If you’re in human resources, recruiting, or just have an open position to fill on your team, likely the start of 2018 brought with it a new chance to find fresh talent —

And shortly thereafter, more resumes than you could ever hope to read.

Around the world, hiring rose throughout 2017, finally shaking off the last of the effects of the Great Recession. Now in 2018 the labor market still appears to have room to grow — and as organizations large and small begin planning for growth, they are building their teams that are poised to take on a new generation of challenges and opportunities.

But recruiting today is different than it was even a few years ago.

Job postings are social now — they’re picked up across a dozen job-seeker websites, cross-posted across each and every social network imaginable, and emailed around personal networks large and small.

Job-hunting is different, too. Whereas in the past the effort of compiling a relevant, compelling application helped to focus prospective candidates on only those roles they might be a fit for, today’s listings make it easy to submit a resume for just about any spot with a few quick clicks.

More importantly, the modern job posting itself has changed. As organizations seek to document the essential responsibilities of every role, once-succinct job descriptions have ballooned into catalogs of every last activity that could ever be undertaken in a post.

It’s an evolution that makes life difficult for recruiters who aren’t a day-to-day part of the hiring team, and who can only speculate as to which of the 23 skills listed under “position requirements” are essential and which are merely nice-to-have.

And it’s an evolution that’s changed the way candidates understand the positions they are applying for. Lengthy descriptions by nature include more skills and keywords, meaning more people will find the posting as they search online. And longer lists of responsibilities mean more and more candidates can find themselves qualified for a majority of the work — even if they aren’t remotely prepared to do the three most essential tasks.

On one hand, it’s never been easier to be sure your job posting is seen.

On the other hand, now the average job listing receives 250 applications. Sorting through all those extra applications only creates more work for you — and makes it that much harder to separate out the best.

Using Video To Bring Clarity To Your Job Postings

Given the number of serious challenges created by the structure of the modern job posting, this must be the part of the post where we tell you “it’s time to revolutionize job listings” and propose some radical new departure from the norm, right?

Well… no.

Because for all its difficulties, today’s job listings are a natural response to helping HR teams do more with less (establishing documented roles), ensuring hiring teams meet their needs (by defining comprehensive skills requirements), and meeting candidate needs (searchable postings that make applying easy).

Instead, all a new job post really needs is a voice. A human that can stand next to it and say, “here’s the list of what we’re looking for, but keep in mind, these are the most important parts.”

It’s what you would do if you were taking the role to a job fair or another event. And it’s what you can do for every posting — with a little video assistance.

A simple, two-minute video can give your job posting that voice, make your text more engaging, and help candidates better understand the scope of the position and the type of person really sought. See for yourself, in our own sample video job posting supplement.

 

 

Adding Video To A Job Post Is Easy

Job listing videos don’t have to be a big production — as in the example above, you can create yours with just a webcam and a few presentation slides.

For larger organizations, asking hiring managers to record a brief video description of their open positions to pair with the traditional listings is a great way to ensure the most important parts about the job are communicated — both with the prospective candidates, as well as with the internal HR and recruiting teams.

For smaller organizations, video can be a quick way to set yourself apart from the competition — make your listings more memorable and help you attract candidates that may have overlooked you previously.

And with a video platform like Panopto, you can do it all with just a few clicks. Panopto lets you record with any camera you have at hand, and once you’ve finished, automatically uploads your video to a central library where recruiters, managers, colleagues, and others in the organization can link to it, share it via social networks, or embed it on a web page — whatever makes it easiest for you to share it as part of your regular job postings.

Try Using Panopto For Recruiting

To see how easy video makes it to explain ideas and share information — from job listings to social learning, employee training, sales enablement, and more — contact our team today for a free trial of Panopto’s enterprise video platform.