Video is a powerful recruitment tool. Here’s how Google does it.
It’s not a secret that superior recruiting has made Google one of the greatest companies on the face of the Earth. Every year, thousands of people around the world apply for a gig at Google. Somehow, the tech firm that has literally become a part of the global lexicon manages to extract the highest-quality needles from that haystack. One of their recruiting methods, which should be of particular interest to content marketers, is video.
If you check out this seven-minute-long Google recruitment video, the answers are equally subtle and straightforward. For starters, the video hits all the essentials a good recruitment video needs to include.
There are plenty of employee testimonials explaining why each one chose Google and why they love working there. It touches on the relatively unique benefits the company offers, such as the incredible-looking free, organic grub Google is apparently shoveling down its employees throats day after day. It also gives prospective employees a chance to see the types of projects they will be working on if the join the ‘Plex.
But if you dig a bit deeper, it’s easy to see that Google goes beyond covering the fundamentals. For example, one of the things that jumps out about this video is a majority of the people featured are women. The tech field is notorious for under-representing women, but right off the bat this video shows that’s not an issue at Google. This lets the best and brightest women see right away that Google seems to have an egalitarian work culture.
The video also highlights what featured employees have done before they were at Google. This strategy is effective on two levels. First, by showing how incredibly accomplished its employees already were before becoming Googlers, it lets potential recruits see Google is only bringing on the best of the best. Second, and more important, by delving into the employee’s past, it shows why working at Google is a such a superior experience.
Featuring one of the employees who actually conducts hiring interviews is also a very shrewd move. By having someone explain exactly what Google is looking for, it adds transparency to the hiring process. People know exactly what to expect should they be called in for an interview. Beyond that, it’s another opportunity for Google to spell out the high expectations they have from their employees in a way that allows it to still come off as a chill place to work.
There’s nothing fancy about this video. It’s basically just a camera pointed at some employees who talk about the company. But what makes the video special is how that simplicity manages to encompass not only the company culture but also the passion and freedom it provides its employees. There are obviously lots of things Google does right, but videos like this one provide an example of something content marketers can emulate pretty easily.
