We’re increasingly inventive in the way that we source top candidates. Social media has become a key part of the puzzle for any great sourcer, but the majority of us stick to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. We forget the large number of other social networks, currently untapped by recruiters. Youtube is a social channel that recruiters pay little attention to, but maybe it’s time to change that…
Ever thought about using YouTube for recruitment?
YouTube is hardly a secret, as of 2014 the site had over 1 billion users who watch hundreds of millions of hours of content each day – a huge and highly engaged audience. This huge user base doesn’t just spectate, every minute roughly 100 hours of video content is uploaded to the site! YouTube is also the 2nd largest search engine in the world after Google (which owns YouTube).
YouTube is massive, but there is still plenty of scope for recruiters to improve the way they use the network to attract and engage top talent.
What is YouTube?
We’ll keep this brief, internet giant YouTube has been around for a while now, (‘to YouTube’ has been added to the dictionary as a verb!) YouTube is a video sharing site which allows billions of people to discover and watch originally-created videos. It’s a global forum for people to connect and inform others, and acts as a great distribution platform for content creators and advertisers, and it’s been a launching platform for many aspiring stars – Justin Bieber for one!
If you want help getting started, here’s a little video (from YouTube) on how to set up a new account and channel for your business:
How should you use it?
YouTube’s video format and enormous user base lends itself to a few specific recruitment tactics.
1. Sourcing
Successful sourcing relies on your ability to find candidates in places where no one else is looking. One of the best ways to do this on Youtube is by creating a “sourcing honeypot”. This is a video that you know will appeal to your target candidate audience and is designed to draw them into your Youtube channel so you can engage them further with additional content.
Youtube will even let you add links to your application process to the video itself – this makes it easy for someone to take the next step while your company is fresh in their mind.
2. Broadcasting company culture
It’s so important that new hires are a great cultural fit. This is one of the big tasks that recruiters face when evaluating applicants, but broadcasting your company values on your YouTube channel gives candidates an opportunity to self select and work out whether they’re a good fit.
Shoe retailing giant Zappos, renowned as having one of the strongest and most alternative company cultures around (they refer to executives as monkeys), consistently uses YouTube to show off all the extra stuff that makes it such a great place to work.
Candidates don’t want to see standard day-to-day office activities, they want to see the things that make your working culture stand out. This video of Zappos surprising and thanking one of their long-serving delivery men is a great example of a brand differentiating itself on YouTube:
3. Employee testimonials
Candidates don’t want to read swathes of text on your careers site on how great your company is, they want to see and engage with people that they might actually be working with.
Employee testimonials, if they’re done well, are a fantastic way to help people understand what life is really like at your company. An applicant for your marketing team gets far more value out of a 2 minute video interview of a junior marketer than your website ‘About Us’ page.
These videos need to be on your careers site, but they should also be hosted on your company’s YouTube channel – easily accessible for anyone looking for more information on your brand.
4. Creative hiring campaigns
The very best candidates can be tricky to unearth, so many top recruiters are turning to more unconventional methods of recruitment, often using YouTube videos (that they hope will go viral). Videos are 5.33x as engaging as text, they’re great for attracting the attention of top candidates that might not have given your company a second glance.
Maybe you’re thinking that these tactics are more of a startup game. You’d be wrong. Take a look at this video that Barclays made recently to help with its graduate recruitment.
Summary
YouTube has to be part of your company’s recruitment strategy. The main value lies in the attraction part of the recruitment process. Producing great visual content is a great way to get potential applicants interested.
Try firing up a company account and getting started today!
