Hiring a new employee has previously meant putting an ad in the paper or going by word-of-mouth through a friend, family member, or current employee. These days, the Internet has allowed businesses of all sizes to spread the word about openings across the country and across the world with the click of a mouse. Even with enhanced digital job advertising, candidates have been found to be attracted to video above all other mediums.

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How Does Video Differ?

Print advertisements for openings can tell a story, but most fall flat because they have limited space. A print ad for an opening typically consists of bullet points regarding what the company is looking for and what the candidate can expect. Even through online job postings that consist of text, it can be difficult to convey exactly what you’re looking for. When you use video, however, a whole new world can be opened.

Video allows candidates to not just see, but also hear, what the opportunity entails. While a job seeker reads about an opportunity in the paper or online, he or she can be immersed in the company culture through a video which provides current employee testimonials, a tour of the workplace, a short interview with the CEO, and so on. This approach can make the opportunity more “real”.

You can also use video to interact with candidates through chat services. This can be a convenient way to interview candidates quickly and comfortably, and it can also be a way to demonstrate your company’s willingness to use technology and meet candidates on their own terms.

Knowing What to Expect

On top of making the opportunity seem more real, video can provide candidates with realistic expectations. A test ad, whether online or not, will rattle off a bunch of employer expectations and requirements, some realistic and others not. A video will offer potential employees with a firsthand account of the daily life at the company. This can cut down on the number of unqualified applicants while increasing the number of desired candidates who, upon seeing the company in action, will apply because they actually want the job, not because they need the work.

Storytelling and Diversity Go Hand in Hand

Another point that needs to be recognized in recruiting through 2016 is that storytelling is more profitable through video, and video can also demonstrate diversity. The story of your brand is one thing when it’s written out in text, and you can talk about diversity through text, but will these factors have the same effect when video can demonstrate?

Using video, your company can not only show archived and current footage of your brand, but it can also demonstrate its efforts to be diversified by interviewing employees who come from different backgrounds. These stories help applicants to see exactly what they can expect if they end up working for your business. Thereby, video is one of the most powerful mediums when it comes to showing exactly what your brand is all about.

Will the introduction of video in the hiring process increase a company’s likelihood of finding more qualified candidates?