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How To Make A Recruitment Video (The Right Way)

By Caitlin Mazur - Nov. 29, 2022
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Video is one of the most powerful forms of communication, and as a result, it can be a highly effective recruiting tool for companies.

If you’re considering making a recruitment video, keep reading: We’ll go over how to make a recruitment video and show you examples of excellent recruitment videos to use as inspiration.

Key Takeaways

  • A recruitment video is meant to draw potential job candidates to apply at your company.

  • Before you start making your video, establish its purpose.

  • Feature a variety of different professionals in your recruitment video.

What Is a Recruitment Video?

A recruitment video is a short video designed to draw in potential job candidates and convince them to apply to the company.

Recruitment videos help potential employees better understand the company culture and mission, what they’d be doing in the role they’re applying for, and/or what current employees have to say about working for the company.

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How To Make an Effective Recruitment Video

There is no one right way to make a recruitment video, as it depends on your company and the goal you have for your recruitment videos, but there are some steps that, when followed, will help you make a video that will help you do more effective recruiting.

  1. Establish your purpose. Ask yourself what you are trying to do with your recruitment video. Here are a few examples of common goals for these videos:

    • Answering basic questions about the company.

    • Getting viewers excited about the company’s culture and mission.

    • Providing a window into what it’s like to work for the company.

    • Showcasing different roles or departments.

    Once you and your team have established your goal for this project, the rest of it will fall into place more easily.

  2. Create an outline. Before you start writing a script and shooting the video, you need to outline it. Figure out what information points you want to hit and what order you want to hit them in, as well as what you want to show visually in the video.

    If you’re making multiple videos, plan out what each one will cover. If you’re making multiple similar videos, it can be a good idea to use the same general structure for each one so that viewers will generally know what to expect when they watch them – this also helps simplify the scripting and shooting process.

  3. Script your video. Some companies like to write out every word that’s going to be spoken in their videos, while others like to let the speakers wing it a little more. There are pros and cons to each strategy, so consider what would be the best fit for you and your company.

    If you decide to write out the entire script, read it out loud to make sure it sounds good off the page – it can be surprising how different writing sounds when read aloud than when you read it.

    If you decide to let your speakers wing it, you should still write out talking points you want them to hit – otherwise, you run the risk of an executive rambling for 15 minutes about the new payroll system that they’re very passionate about.

  4. Find interviewees. Come up with a list of people you want to speak to in your video. This may mean asking department heads to recommend one or more of their employees for the project.

    Once you’ve created your list, reach out to the individuals to see if they’d be willing to be in the video, and then send them any script or schedule information they may need.

    To help with nerves, you can offer to “rehearse” with them beforehand so they can get a better understanding of what you’re looking for and can do a low-pressure dry run of what they’re going to say. This is especially helpful if you aren’t fully scripting your videos.

  5. Shoot your video. Whether you’re shooting with an in-house team or are hiring someone else to do it, you should be involved in shooting the video.

    Find locations with good backgrounds and lighting, check to make sure your subjects are dressed appropriately for their job, and look for the b-roll you want to get. (B-roll is the candid footage of people working and chatting, machines running, etc., that you splice in between or over your interviewed subjects.)

  6. Edit your video. This is the part where you make the video follow the outline you created earlier in the process.

    Trim the unnecessary fluff from interviews, splice them together with a b-roll, and add music and graphics. Add in people’s names and titles, as well as your company’s logo, to make sure your viewers know exactly what’s going on.

    If you can, have multiple people look at the video before it’s completed to make sure they don’t see any problems with it.

  7. Release your video. If you haven’t already, come up with a plan for releasing your videos. It’s usually a good idea to release each video on multiple platforms to get as much mileage out of it as you can. Here are a few of the platforms you can do this on:

    • Website home page

    • Website “careers” page

    • Social media (organic and paid)

    • YouTube

    • LinkedIn

    • Email

    • TV/streaming ads

    Asking employees to share the video can also be highly effective in reaching the candidates you’re looking for.

