Below is an edited transcript from SparcStart’s webinar “Driving Engagement with Recruitment Video” as well as the top three videos from the TA Week Video contest. You can watch the full webinar here.
Maury – Hi everyone, I am Maury Hanigan. I’m CEO of SparcStart, and I’m delighted that you’re joining us today for this conversation with three amazing people in the talent acquisition and employment brand and recruitment marketing space.
All three of them did an amazing job at generating votes for their recruitment videos for the TA Week contest. They’re all bringing a different kind of expertise to the idea of getting videos seen.
I’ll start with Gabriella Medvic. She is the digital attraction specialist at Domino’s Pizza. She has five years in the industry, and been with Domino’s for a year. Welcome Gabriella, nice to have you with us.
We also have Jena Patrick. She’s the recruitment marketing specialist with Growmark, an ag retail cooperative, and she’s located in Bloomington, Illinois. Welcome Jena.
And last but not least, by any matter of means, the woman who generated the most votes in the contest is Jen Pio. She’s leading employer branding and digital recruitment at one of the nation’s largest cancer treatment and research systems, City of Hope. Welcome.
We’re glad to have you all here and interested to hear about what you’re doing. Let’s start with why you’re producing videos and what issues you’re looking to solve.
Jen – I think with recruitment video, especially for City of Hope, we’re widely known in our demographic area, right?
But now that we’ve acquired Cancer Treatment Centers of America, we have the problem of not being known nationwide. We’re kind of that sleeping giant creating the first synthetic form of insulin or CAR T-cell therapy. We were one of the first to do that in cancer treatments, but people don’t really know of City of Hope.
So video is a great way for us to be able to get our name out there, our accomplishments, what we’re doing, and really attract top talent, whether it be clinical staff or researchers to our organization. We can reach a wider net utilizing video than we can with any other medium.
Gabriella – For Domino’s, similar to Jen, we do use [recruitment video] for brand awareness because people do know Domino’s, but they know Domino’s for the pizza we bring to your house. But there is a whole corporate office based in Ann Arbor, Michigan that makes that happen and a whole system of 31 North American supply chain centers that make that happen. So that is one of the main reasons we use video, for brand awareness to open it up to get people to realize that we’re more than just pizza delivery, that we’re this whole system.
It also helps us attract the right candidates while detracting people who might not be the right fit. Especially on the supply chain side, competing against people like Amazon and FedEx, what you do in an Amazon warehouse is completely different than what you do in a FedEx warehouse, which is completely different than what you’ll do in a Domino’s warehouse. But they’re all going to be listed as warehouse associate. So, a video really shows candidates, oh, this is what they do at Domino’s on top of our culture. It’s so much more accessible than paragraphs and paragraphs of text.
Jena – Honestly, very similar to what Jen and Gabriella said. We are an ag retail cooperative. A lot of people are confused about who we are and what we do, and video is used to help us with brand awareness, being one of the biggest things.
Then also, obviously video is the fastest growing form of communication out there on every social platform you can think of. When you have a brand that’s not super familiar, it’s helpful that you have video on all those social platforms. It’s one of those things where our communication team is constantly trying to get ahead of the game and stay ahead of everything that’s happening out there.
Maury – So, let me go back and ask you, what’s the best way to get recruitment videos in front of your target audience?
Gabriella – We distribute our videos over multiple platforms and each of those platforms serves a different purpose and a different audience. On LinkedIn, our videos are really focused on our corporate culture and our celebrations, those types of things.
Then Indeed and our CRM. We can attach our videos right to our job applications. That’s where you see our videos that have to do specifically with our roles and that is a great way to get them seen. They click open warehouse associate, production associate, delivery driver, and right there is a video that talks about the role and the culture within the store, within the center.
Then of course, YouTube and social media, that’s where you’re going see the productions. Domino’s has a unique situation where about 20% of our advertising is employer brand and the other 80% is consumer brand. So, our social media channels are where you’re going to see the commercials and things like our new products.
Jen – One of the other avenues that we utilize that works really well for us is we utilize recruitment videos on our Brazen virtual event platform.
