Home : Newsletters : 2007 : June
Estimates regarding the level of broadband use in the UK vary (for example NORAS shows that 65% of online job seekers have a broadband connection at home while BMRB's Internet Monitor shows that 89% of all UK connections are via broadband). But you can be sure of one thing - the increased use of broadband has changed the way that people use the internet. YouTube announced that it showed over 100 videos million per day more than a year ago and a range of media owners from the BBC to the Times are increasingly using online video as a way of distributing content. Recent research in the US shows that internet users respond well to online videos with 31% visiting a company website and 12% making a purchase as a result of seeing an online video.
In light of these changes, Enhance Media believes it's time to take careers sites to the next level and to incorporate interactive and video content that engages candidates effectively online. To this end, we've just agreed a partnership with US online recruitment video specialists RecruiTV to provide their services for UK employers - you can read all about our partnership here. In addition to their work in the US, RecruiTV has just produced a range of recruitment videos for Juniper Networks in the UK and concentrate on providing an end to end service that includes production, editing and hosting that takes the stress out of the process for the employer. We can vouch the ease of the process first hand and have used RecruiTV to produce our own online video - which you can view here.
A range of UK employers (including PwC and Osborne) and US organisations (such as Enterprise Rent a Car ) are already using videos online to improve their recruitment offering. One of the approaches recommended by RecruiTV and used by employers such as Enterprise is to prepare a suite of short videos that address a range of audiences and issues - such as technical / non-technical candidates and diversity / training and development. This approach of short, snappy videos also ensures that the attention of candidates is held and that updates can easily be made by adding new videos without the need to reproduce and re-edit the original.
Those going through school and university growing up with web 2.0 tools that encourage interactivity and facilitate engagement online will come to expect the same levels of interactivity from careers sites as they expect from their other online experiences. Consequently recruiters that want to stay ahead of the curve should plan for the inclusion of videos (as well as other features that encourage an honest an open dialogue such as blogs and podcasts) on their careers sites in the short term and not rely on static and unengaging sites in an evolving and increasingly sophisticated online environment.