Personalized, Persuasive, People-Forward: The Vouch Guide to Using Video at Every Stage of the Employee Lifecycle - Part 2: Recruitment and Hiring

In the second installment of our series, we turn our attention to recruitment and hiring. In today’s competitive job market, attracting the right talent requires more than just a polished job description. This chapter explains how companies can use employee-generated videos to differentiate themselves and stand out to top candidates. Whether it’s a personalized message from a hiring manager or an introduction to potential teammates, video content can make your recruitment process more compelling and human.

Your employer brand encompasses your company’s culture — its unique DNA. In an ideal world, people will have a positive view of your employer brand regardless of whether or not they’re actively looking for a new job.

But when you begin recruiting and hiring, the assignment becomes more defined. You’re now looking for a specific person to do a specific job in a specific place. And not only are you trying to find the best candidate for that role, but you’re also trying to outperform other companies who may be competing for the same talent.

Employee-led video content allows an organization to step up and stand out at every stage of the recruitment and hiring process. That begins by differentiating the opportunity.

If a candidate is looking for a new role as a project manager, they might be sorting through hundreds of project manager job ads or moving through the hiring process with several different companies. What makes your opportunity unique? Have the hiring manager record a video explaining why this is a career-making role for a talented project manager, and film videos with the team they’ll be leading to highlight the exciting projects they’ll be working on.

Three prompts to set your recruitment drive apart from the competition:

1. How is your team making a difference for the company?
2. What’s the next big project thing your team is working on?
3. Why is this role a particularly great career opportunity for someone in the field? 

Employee-led video also presents an opportunity here for innovation — not only can hiring managers record videos for potential applicants, they can also record videos for the recruiters. The stronger the brief from the hiring manager to the recruiter, the better the candidates they’ll bring you to interview. Use videos to give an immediate, tangible sense of the company culture, the hiring manager's leadership style and the team dynamics that contribute to success — all of the details that can’t be captured in a written job description. These videos can then serve double duty: recruiters can share the videos from the hiring manager with shortlisted candidates to provide additional context, boost their impression of the company and enhance the candidate experience overall. 

Finally, personalized videos can make a critical difference at the offer stage of a hiring process. A strong candidate is likely to be fielding multiple opportunities, choosing which employer will be the best fit for their long-term career development. Video can be a powerful way to get them over the finish line — any one of these approaches could separate your offer from the competition:

• Have the hiring manager record a personalized video for the top candidate about why they think the role is such a great fit for them and how committed they are to supporting the candidate’s growth and ongoing success
• Have the candidate’s potential new teammates record a video about  what makes their team great and why they’re so excited about the candidate potentially joining
• Have the CEO or founder record a video letting the candidate know they’ve heard great things about them and sharing some additional context about what the future holds at the company and why it’s a particularly pivotal and promising time to join
  
  

Recruiting and hiring are about building and deepening connections — investing in the candidate even before they’ve officially joined the organization. By increasing the use of individual, employee-created video, companies can make the recruitment process more personal and compelling — resulting in stronger teams to help drive the organization forward. 

Stay tuned for our next chapter, where we’ll explore the importance of pre-boarding and onboarding in building early connections with your new hires. Learn how to create video-driven experiences that welcome and engage employees before their first day.