How To Create A Winning Recruitment Video

Including a video at the start of your recruitment process is a not-to-be-missed opportunity to improve candidate engagement and communicate your brand culture.

In this article, we're going to tell you everything you need to know to create a winning recruitment video. We’re going to cover:

• Why company videos are so good for candidate engagement.
• Preparation for making your video.
• How to write a script for your video.
• Tips on the equipment you need to film your video.
• How to set up your lighting for your video.

First of all, let’s have a quick look at why company recruitment videos are ideal for candidate engagement and communication.

Building candidate engagement

Primarily, a video can be used to create candidate engagement: as an employer using video interviews, you already know how video offers a practical insight into a candidates’ personality and passion for the role.

To the get the most out of your video interviews, you should also use them to communicate to candidates the company personality, culture and benefits.

Enhance the candidate experience and increase interview response rate

Watching an introduction video can make the candidate feel more relaxed about their interview. It helps them get to know you a little better, will increase the interview response rate and assist in ensuring you have more of the best candidates complete your interviews.

Get messages across while you have a captive audience

Do you find some candidates turn up for an interview without actually understanding the role? When they log in to complete your video interview, you have their attention – use this opportunity to share valuable information about the role with them.

For example, you might need to manage expectations about roles which require specific personality types – a video showing existing employees talking about the role can help candidates understand what the role involves. A video introduction will help them decide the job is not for them, saving you time later in the recruitment process.

Explain more about the purpose of the assessment

Your video is also an excellent opportunity to explain to the candidate what your hiring process includes. Explain why your organisation has chosen these evaluation methods, and why they are beneficial to both the candidate and the employer.

If you do have a large budget for your recruitment video, you could hire a video production company to do the work for you. However, you can also make videos yourselves, in fact, we often find the ‘homemade’ videos are just as successful as the professional ones. So don’t let a lack of budget stop you – later on, we'll share tips on how to film your video yourself using inexpensive equipment, including your smartphone.

We’ve talked about the benefits of adding a video at the beginning of your recruitment process or video interview - to help personalise the experience and improve candidate engagement. Now let's look at preparing to make your video.

Preparation is essential!

The filming day will probably involve at least a handful of people, even if you are doing the video yourself. We provide for advice on filming with an inexpensive camera and lighting if you’re on a budget below. If you hire a film crew, you will need to be ready for the day, so you maximise your investment in their time.

To make the best use of everybody’s time on the day, ensure you carry out the following preparations beforehand:

Background distractions

Put thought into where you’re going to film your video, in particular, what will be in the background. It can be good to shoot in the workplace, assuming, of course, it’s safe! If you show your offices or the working environment in the background, it will help candidates picture themselves working for you. A busy office backdrop can bring energy to your video, making it more engaging. However, there’s a balance to be struck; you don’t want to distract the candidate from the speaker's message.

Clothes

You want to show your company culture, so it’s best people wear the type of clothes they usually wear to work. People are inclined to smarten their look up if they are going to be in a video. However, if your dress code is smart casual, or tee shirt and jeans, stick with it.

If you are using professional lighting, depending on the type of lights, it can get incredibly warm so dress in something cool.

Avoid small patterns and stripes on shirts and blouses, as they can create a jumpy effect on video. Jewellery can also reflect light and distract the viewer or jingle, creating unwanted noise.

Very dark colours and too much white are also worth avoiding too. Don’t shy away from bright colours; they can look great, just make sure they don’t clash with your background.

Whatever you decide to wear, bring a backup outfit. Just in case you have a nightmare coffee accident on the day, or realise at the last minute your clashing with colleagues.

Hair and make-up

Hair and make-up aren't just about wanting to look good in the video (although this is important too – if the presenter feels confident and is enjoying the experience, the video will be better). Fly away hair and shiny skin can be a distraction you don’t want – so here are our hair and make-up tips:

Go for your everyday look, be yourself – and the natural look is best on video (rather than theatre stage makeup). However, some aspects of your make-up could be applied more heavily than usual:

If you have a foundation that you don’t usually wear in the daytime because it’s a bit too thick – bring it with you on filming day. A thicker foundation looks better on camera than it does in real life – same goes for mascara.

Face powder is brilliant for getting rid of shininess, which includes the men too!

Make your hair look as fabulous as possible – a drab or scruffy hair day is a whole lot more noticeable on camera. Make your hair look as sleek as possible – bring your straighteners!

In this section, we’ll give you some tips on what you should include in your script.

Write a script in advance

We’ve already talked about how preparation is essential when making your video. Even if you like to ad lib, it is worth putting some time into writing a script to make sure you include everything you need to say. Plus it can be surprising how much you forget when you’re in front of the camera.

Here are some ideas for your video script:

Firstly, introduce yourself and welcome the candidate

For example, “Hi, I’m Tom Stroud, CEO here at Tazio. Welcome to your video interview.”

