There’s been a lot of discussion recently about the emergence of video resumes. Will they catch on? Are they helpful or hurtful to candidates? To employers? Do video resumes take online recruiting and job search to the next level-the vaunted Web 2.0-or are they simply yet another Internet fad that will fade away when the marketing dollars run out and the media moves on?
All of those questions are important, I suppose, but I think they detract us from the larger issue. What’s that? How can video be used in recruiting? Certainly, crafting personal resumes is one way, but it’s by no means the only option. In fact, I think there’s a far more powerful way to deploy visual images and sound in the War for the Best Talent online. I believe video is the key to a whole new genre of employee testimonials.
Employee testimonials have long been recognized as a key recruitment communication and marketing tool. The best talent are good consumers. They don’t take organizational claims about employment brands at face value. They look for proof. And, some of the most persuasive proof is the testimony of their peers. In employment collateral and in the Career area on corporate sites, what employees have to say-as long as it’s not sugar-coated or lackey-like-more effectively shapes candidate perspectives about an employer than any other single factor.
Traditionally, employee testimonials have been presented as text statements often accompanied by a picture of the individual. Done well, they provide a window into the organization that ratifies its claims about what it’s like to work there. They put a human face on the organization which makes it easier for a candidate to relate to the employer and, no less important, to those who will be their peers.
Text-based testimonials clearly get the job done, but I think testimonials presented in a video format could have an even more powerful impact. Now, just to be clear, I’m not talking about marketing videos that introduce the organization. These have been around for several years and are increasingly common on corporate Web-sites. There’s nothing wrong with them, but they are not employee testimonials. They may include an employee statement or two, but they are basically about the organization.
Video-based employee testimonials, on the other hand, are about the people who work for an organization. They use visual images and audio to tell a story-their story-about what it’s like to work for their employer. They will sell the organization, but only if they are engaging and credibly describe (or suggest) the nature of the individual’s employment experience.
Two recent examples will illustrate my point. They are imperfect, but still intriguing. Both were created without “corporate involvement.” In fact, they are nothing more than lip synching coupled with some group pantomiming and crude sets. However, each in its own way says something that is especially engaging about the culture of an employer and the pride felt by its employees for the work that they do.
What can we learn from these first generation video testimonials? I think the following are the key lessons:
Thanks for reading,
Peter
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This Issue’s Sponsor: WEDDLE’s 2007 Fall/Winter Training Series
This issue of WEDDLE’s newsletter is brought to you through the generous support of the WEDDLE’s 2007 Fall/Winter Training Series.
This series is a full curriculum of training programs that are delivered by toll-free teleconference. You get the PowerPoint slides for each program in advance, and on the day of the training, you simply call a toll-free number and have the presentation delivered right to you. All of the programs are presented by WEDDLE’s Publisher, Peter Weddle, and draw on WEDDLE’s 10+ years of research into the Best Practices for sourcing and recruiting online. The Fall/Winter 2007 series is sponsored by Bernard Hodes Group; the remaining programs include:
These are great learning opportunities and priced hundreds, even thousands of dollars less than other training programs. Registrations are limited, so reserve your seats now. To get pricing information and sign up, please call WEDDLE’s at 317.598.9768.
Section Two: Site News You Can Use
Harvard Business Review published an artitle entitled Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time by Tony Schwartz. His hypothesis is interesting: instead of managing our time, which is a limited or finite resource, we should focus on managing our energy as it has much greater capacity and can be increased relatively easily. How? By practicing simple rituals that will make the expansion of one’s energy unconscious and as automatic as possible. For example, while we often don’t recognize them, our lives are governed by “Ultradian rhythms” which unfold in 90-to-120 minute cycles. Generally speaking, that means we reach our peak level of performance at any given task-whether it’s conducting interviews or sourcing online-after about 60 minutes so we should time ourselves to achieve an outcome at that point and then take a break to renew our energy within the next 30 minutes. If we organize our work that way, Schwartz argues, we’ll avoid finding ourselves running out of steam at the end of overly long sessions or quitting a task before we’ve achieved our optimum results. Can this approach actually improve performance? In a study of employees at Wachovia Bank, those who used such rhythmic schedules had 43% higher loan revenues and 50% higher deposit revenues than those in a control group which operated in a less structured way. I’m not sure all work can be organized into such monolithic chunks of time, but certainly getting into a rhythm in your daily tasks helps build the discipline and endurance necessary to perform them effectively. It’s the same principle I’ve used in developing my Career Fitness regimen-a schedule of daily, weekly and monthly activities to build up the health of your career. It will be available soon in my forthcoming book, The Career Fitness Self Fulfillment System: How to Work Strong in Your Personal Pursuit of Happiness.
