What makes a good recruitment video?
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The Five Qualities That Attract Job Applications
First: Real people, not models. Applicants can spot staged scenes right away, and mistrust is the last thing recruiting needs. Second: Concrete work instead of abstract concepts. Show what people actually do at your company on a real Tuesday. Third: On-camera interviews instead of voice-over narration. Employees’ own words carry more weight than any voice-over. Fourth: The uncomfortable truths. Shift work, travel, noise—if you show these, you’ll get applications from people who are still interested. Those are the right ones. Fifth: A clear next step. By the end, it must be clear how to apply—with just one click.
Format and length: shorter than you think
Where the video is shown determines how long it can be. On the careers page, viewers are people who are already interested in the position: there, a core video should be 60 to 90 seconds long. On social media, the first few seconds determine whether someone will stick around. This calls for short clips that work on their own: a sound bite, a scene, a thought.
So don't plan for a single video—plan for a full day of filming. The same footage will be used to create the main video for the career page and several short clips for social media, in portrait orientation and with subtitles, since many people watch videos there without sound.
FAQ
Main video: 60 to 90 seconds, plus short clips for social media. Only applicants who are already convinced will watch the longer version.
Yes, good preparation instead of a script: questions that spark stories, and a setting where people feel comfortable telling them. That’s exactly what directing is all about.
