Are you one of the recruiters who are starting to find quality candidates hard to reach?

And when you do they have already been approached about your vacancy?

Are you always wondering how you can differentiate yourself from the crowd?

Did you know:

• Online video is the fastest growing ad format with nearly 55% growth in 2013?
• The effectiveness of video on a website surpasses text and audio by a ratio of 5:1?
• Visitors who view sales videos are 85% more likely to buy than visitors who do not?

And yet – what is the recruitment industry doing about it?

Have you tried looking for a job online recently? Reams of anonymous adverts, often irrelevant to your search criteria. The problem is compounded by poor grammar and spelling, or text which has been so anonymised – in an attempt to stop competitors identifying the employer – that it is meaningless and bland.

And your best hope is an automated acknowledgement of your application. It’s no wonder that some job seekers give up, and some spray and pray their CV will elicit some interest.

Since the demise of print media as the leading recruitment medium, job advertising has become dull. The best focus on SEO and beating the job-board algorithms. But what we have now is only the 21st century equivalent of classified adverts. You remember those tiny ads in the paper which were paid for by the column centimetre? They didn’t stand a chance against the visual appeal of the full colour display ads.

Consumer attraction (that’s candidates to you and me) is all about visuals now. Mapping it over to recruitment, the businesses which use visual attraction methods are the “go to” employers.

If you were a job seeker now – and yes, I am well aware that active candidates are just a small proportion of the whole – which brands would you go to directly to find out about opportunities? If you were in engineering, it might be Jaguar Land Rover? If you were a customer service specialist, maybe Virgin, or Tesco?

Sure, you might find a brilliant job in the classifieds (job boards), but the businesses that use video will probably get your attention first.

• Think about it; using video and infographics I can:
• Show you the work environment
• Interview the Manager about the opportunity
• Draw an organagram
• Demonstrate products
• Reinforce my brand
• Introduce myself, hopefully making you want to work with me

I want my clients, who own recruitment businesses, to be the first stop for candidates in their sector, not just another recruiter they mass mail from a job board. It means they can be proactive with the most marketable candidates. That’s why I’m encouraging them to use video and infographics in job advertising and presenting candidates.

One of my clients has had staggering success with this already. They have developed a visual assignment management system called i-intro™ which has been a significant factor in converting their business from contingent to retained recruitment and doubling their average fees.

Yes, there’s a cost involved in professional video – and a time delay too. But you can do some of your advertising straight to camera, or use powerpoint with a commentary.Your clients may also have promotional video which you can piggyback.

Candidates can record tailored “Video CVs” with your guidance. That means you can shorten the recruitment cycle and differentiate yourself with clients too.

If you’d like to discuss your strategy, or how my consultancy, training and coaching can help you dramatically improve your business in 2018, please get in touch with Alison using the information below.

Alison Humphries is Founder Director of Recruitment Leadership Ltd, a business which helps recruitment business owners across the UK improve performance and profitability, implement strategy and systems, and develop staff. She is also Regional Director of Elite Recruitment Network and Chief Examiner for the REC. Contact her using the form here or call on 07720 677557.