Tag Archives: recruiting

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The economy is still slow, times remain tough, but believe it or not businesses still have a hard time recruiting good workers. One of the things they’ll occasionally do to help their effort is create a recruiting video.

This week I’m blogging about some of our recent projects and highlighting valuable lessons. Today’s video features a Chicago networking group… LeTip of Lakeview. Okay, I’m a member, so I kind of had the inside track on this project. It was an easy one in the sense that the group’s leadership basically turned me loose and said, “Do your thing.” That doesn’t mean it wasn’t without challenges and that’s what I’ll focus on here.

Recruiting video vs. About Us video

First, a recruiting video is similar to an About Us video, but there are some subtle differences. Chief among them… what you’re selling. A business creating a About Us video should be focusing on what prospects and clients want to know about the company. A recruiting video highlights things important to prospective employees.

The LeTip of Lakeview video is a great example. The video is intended to help recruit new members, so it focuses on things we feel sets the group apart from other networking groups… great energy, providing warm leads and putting dollars in your pocket.

What the video doesn’t go into is the parent organization, LeTip International, or how the meetings are structured. If we would have been producing a more general video on the group, those things would have been touched on.

Takes a professional’s eye

Second, take a look at the video from a visual standpoint. Anything stand out? It’s basically a bunch of people sitting around a table. The challenge was trying to make that look interesting and convey one of our big points… great energy.

An amateur video producer would have probably never even considered this point. Good thing the group has an expert at the table (cough, cough). High energy music, lots of camera movement and quick cuts go a long way to spicing things up.

Recruiting videos can be a tricky project, but with the right focus they can help make your business or organization more appealing.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 11 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.

There’s so many people looking for work out there, you might be surprised to find out that many companies continue to produce recruiting videos to attract top candidates. Take a closer look and you’ll realize some of these videos can provide lessons in PR and marketing.

Look no further than Starbucks. The company has a video front and center on the career page at its website.

The video’s a bit long… nearly 10-minutes! I’m a big believer in keeping internet videos less than 2-minutes, but here I’m okay with it. People are logging on to the career page to learn more about working at Starbucks, so you have an audience that’s motivated to watch. You can get away with a longer video in those cases.

Anyway, the video is skillfully done. Starbucks presents itself as a “people company that serves coffee,” and the video lives up to that by simply introducing us to some of its employees.

The video also demonstrates a great marketing technique. It provides just enough information to wet your appetite, but doesn’t weigh you down with facts and figures. For example, a couple of employees mention “bean stock,” but we never get details about the program.

As an audience, we quickly surmise it’s some sort of equity rewards program. No need to give the details during the video. That would just break up the flow. As soon as I was done watching, I explored the website to find out more about bean stock.

Way to go Starbucks! By focusing on the stories, you enticed me to find out more on my own… and I’m not even looking for a job.

Seems like a good marketing technique to me.

–Tony Gnau

Yesterday’s post discussed why companies might want to consider updating their videos and how they can do it on a budget. Today I’m showing you an example.

The Warrenville Police Department had a recruiting video produced this past winter. The shoot happened to take place not only with snow on the ground, but during an actual snowfall. The video was needed right away, so the shoot went forward but with an eye on updating it once summer hit.

Instead of shooting a brand new video, the decision was made to simply replace the winter scenes with summer shots. In this case, a nearly shot-for-shot replacement was accomplished.

It meant a half-day shoot instead of a full-day, a few hours editing instead of a day or two, and it all added up to big savings.

Same great video, only updated.

–Tony Gnau

VIDEO– Warrenville Police Video Splitscreen

We recently finished the Warrenville Police Department recruiting video, and their leadership did a lot of things right during the process that deserve mentioning. Here’s a few…

First, leaders identified a problem and developed a plan to deal with it. They want to attract the best and brightest recruits graduating from the police academy, and they decided to use the power of video to show them what their department is all about.

Second, they knew their audience. Graduating recruits are eager and looking for opportunities to put their new skills to work, so everything from the message to the music and shooting style were done with that in mind.

Finally, department leaders didn’t micromanage. They know they’re not marketing experts, so they put forth some basic guidelines and turned it over to some pros.

The end result… a video sure to appeal to the police recruits they’re chasing.

–Tony Gnau

VIDEO: Warrenville Police Recruiting