Digital Video Is the New Key to Startup Recruiting - Here's Why and How to Use It

In today's hiring environment, startups face an uphill climb to attract and recruit talented staff. First, they have to overcome massive global skills shortages in a variety of fields. Then, they must offer compensation packages attractive enough to compete with larger, more established companies. Then, they must be able to demonstrate the fact that their company's culture is a good fit for the candidate, as 56% of workers now consider that to be a make-or-break factor in their decision.

Clearing all of those hurdles represents a challenge, to say the least. That's why it's a good idea for startups, in particular, to look for ways to differentiate themselves through their recruitment practices. One of the best ways they can do that is to embrace new ways of reaching talented candidates where they're already likely to be – using online video as a medium. Here's a look at why video is becoming the key to startup recruitment, and some tips on making the best use of it.

Although it's a somewhat new practice, there's already some evidence that demonstrates how important adding video to a recruitment strategy can be. According to CareerBuilder, job postings that include video have a 34% higher application rate than those that don't and attract 12% more views by job hunters. That goes a long way toward explaining why companies like Google, Dropbox, and Fiverr now make video a key tactic to keep their recruitment software databases full of top-flight candidates.

In addition, there's also the fact that online video is gradually becoming the preferred content of Millennials, who are currently the most important demographic that recruiters need to reach. With the data indicating that they'll represent 75% of the total workforce by 2030, it's apparent that startups that hope to keep ahead of their competition in the race for talent will need to adopt video, and that the sooner they do it, the better.

Even if the reasons to embrace video as a recruiting tool are clear, it's important to understand the best ways to use it. Failure to do so could attract all kinds of unwanted attention for an organization, as was the case for Australia's Department of Finance when they released a cringe-worthy recruiting video that earned more laughs than applications in 2017. To avoid that fate, startups should follow these best practices:

While it may be tempting to develop and produce a primary recruiting video in-house, it's rarely a good idea to do so. It's a much better strategy to hire a professional screenwriter who has experience with marketing videos, so you can avoid the kind of awkward staging that results in something like the example above. Also, you'll want a professional videographer to produce the video itself, to ensure a polished look. While that will add to the production costs, it's almost always well worth the money. To get more bang for your buck, hire a video crew that can shoot video and high-quality stills at the same time so you'll end up with additional media assets for a companion print recruiting campaign.

One of the most important parts of using video as a recruitment aid is the choice of how to deliver the video to its intended audience. Today, most startups already rely on platforms like YouTube to deliver their marketing messages to potential customers. In some cases, they can leverage their already-existing channel there to drive views for their recruiting videos.

Sometimes, though, it's desirable to separate marketing materials and recruiting materials, so a separate channel or platform is a must. In general, it's best to choose the one that best fits the demographic you're aiming at, and YouTube isn't the only option. As an alternative, startups that plan to use video more heavily can opt to host their own media. Today, it's cheaper than ever to do so, via discounts like this A2 hosting promotion and similar offers from other providers.

It's also important to remember that using video in recruiting doesn't have to be a one-and-done affair. It can be remarkably effective to create a video series that extends well beyond just a hiring pitch. For example, consider creating videos that walk a potential candidate through the hiring process, including introducing the actual people they'll be dealing with along the way. Doing this helps to give viewers a taste of the human side of the business.

For such secondary content, it's not always necessary to go all-out in the same way you would for your primary content (see above). Instead, you can produce more inexpensive clips that function more like personal social media posts. Just make sure that there's continuity between everything you're including in your recruiting efforts, and that should suffice.

Startups that embrace video as a recruiting tool will reap the benefits of the tactic right away. Those benefits will only increase as digital video continues to grow and becomes an ever-larger part of potential candidates' media consumption. Getting a head start now is advisable since it's already clear that this is a fait accompli.

By following the tips laid out here, any startup should be able to create recruiting video content that will be both effective and informative. They'll also be able to avoid many of the pitfalls that other organizations have already encountered in their forays into recruiting videos. So the bottom line is this: it's obvious that video is the recruiting wave of the future, and it's not difficult to use it if you're careful – so it's time for startups to get rolling and enhance their recruiting efforts right away!