The MarketingPilgrim.com, aka Andy Beal, correctly observes that it’s not enough for an organization to develop and publish an employment brand. The key is to success in the War for the Bet Talent is to manage that brand continuously. In other words, you want to know what people are saying about your organization’s employment brand-on blogs, in posts on site bulletin boards and in news articles and commentary-all of the time. How can you do that? Beal suggests that you subscribe to the services at either or both of the following:
I’ve used these features for several years now, and while they are helpful, they are also imperfect. Although I was looking for references to my company, for example, I’ve been alerted to more Weddles than I ever knew existed.
Mercer HR Consulting released its 2007/8 U.S. Compensation Planning Survey. It found that employers plan to offer the following levels of pay raises to their employees in 2007:
What does that mean for someone making $50,000 per annum? Superstars will get a raise of $2850, mediocre workers will get a raise of $1750, and substandard workers will receive a raise of $850. In other words, “A” level performers are going to get just $2000 more per year for their contribution than does a lousy employee and just $1100 more than the “C’ level performer. And employers wonder why their best and brightest are dissatisfied with their jobs. These pay policies aren’t recognition for top-flite performance; they’re a misguided social service program dressed up as strategic HR management.
WEDDLE’s publications are the references of choice for recruiters seeking to maximize their return on the Internet and win the War for the Best Talent. They include:
So make sure you’re at the top of your game, get your WEDDLE’s books today. Click on the appropriate link to your left or call WEDDLE’s at 317.598.9768.
Section Three: Site Profiles
Site Spotlite … from the pages of WEDDLE’s 2007/8 Guides and Directories
There are 40,000 job boards now in operation in North America and an equal number operating elsewhere around the world. The key to recruiting top talent online, therefore, is knowing where to find and how to select the best sites for each of your requirements. WEDDLE’s 2007/8 Guide identifies 350 of the top sites worldwide and provides the information you need to determine which job boards will deliver the optimum yield for you. For example:
NationJob Network
Post full time jobs: Yes
Post part time, contract or consulting jobs: Yes-All
Distribution of jobs: International
Fee to post a job: $250/posting
Posting period: 30 days
Can posting be linked to your site: Yes
Resume database: Yes
Number of resumes: 650,000+
Source of resumes: Direct from individual
Top occupations among visitors: Engineering, Sales & Marketing, Medical, Entry level
Other services for employers: Assessment instruments (outside vendor), Automated resume agent, Banner advertising, Status report on advertising.
Member, International Association of Employment Web Sites: Yes
Our Sponsor: WEDDLE’s 2007 Fall/Winter Training Se
This issue of WEDDLE’s newsletter is brought to you through the generous support of the WEDDLE’s 2007 Fall/Winter Training Series.
This series is a full curriculum of training programs that are delivered by toll-free teleconference. You get the PowerPoint slides for each program in advance, and on the day of the training, you simply call a toll-free number and have the presentation delivered right to you. All of the programs are presented by WEDDLE’s Publisher, Peter Weddle, and draw on WEDDLE’s 10+ years of research into the Best Practices for sourcing and recruiting online. The Fall/Winter 2007 series is sponsored by Bernard Hodes Group; the remaining programs include:
These are great learning opportunities and priced hundreds, even thousands of dollars less than other training programs. Registrations are limited, so reserve your seats now. To get pricing information and sign up, please call WEDDLE’s at 317.598.9768.