Why Every Company Should Be Using Video to Attract Top Talent
We have all heard “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words.” Pictures and moving pictures, videos, have given new life to words sometimes written centuries ago. While it’s important to use our imaginations and still read books, there is just nothing quite like seeing our favorite character come to life on screen. So if a picture is worth a thousand words, then it stands to reason a video is now worth a thousand pictures.
Why Video?
Well, science of course! Let’s start with these stats about video:
- According to Forrester Research, one minute of video is equal to 1.8 million words. 1.8 million words! Novels start at 40,000 words and go up from there, but not almost 2 million!
- Diode Digital also discovered that 60% of viewers will watch video before reading any site text.
- People spend on average 2.6x more time on pages with video than without (Wistia)
- By 2017, online video will account for 74% of all online traffic (KPCB)
Here’s where the science comes in:
A good story becomes an invitation to another place, another life, and the brain reacts by helping us experience it like we are actually there. This “video effect” coupled with ease of access to content (over 2 billion people currently have smartphones in their hands) truly changes how companies can grow.
Growth from video can come in the form of revenue, but also attracting and recruiting talent. Revenue is an easy example of growth from video, but how about using video for talent strategy?
Imagine giving candidates the ability to experience a “Day in the Life” of your company. Or, what about giving your employees a chance to tell their story about why they work for you? What better way to let candidates get “inside your head” to feel if this is the right place for them to work than through a video sharing your company’s culture.
Attract and Engage
As I mentioned earlier, using video to tell the story of your company is not new. It’s better than having a bunch of “About Us” text on your website. However, one video (they’re a dime a dozen) alone is not enough to convince the right people to come work for you. You need to also engage candidates.
You need another video that lays bare the truth of your company – the authentic good and the bad – and asks people, in a very specific way, to join your journey on becoming a great company or launching a revolutionary product/service. Basically, asking them to join your company’s why. If you pair your why story with an avenue for candidates’ to experience what it’s like to work there, you’ll be able to attract and engage the right talent.
What’s Stopping You?
Video can’t be an issue of expense because we all have film studios in our hands now. Smartphones are at a place where the quality of video can be just as good as a movie. Time and resources (people) may be limited, but this is why you enlist your employees to participate in telling your brand story. Talk about authenticity!
One problem most companies run into is lacking a strategy to create and deliver their authentic story consistently. This is where it can become overwhelming because, without a strategy, it won’t matter how great your videos. However, putting a strategy in place is fairly straightforward – just make it a priority. A priority as high as hiring the next group of rock star employees.
A Final Thought
Hopefully, I’ve convinced you there is no reason every company shouldn’t be using video to attract and engage future teammates. Nailing down your strategy for telling your story in the right way, consistently and more than once, takes time, effort and money, but not nearly as much as you lose when you hire wrongly fit talent who last less than a year.