Examples of Good Recruitment Videos

Here are a few examples of excellent recruitment videos to use as inspiration:

  1. Google

    While few companies have the resources that Google has, everyone can learn from this recruitment video trying to attract interns.

    Note a few of the defining features of this video as you watch:

    • It shows the cultural and physical environment of the organization.

    • It features both leaders and interns.

    • It features interns with a variety of backgrounds and areas of expertise.

    • It shows a little of what each intern was able to do during their internship.

  2. Air Force

    This short but powerful recruitment video shares very little practical information, as it’s designed to get people inspired and excited about the possibility of joining the Air force even if they’ve never considered it before.

    By using music, a voiceover, and footage of their pilots in action, viewers get a feel for what the purpose of the organization is and what they do, and they’re drawn in to find out more.

    It’s shareable, engaging, and will stick in candidates’ minds long after they’re done scrolling their social media feeds.

  3. Appian

    This recruiting video for Appian is simple, polished, and effective, and it covers the company’s history, mission and vision, and culture in under two minutes.

    The video features multiple real employees talking about what Appian is all about, giving viewers a taste of what it would be like to work there and inspiring them to learn more about the company’s job opportunities.

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Tips for Making Recruitment Videos

  1. Create more content than you can use. When you have to trim down your content, you end up with a much higher quality video than you would if you had to stretch it to create a complete video.

    Write a few extra talking points, shoot more b-roll, and interview more people than you think you’ll need – having options is always good.

  2. Test your equipment. Picture spending hours shooting a video only to discover your mic wasn’t working the entire time. Even if you’ve already used it several times today, always test your equipment before you start shooting.

  3. Look carefully at what each interview subject is wearing. Make sure the people you’re filming aren’t wearing clothing with a different company’s brand on it – not only is this confusing to viewers, but it can also get you in trouble with copyrights.

    You should also check to make sure each employee is wearing the proper safety equipment for the area where they’re working – this means checking for safety glasses, gloves, hair nets, hardhats, etc., as well as keeping an eye out for watches and jewelry that they may not be supposed to wear.

    This may sound like a small, unnecessary detail, but people in similar jobs will notice – at best, it will make your video come across as fake, and at worst, they’ll believe your company doesn’t follow safety regulations.

  4. Feature a variety of people. While having your executives share their vision of the company’s value, candidates want to hear from the employees they’d be working with too.

    When selecting people to interview, choose people from a variety of departments, educational backgrounds, ages, managerial levels, genders, and races/ethnicities. You’re trying to convince people to apply at your company, and showing them someone who looks like them can go a long way in accomplishing your goal.

Recruitment Video FAQ

  1. How long should recruitment videos be?

    Recruitment videos should be between about one and five minutes long. Your goal in making a recruitment video is to give the viewer a taste of what it’s like to work for your company and answer some of their initial questions, so a brief video is usually sufficient.

    At times a longer video might be beneficial if you’re doing a deep dive into a particular program; just make sure it’s still as tight and pithy as possible.

    If you’re worried about fitting in all of the content you want to include, consider making multiple videos – one for each department or topic. Candidates are often more willing to watch several short videos than they are one long one since they can see what each one is about and pick and choose what they’re interested in.

  2. Should you put music in a recruitment video?

    Yes, you should put music in a recruitment video. Music helps set the tone of videos, so it’s important to include it.

    Many editors like to have the music louder at the beginning and end of the video and much softer in the middle when people are talking, so it isn’t competing with the speakers’ voices. Keeping it going throughout the video helps bring energy and continuity and smooths cuts and transitions.

    When choosing your music, make sure you aren’t using anything that’s copyrighted, and make sure you’re matching the tone of your music to the tone of your video – otherwise, it’ll be jarring and confusing to watch.

Author

Caitlin Mazur

Caitlin Mazur is a freelance writer at Zippia where she has written 140+ articles that have reached over 1 mil viewers as of June 2023. Caitlin is passionate about helping Zippia’s readers land the jobs of their dreams by offering content that discusses job-seeking advice based on experience and extensive research.

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