Needles and Haystacks: Recruiting Videos | @BobStocklin on The #SocialRecruiting Show

Telling stories with recruiting videos.

Think about it. If we search hard enough, we can find just about anyone’s information online. In fact, we can likely find a lot more than that. Instead, the commodity today is in the story we tell and how we convince people they belong with us. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. Telling a story that stands out is harder than ever. That challenge is only complicated when you’re recruiting for niche roles like Bob Stocklin, Talent Attraction & Candidate Experience Specialist at National Veterinary Associates. That’s why we invited him, along with our special guest host Elena Valentine from Skill Scout to tell us how they did exactly that.

Recruiting for hundreds of hospitals with unique cultures across the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia for niche roles is no small feat. For each hospital, that meant translating unique cultures and brands into creative, compelling job videos.

“We’re first and foremost trying to help those individual hospitals with their talent attraction efforts and their employer branding efforts. How can we help them tell their story, talk about their own unique culture and attract veterinarians there?”

Bob found that creating videos was the most compelling way to get those unique, personalised stories across at scale with hundreds of locations. “It all gets back to having them tell their own stories.” Using a DIY, mobile-first model, teams across the country were able to create videos they could deploy to recruit at their location. Then, empowering local storytellers took their videos from good to great.

What makes great recruiting videos?

Bob’s experience with Skill Scout  taught him a lot about working with video to tell unique stories across decentralised workplace models and he offered this advice for others who want to create great recruiting videos.

1. It’s impossible to create one specific template. Don’t try to say, “you’re going to talk about x, y, z” for each location. Instead, set up a program that scalable and focused on asking the right questions. That will help you tell the real story behind what makes your practice unique.
2. Know what would make somebody want to work with you and use that intel to start your video and build the content. Asking questions around their passions leads to people telling their own story.
3. Let them talk. Let them ramble. Ask the questions about what they do every day, what type of people work there, and what type of people they want to work there.
4. Let them do it themselves. As employer brand leaders, you don’t have to do it all. “We’re just helping guide them, helping them frame the story and tell the story. They’re the ones who have to tell it. They’re the only ones who can.”

If that wasn’t enough, below you’ll hear Bob Stocklin share more:-