top talent.
Whether you are generating video content and testimonials organically or through an automated review generation software like Invite Video, video should be at the center of your internal marketing and recruitment strategy.
Here are some examples of how you can use video content internally to strengthen your recruitment tactics, improve your company culture, and communicate more effectively with your team.
Spruce up the careers page of your company website with video. Use Invite Video to ask current employees to review and explain open job positions from their own perspective. This gives potential hires a clear sense of the type of role they are applying for and demonstrates (from a more trustworthy source than leadership) what it’s like to work at your company. Relatability is key for effective brand content (see the Self-Reference Effect).
*Tip: Any videos featured on your careers page should also explain and highlight why someone should want to work at your company.
Company culture means a lot to job seekers - nearly half consider it to be a deciding factor in the application process. Featuring your team in a short video on social media is an easy and effective way to showcase your company culture and instill values. Further, it helps prospective employees visualize what it might be like to work at your business, an opportunity they may not get from their other job prospects.
For example, to display the happy voices of our team and offer appreciation for our clients and partners, we threw together a really quick campaign asking members of the Widewail team to record and share a series of short videos for a Thanksgiving social post.
Using Invite Video, we created a testimonial request link and prompted the Wailers to record a short video (5-10 seconds long) stating what they were most thankful for in 2022. After creating the link, it was as easy as sending it in our company Slack channel.
Upon clicking this link, the Wailers were taken to a landing page instructing them on how to record their short video:
Each video taken by the team was collected in Widewail’s app for easy access and navigation. We watched excitedly as the videos from our team flooded in.
Videos that feature the voices of your happy employees go a long way in establishing a sense of morale and culture for your company and serve as an invaluable recruiting tool for prospective candidates.
Record and send a video to first-round candidates thanking them for taking the time to interview and letting them know that you’ll soon be in touch. This is a personal approach that will help your business stand out from the rest during the hiring process and give you another opportunity to remind your candidates of any selling points.
2. Share the Excitement in Extending a Job Offer:Receiving a job offer letter or email is exciting, but receiving a personalized video is even more so. Telling an applicant they’re hired is the best part of the recruitment process - why not make it memorable and establish a connection with a video?
3. Provide the Team with New Hire Introductions:Make your new employee’s first day easier by inviting them to record a short introduction video to send out to the rest of the team. This takes some of the pressure off of talking to everyone in person on day one or being put on the spot in front of a large meeting, while still giving your new hire a chance to connect and put their best foot forward. Have them record a friendly video giving a quick bio, send it to the team, and let them get to know their new coworker when they have time.
4. Provide the New Hire with Team Member Introductions:Starting a new job can be overwhelming, especially when there are a lot of new names and faces to learn. Ease the transition for recent hires by helping them get to know the team!
Ask your team members to record short videos introducing themselves, their role at the company, and their interests/favorite pastimes. Send the videos over to your new team member before their first day. This will make them feel welcome and give them a leg up in getting to know everyone, especially the folks they will be working most directly with.
5. Collect Reviews/Surveys/Feedback about the Hiring Process:Employee feedback matters. Take the time to ask new hires to review how they felt about the hiring process - whether it be internally or on a company review site such as Glassdoor or Indeed. This shows a willingness on your end to learn and improve for your employees. It also shows you value their feedback and input, giving you the chance to instill company values early on.
*Tip: Feedback from people who you did not end up hiring can be just as valuable in improving your process.
Instead of having your employees follow a series of written instructions in an email to set up their work tools/accounts (i.e. Slack, Google, Trello, Zoom, etc.) show them an informative and engaging video outlining everything they need to know to get up and running. This makes the onboarding process easier for them to follow and lessens the chance of any mistakes being made.
2. Help New Hires Understand Company Policies:While certain aspects of the hiring process are less fun than others (cough cough, reviewing and signing the employee handbook), video can help make things more interesting.
A video summarizing company policy basics will add a certain level of engagement to an otherwise tedious process. It will also save you lots of time, as you can recycle the video for future hires. Record the highlights and answers to FAQs to get a bulk of the presentation out of the way, but make sure to leave communication open for questions that the video may not have covered.
*Tip: Similarly, video can be used to explain how to access and review benefits, can serve as a reminder for deadlines, and can facilitate any new company rollouts and initiatives.
Since 2021, the number of fully remote workers has increased by 240%. As hybrid and remote opportunities become the norm, it’s getting more difficult to establish a sense of belonging and culture in the workplace. Video content can help bridge this gap. Use video to help remote hires feel connected with and heard by the rest of the company. Prompts can range from serious requests for feedback on the company’s operations or fun things to get them to share and engage with each other.
2. Recognize Your Employees’ Successes:When you go to acknowledge your employees for a job well done, consider sending a video instead of messaging them. This establishes a feeling of belonging, appreciation, and connection. Especially for remote companies, a thoughtful video can feel more genuine and go a long way in making employees feel valued for their hard work.
No matter your approach to hiring and talent acquisition, video content and testimonials are essential to gaining a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining new team members. To learn more about how to put video collection on autopilot, check out Widewail’s Invite Video.