There was a bevy of thought leadership on display at last week’s HireCamp in San Francisco, a new recruiting unconference. This will serve as the first of a handful of posts I expect to deliver over the next few weeks.
Of the most intriguing topics showcased was video recruiting. Presenting the topic was Jason LaBarbera of Sunol Group. Now, when the term “video recruiting” gets thrown around, most think of a Skype-type solution where a recruiter talks to a candidate over the Web, or maybe they think of an archive-like solution where answers to questions are recorded for a recruiter to review at their convenience.
LaBarbera’s angle on video, however, was much more promotional in nature. Think job opportunities as YouTube videos. Here’s one his company put together for context.
“We’ve had incredible success with video,” said LaBarbera. “Recruiting messages tend to all be the same, so differentiation is the key to breaking through the clutter.”
Videos should answer, “Why you’d want to work at our company” he continued. Top ten lists work well. And they’ve seen an increase in engagement from 5 percent to 25-30 percent.
With 22 hours of online video being consumed monthly by individuals, the numbers are in favor of video as a recruiting option. And with mobile devices becoming faster, mobile is set to explode even more.
And on the topic of mobile, LaBarbara is a fan of text messaging, saying his videos enjoy a 97 percent open rate when they’re sent to candidates in a link via SMS.
“A Flip camera-style production won’t get it done,” LaBarbera said, meaning you can’t skimp on budget. His firm charges around $5,000 per video, which tend to be about a minute in length.
I took a few minutes to chat with LaBarbera at the show in order to find out more. Enjoy.
Additionally, here’s the entire Powerpoint presentation via Slideshare:
Sgm presentation 1.16.v1.final from JobScore