Explain to the candidate why you are asking them to complete a video interview.

For example, “We are asking you to complete a video interview so we can gain a better insight into your personality and suitability for the role. Plus it means we can get back to people quicker to set up the second round of interviews. Most people prefer a video interview to a telephone call as it gives you more of an opportunity to show your personality, and it’s convenient – you can complete it in your own time without taking time off work.”

Show candidates what it’s like to work for your company

If you’ve got a corporate video already, this can be an excellent time to include it. Don’t worry if you haven’t got one – or big budgets to make one – often the small budget videos work just as well.

For example, you could film clips of employees talking about what they like about working for your company. These clips show candidates not only what employees consider necessary or of interest about the role but also gives them an insight into their personalities and their enthusiasm for your company.

For example, “Tazio is driven by innovation and customer success. We love working at Tazio because we’re working on ground-breaking technology, plus the office environment is very dynamic, it’s an exciting place to be.”

Talk about the role

Here is an opportunity to speak about the role and the type of person ideal for the job. You will, however, need to make a video for each vacancy. If you prefer a generic video for all interviews, leave this bit out.

Is there anything else you need to communicate to candidates while you have a captive audience?

Some Tazio customers also use video introductions as an opportunity to give candidates relevant information about the role, often called a realistic previewer. For example, if the role involves a lot of overseas travel, talk about this as it may appeal to some candidates, but equally, it may be a big turn-off for others. Here is your opportunity to get these important facts through to your candidates while they are listening intently.

Thank the candidate for their interest

For example, “Thank you very much for your interest in working for us. We look forward to finding out more about you and wish you the very best of luck.”

*Tip for the video presenters: When recording your video, imagine you are talking to one person, you will be more relaxed, and therefore come across more genuine. Think of a particular person and assume you are talking to them, for example, a previous candidate who applied for a similar role.

Creating a video on a budget

You can make surprisingly good videos using smartphones, tablets or webcams. Investing a small amount of money (under £50) will help give a more professional effect, we’ve included our tips below on what we think will help you become an amateur pro!

Tripod

Making sure the camera is level and still, will give a more professional feel to the video. Tripods are surprisingly cheap and well worth the investment. You can also get tripods for smartphones and tablets (if you search online, you will find them for under £5).

Sound

It’s easy to get used to the background noises in the office (such as the traffic outside) and stop hearing it on a day-to-day basis, but these noises might be very noticeable and distracting to the viewer. It’s a good idea if you record yourself for half a minute then play it back to check the only sound heard is your voice.

If you don’t have the budget for professional audio equipment, the best thing to do is to make sure your presenter is as close to the camera as possible. The quieter your surrounding is, the easier it will be to record the sound that you want, as clearly as possible.

To improve the sound, you can add extra microphones and connect them to your camera. The Rode SmartLav tie clip plugs directly into your smartphone or tablet and allows you to record high-quality audio with no wires.

You could plug in a standard mic using an adapter, but you may find the level is too low and you may get some distortion. The Rode VideoMic is a professional microphone designed for video cameras. The mic can be mounted on the camera and has a suitable high pass filter to reduce unwanted low-frequency rumble.

*Tip: make sure your camera has the right sockets for you to use a separate microphone. Remember, always run a test recording for audio levels and play it back to make sure it’s OK.

Lighting

A little extra effort with lighting can make a huge difference to the quality of your video. Let look at how to set up your lighting and how it can add more professionalism to your ‘home-made’ videos.

If your office has enough natural light, great, this can give the video a natural ambience. However, you might find your video is too dark without additional lighting. Typical office overhead lighting can leave unflattering or distracting shadows on the presenter’s face.

If you plan to make several videos, it is well worth investing in a lighting kit, and low-cost packages are available even if you only have a small budget.

A basic lighting set up would usually include: two flood lamps, one spotlight, stands for all the lights (which typically come with the kit) and reflectors – these can be anything from white cardboard to aluminium fabric reflectors you can mount on a stand. You can put together a kit like this for less than £50.

How to set the lights up

The image above shows the three point lighting technique which is the standard technique used in making videos.

The key light (which is the spotlight) is your main light, and the other lights are there to support it. It usually goes either side of the camera, in the image above it is on the right of the camera – and the left of the presenter so that it will highlight their face from left to right.

Then use one of your floodlights on the other side to fill the shadows that are made by the key light. The third light is used behind the presenter to separate your subject from the background.

Use the reflectors in a similar way to the support lamps. They will help fill shadows but work in a less prominent way. For example, they won’t distract the presenter as much as a bright light or cause lots of heat if the office is too hot.

Conclusion

Creating a recruitment video is a cost effective way to increase candidate engagement and improve completion rates for your video interviews and online assessments.

You don't need huge budgets, follow our tips, and you'll be able to create a winning recruitment video with even the smallest budget.