Videos allowed us to be that first touch point of someone before they talk to a recruiter. Even before they register for the event, they see a video about the position or from the hiring manager, about why they would want to come work in that specific role within City of Hope. It has really driven engagement quite significantly for us.
Jena – We honestly have to try a lot of different avenues when it comes to distributing videos. In some of our locations, people aren’t as into social media. One alternate avenue we use is more direct one-to-one sharing.
Additionally, we’re really trying to make sure that we are getting out in front of people’s children and going to schools and talking to local areas about our brand and making sure that students are aware of who we are and what we do. We do have a job shadow program where we make sure that we have videos out that we share out on campus, letting them know that they can come shadow for us.
Maury – Do you have a specific example when you know your recruitment video worked? You all seem very convinced that video is effective for you. How do you know that?
Jen – Anytime we notice that we use video rather than something static, whether it be on our social channels or through our CRM platforms, we see an uptick in engagement and an uptick in, if it is for our virtual hiring events, the RSVPs. As the other panelists have mentioned, it’s that personal connection, right? They’re feeling a connection, not only to the organization, but to our mission.
Gabriella – When we post [recruitment videos] on LinkedIn, you see the difference between a blog post or a post with a photo versus a post with a video. Your engagement is just completely different and off the charts.
When we started adding the videos directly to our applications, there was an immediate uptick in our applications. One area specifically for us is CDL class A drivers. With a CDL driver, there’s so many different aspects to it. When you work for Domino’s, it’s touch freight, it’s regional, you’re home almost every night, but then there’s these other companies where you’re gone for a month at a time, you’re doing over the road or you’re doing bump dock. These videos really help show specifically what a CDL A driver does at Domino’s.
Jena – I would say one specific example for us is we created an internship video because we wanted more and more students to be interested to come to our company. They hear agriculture and they’re like, well, I don’t want to do that, so students were struggling wanting to apply because they thought they had to have a background in agriculture.
We got testimonials and took videos of actual interns and showed hands-on stuff that they do in the office and out in the fields and it did help. We had several students last year say, “I saw your guys’ video out there and that’s honestly why I applied”, so it was working. Not only do the metrics show it, but we actually have verbal confirmation from students as well, but it does work.
Maury – Okay, if you had no barriers and no constraints and you could use recruitment video exactly the way you wanted to, what’s your dream of how video would work in your whole employer brand and TA system?
Jen – I mean, for our end, if we could get utilization increased within our organization. I think you have kind of those heavy users, right? Those superstars who are always going to embrace video, but it’s really getting those who might be camera shy or don’t like to hear themselves and making it easy, right? Letting them know you just click a button and record. I think that’s what’s so great about all of these new video platforms that are out there is the usability.
I’m kind of jealous of Gabriella that they’ve implemented it on their job descriptions and in their applications, because that’s something we’re in the process of doing now.
Jena – I think being able to create more videos that have that personable interaction and being able to update them super regularly so you’re up to date on things, that would be what we’re looking out for. Hopefully with video becoming bigger and bigger, it will become easier for us.
Gabriella – I would love to have it so that every position in every supply chain center and every store had their own database of this is the role, these are our people, this is how it is. I think that would open up the world of recruitment, but also open up the world of Domino’s.
I’d love to have recruitment videos that showcase that and more videos of what our field team does so that our corporate offices understand it on an even deeper level. Both internal and external, just more videos of everything would be the ideal state and ways for our team members to easily do it themselves.
Maury – Unfortunately, we are out of time and I’m halfway through my questions. You guys had so much to offer, but this has been really wonderful. I love the fact that you’re all focused on results, that none of you are doing this because it seems like the right thing to do. This is all business driven. You have a very clear purpose in mind here. You’re using video to get to that purpose. You’re watching the metrics and so forth.
And understanding that video helps make your entire process more efficient. That’s really wonderful. The most impressive aspect is how commonplace and straightforward your recruitment video creation has become. You have figured out the roadblocks and found a way to make it work. Thank you all. Great to connect with all of you again and good luck with all the rest of your videos. Thanks guys.