Why aren't more employers using video for employer branding?

The stats are scary.

The average cost-per-hire is something like $5,000 USD.

The average time-to-fill a vacancy is 45 days.

You've all seen the stats on the number of online videos watched per day.

Video SEO is so much better.

So why aren't more employers turning to video to brand themselves as employment destinations of choice?

After a lot of research, I found out that the category leading companies who do have video online which relates to them as great employer destination include: Twitter, Intel, Facebook, Google and Hubspot.

We decided to embark on a journey into video earlier this year. I want to blog about the experience a bit here to try and show how (relatively) easy, and low-cost it is to create your own branded video channel to showcase your employer brand assets, and also to record tangible gains in the form of metrics like the number of hires made, earned media etc.

To watch our first effort at a video that attempts to capture what it's like to work in our Social Media team in Singapore - visit TalentMagic here.

Comment by Amie Barnett on March 5, 2013 at 6:45am: Brilliant post

Comment by Amy Ala Miller on March 6, 2013 at 12:17pm: Thanks Michael, I'd be interested to see the data backing up these stats, along with cost of video production and ROI.

Comment by Angela Yu on March 6, 2013 at 2:57pm: Great minds think alike, Michael! We featured one of Intel's videos in on the Wowzer blog yesterday, as well as Rackspace's low-budget employer branding video. Love that you asked Raudha to show one of her unique talents...definitely something that people would only be able to understand on video! Here are other lessons from great employer branding videos from our blog that might be helpful for your next video.

I would also challenge you to think about using video beyond the sourcing SEO benefit. You also want to take advantage of video to engage with the applicants once they are going through your interview process. Especially for smaller companies, using video throughout the hiring process helps you stand out from other employers that the candidate might be considering. Here's my take on how video interviews can extend employer brand beyond the career website.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Comment by Michael Wright on March 7, 2013 at 9:38pm: Hi Amy - thanks for the note - to be honest the data on TTH and CPH was pretty unscientific. I googled 3 sources, found 3 data points for each in reports on the subject, and took the average. Based on experience both in-house and out, I reckon 45 days and $5K usd is about right for many industries?

As for the cost of Video production and ROI - I did a blog post over here which may offer you some insights there, please have a look and let me know what you think:

http://www.talentmagnate.com/2013/03/whats-roi-from-employer-brandi...

Let's not forget that we all carry a powerful video camera around in our pockets with us, and you don't need to be a production genius to have a crack at making a video!

Comment by Michael Wright on March 7, 2013 at 9:42pm: Hi Angela, I love your blog, thanks for sharing. Rackspace have always been the leaders in culture branding and it follows that they are showing us all how it's done with video and other media formats. Don't you just love the intel rock-star? Amazing what you can do in 30 seconds with a camera and an idea.

I agree on SEO. I mention it because it's one of the things people tend to pass over when talking about videos for recruiting. Given the vast number of jobs for roles like "Media Planner" or "Software Engineer" it's surprisingly easy to get up there with your branding or recruitment advertising with a well tagged video.

For a more detailed breakdown of some of the other areas that video can benefit recruiting, please have a look over here http://www.talentmagnate.com/2013/03/whats-roi-from-employer-brandi...

I'll go and have a detailed look at your site now. Cheers for stopping by.