Have you heard the statistic that the average person will read the first few lines of an advert or article before flicking onto something else if it does not grab them?  However on average someone will watch a 3 minute video even if it doesn’t grab their attention!

So this got me thinking why not start video adverts, to include a corporate profile, information on roles available, and some info about the location of the role. Would you not be left with the notion that this company was serious about hiring you? You could see the people involved and best of all you would know the job(s) is/are very real. Video also features very highly on google rankings and you can place them on your company website, YouTube, LinkedIn and facebook, simultaneously you can be as creative as you like plus the cost of a good corporate profile is less than the cost of an advert in the FT.

A little while ago CML thought we would do exactly this with a slight twist. We wanted to portray the Cayman Islands to those who know nothing about it, almost like a relocation guide. We then asked clients who were recruiting to let us produce a corporate profile. They did and the response has been brilliant. This was especially successful for BDO who successfully recruited four individuals who had offers at another big 4 firm but chose BDO because they watched their video.  See Video - http://www.cmlor.com/cml-tv/vid/bdo-cayman-islands.html Granted this video is all about working at BDO and if you look at other videos they are not job specific but really there is no reason why they could not be. We set up a production company “CMLTV” in partnership with some talented film school graduates and hey presto we have a platform that has produced over 60 videos in a year. Could the next step be to make adverts job specific?

So what do you think? Could YouTube establish a recruiting channel? We watch adverts all day, but if doing a job search on a job board would it not be good to see a list of job specific video adverts, click on the ones you want to see and apply. Recruitment agencies would get into media and drive another revenue stream to their business. Phantom job posting would be a thing of the past and world peace would be created…. Ok getting a little carried away now but you get my drift…. There is one big downside to this and that is time, it takes time to produce the advert so if companies are in a rush then this could be a factor. However for a business critical hire time should not get in the way of securing the best candidate and as most retainers can average 8 weeks from start to finish I am sure running the video as could be a possibility. If not, then just the corporate profile remains as an attraction tool. Either way having some form of video to promote you as a great employer should in this digital age it’s a pre requisite!  In my humble opinion! Please discuss!