According to a recent global survey by VideoMyJob and SocialTalent, 57% of talent teams are now using video in their recruitment marketing and candidate communications. Of those, 95% plan to spend as much, or more, on video in the next 12 months. 

The world of consumer marketing has shifted heavily to video; this year, for the first time ever, we are spending more time on our mobiles than we do watching TV. By 2020, the average person is expected to spend nearly half of their total online time watching videos. 

It seems that the recruitment industry is ahead of the curve, with the majority of talent professionals now leveraging video to enhance their communications with job seekers and employees.

VideoMyJob, a mobile video solution, and hiring skills platform SocialTalent, are two HR tech companies with a vested interest in video. The majority of SocialTalent’s learning material is delivered via video (120 hours of quality recruitment and hiring training) and the VideoMyJob platform helps talent teams to build in-house video production capabilities. 

In May 2019-tired of quoting B2C statistics when they were dying to talk about the impact of video on candidates and recruiters-the two companies undertook some original research delving into the use, and impact, of video in the talent industry.

They took a broad approach, looking at video’s use across recruitment marketing, job advertising, candidate communications and employee engagement. The survey asked which social platforms were delivering and where recruiters and HR teams planned to allocate budget in 2020. The survey is the largest of its kind and garnered a significant number of global responses.

Video is now firmly embedded in recruitment marketing strategy

The survey made it clear that video is now firmly embedded in the recruitment marketing strategies of many talent professionals, who are seeing a strong return on investment (ROI) from video content. 

The State of Video in Talent revealed that candidate attraction is still a recruiter’s biggest challenge, and it’s one of the reasons why recruiters are using more video content. Video helps candidates have a digital experience that is close (but more scalable and economical) to meeting an employee in person.

• 78% of respondents believe video has helped increase the quality of applications.
• 88% of respondents who have used video believe it generates more responses from passive candidates.

Effective recruitment videos are far more than job advertisements in digital disguise; videos help candidates to picture themselves at a company and experience a company’s employee value proposition in action. 

• 68% of respondents believe that employees are the most trusted people to explain a company’s employee value proposition and benefits.

In today’s social media-dominated world, job seekers don’t expect recruitment marketing videos to be Netflix quality. Over-produced videos may even arouse scepticism among those accustomed to the quality of peer-to-peer video content. The shareability of video content is also important, with almost half of survey respondents saying video was the most likely type of content they would share with their own networks.

Video makes it possible to get people who are trusted most – your employees – in front of candidates, with video content literally working while we sleep. No doubt one of the reasons why recruiters are finding that video delivers a solid ROI, and why they’re planning to spend the same, if not more, on their video strategy in 2020.

• 95% of respondents who use video intend to spend the same or more on video in 2019 compared to previous years. 

Video is now firmly embedded in recruitment marketing strategy, with more than half of our respondents reporting that video is part of their current strategy. Video helps raise the personal brand of recruiters and company’s leaders, increases website traffic, drives click-through rates from digital advertising and increases awareness of employer brand and EVP. 

Recruitment professionals are recognising the opportunity that online video content represents across three key areas: 

• Growing brand awareness for their companies with active and passive candidates 
• Increasing engagement from candidates by giving them rich content 
• Ultimately, converting job seekers and passive candidates into job applicants 

What the survey results demonstrated beyond a doubt is that video is no longer a ‘nice to have’ – it’s key to pulling in candidates and driving inbound traffic. 

Find out how video is helping to solve key recruitment challenges and where recruiters will be spending their 2020 budget, download the report.

Tamara is an experienced marketing strategist who loves helping businesses build streamlined sales and marketing operations that deliver results. Tamara has spent 20 years honing her craft; promoting avant-guard performance art in London, building loyalty programs and wow events for Mercedes-Benz and attracting international students to Australia’s higher education programs. Once a customer of VideoMyJob, Tamara was so impressed with the product and its market potential that she now helps this growing Melbourne start-up enable recruiters and talent professionals the world over to make better connections with video.