Behind the Scenes: 3 Companies Integrating Video into Recruitment

June 19, 2013

Do you want candidates to know what it’s really like to work in your company? Have you tried integrating video into recruitment? If not, you may be missing a golden opportunity to give people a great first hand look at your company and its culture.

Behind the Scenes: 3 Companies Integrating Video into Recruitment
Video that documents company culture is a trend that more savvy Boston-area companies are getting behind, and it’s something that should continue to gain steam nationally as the economy recovers and companies look to differentiate themselves better for recruiting purposes.
A potential employee can learn more about a company’s culture through a video than by reading its site. Seeing the office floorplan (open low cubes or coveted closed door offices), observing the dress codes (shorts everyday or fine button-down threads), spotting drawings on the walls (thanks IdeaPaint!) or classic art carefully lit, and witnessing interactions at company outings are just a few examples of how visuals will do more good than a blurb on your site.

3 Companies Taking Candidates Behind the Scenes

star Visible Measures

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-VszQovNTc
One great example, Visible Measures, has their own culture blog that gives a mix of video from employee anecdotes, to what the office looks and feels like, to fun outside events that show an investment in teambuilding. It’s that kind of content variety that is needed to resonate with the different kinds of candidates who are looking for indicators that they, too, will fit in with the team that’s already there.

star hack/reduce

http://vimeo.com/53670330
When the hack/reduce Big Data incubator space opened in Cambridge in late 2012, they used REEL Entrepreneurs to to record their opening event so that they could get enthusiastic testimonials and speeches from important attendees about the aspirations for what it will become and critical problems its members will tackle. The goal was clearly to use video to make people want to come be a part of it, to help build the hack/reduce culture from the ground up.

star Hopper Travel


One key company that champions the hack/reduce space, Hopper Travel, uses its company website and Vimeo channel to prominently feature interviews with its team, giving potential employees a glimpse of different roles in the company and a feeling for what it’s like to work with these people. Founder and CEO Fred Lalonde even uses video to directly address the question of “Why join Hopper?” With offices in Boston and Montreal, it would be interesting to determine if these videos have equal traction and relevance in both markets.

The Line Between Genuine Glimpses and Camera Magic

Not sure what to include in your own company’s videos?

getting_set_for_the_academy_awards_on_hollywood_boulevard-e1361792238374

Creating B2B Video Content: A Quick Guide


Another key question yet to be resolved is how do these videos do at actually helping a company to diversify itself? When a company needs to recruit different kinds of people, will a video simply help to replicate the mix of who’s already there, or can it be tweaked to be more aspirational for what that company wants its culture to become? What’s the right mix of profiling management to subordinates to showcase the interactions? And will it all feel dishonest to a potential employee that the image perhaps has been too well polished or hidden to give an accurate feel?
Certainly there are safeguards out there (the former employee who warns on Glassdoor not to believe the videos, for example), but it’s worth thinking about how these videos will come to be regarded in the long run.
With so many tools for recruiting and getting the message of a company’s culture out to the masses, integrating video more prominently makes sense. It’s a valuable glimpse into companies that — for now — prospective employees seem to want.

Has your company tried integrating video into recruitment? What other ways do you give potential employees a glimpse into your company’s culture?

Adjunct Professor of Communication Studies

<strong>Chad O’Connor</strong> is a communication consultant, teaches Organizational Communication and Culture in the <a href="http://www.northeastern.edu/commstudies/">Department of Communication Studies at Northeastern University</a>, and is editor of the <a href="http://www.boston.com/business/blogs/global-business-hub/">Global Business Hub blog </a>on Boston.com.