Candee Chambers:
Welcome to the DE Talk Podcast. Tune in for dialogue between HR experts to amp up your HR strategies. Don't worry, we'll mix in a few laughs as we know you need it.
Drew Palmer:
Welcome to another episode of DE Talk Podcast. This episode is a Recruit Rooster take over. We're a wholly-owned subsidiary of DirectEmployers, and we are also your podcast producers. My name is Drew Palmer. I'm the creative director at Recruit Rooster.
Jordan Hartman:
And my name is Jordan Hartman. I am the creative coordinator of Recruit Rooster and also your podcast producer the last two seasons. So we are the creative minds of Recruit Rooster. We've had to implement a lot of creative thinking in the past year to create content and amazing recruitment marketing materials in the midst of a pandemic. Today we're going to take you through the creative process, why employment branding is so important, and some of the ways that we got creative during COVID.
Jordan Hartman:
So let's start a little bit with how we got to where we are today. Drew, your background isn't directly in art, but you kind of have an interesting journey on how you got to where you are now.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah. I studied philosophy and art in college, but mainly philosophy. When I graduated college, I moved out to Arizona and worked at a golf course of all places. I was kind of in this mindset of working in the golf business, becoming a golf pro at a golf course. It was actually at that golf course where I was introduced to my first employer branding experience. You really wouldn't expect a service industry place like a golf course to have a really well established employment brand, but this one in particular had an amazing brand.
Drew Palmer:
When we started there, you were assigned to read a book. Like most golf industry people, they're not into reading books or studying very hard. Yeah, we read a book. It was called Raving Fans, and it talked about how to differentiate the business from other golf courses and how to deliver this great experience. All of the company values were plastered on the walls in the break room. It was something very different from what I was used to.
Drew Palmer:
From there, the very good experience working at this golf course, and I had a background in photography and videography, and I did a lot of freelancing up and down Arizona. I moved back to Michigan, got connected with Wabash College. Some alumni there, Seth and Steven, who were our coworkers. I got hooked up as a digital strategy support rep. Little did I know, that experience would help me kind of brand out other larger companies.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, so you started at DirectEmployers how long ago?
Drew Palmer:
In 2013.
Jordan Hartman:
Nice, and then you were here building the ground up from Recruit Rooster when they broke off as the creative strategy department.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, that's right. I had the great honor to be part of the meeting when we were establishing the company and actually deciding on the crazy name that we landed on. So very much a part of that, yes. Jordan, what's a little bit of your background? How long have you worked for Recruit Rooster?
Jordan Hartman:
I have been with Recruit Rooster for about a year and a half now. Most of it in the pandemic, unfortunately, but I graduated from Hanover College in 2019 with a degree in art and design and also business. So combining a little bit of fine art, digital art, graphic design as well as marketing. My background is mostly in studio photography. I'm very technical. I worked in a museum setting for two years doing very technically focused studio work and photography and that type of setting, so that's definitely helped build my portfolio and some of the technical skills that I'm bringing now to Recruit Rooster.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, it's awesome that we have such diverse backgrounds, and yet we get to support HR departments, which usually has more of a business oriented background. So we get to tap into our creativity.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, we bring a lot of different things to the table. I think, in the past year and a half, we've pushed the limits at Recruit Rooster and done a lot of crazy creative things for getting employment branding to the absolute max we can for Recruit Rooster and also all of our clients that we've worked with.
Drew Palmer:
Yes, we often say we're trying to push the limits. We're trying to go too far and we're very fortunate to be with Recruit Rooster who encourages that. We have not hit that limit yet. We've gotten some pretty wild stuff out there and we're continuing to push the limits. What I'm really passionate about with my background and everything is showing people a transparent view of your company before they apply. That comes from personal experience, from applying to jobs and being misled, and also just furthering the resources that companies have to show future employees what it's like to work there, to empower them, to help qualify them to get better candidates through the door.
Drew Palmer:
The first thing, the most important thing, is just showing off your real office and your real people that work there. I'm extremely passionate about being transparent, showing actual employees as opposed to having no photos or, worst case scenario, stock photos of models.
Jordan Hartman:
So yes, rather than creating traditional recruitment marketing materials, we focus a lot on content that builds emotional connections. You can't really do that with stock photos. You're probably not going to bond to the stock photo model that's pretending to write on a notepad. That doesn't show you what your brand culture actually feels like, what your office feels like, who your employees are.
Jordan Hartman:
I think a big part, especially in COVID with the lack of face to face interaction, is you want to know who you're working with. I don't want to go to your website and see a bunch of stock models or fake office space, or a fake environment. I want to see what it is actually going to look like and what your company culture is all about. The best way to do that is through photos and videos.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah. I think the industry as a whole is moving towards this way. Trying to figure out what your future life will be like through just a text job description on a website is very difficult to imagine. These decisions aren't taken lightly. A lot of times, you're going to completely change your life if you take a new job. So it's very helpful to help qualify yourself to see who you'll be working with, what types of environments you'll be working in to help self select in or out.
Drew Palmer:
If I see something that I relate to, like really cool office furniture, open environment, snacks, I'm going to be that much more excited when I go to apply, put more effort into my cover letter and application process, and be more likely to complete it versus someone who sees those things and that doesn't attract them to the company. That's almost a good thing. It is a good thing because someone goes through the apply process and shows up on their first day to interview, if they don't like what they're seeing, it's kind of a waste of time for both the recruiter and the applicant.
Jordan Hartman:
Right. You're setting that expectation at the very beginning, immediately from your career site page.
Drew Palmer:
Yep. So a really interesting part of Jordan and I's job is we get to experience a lot of different company environments, prior to COVID of course. We travel onsite to help companies brand their recruitment, so we get a lot of exposure to different companies, different work environments, different issues, different solutions. It's a really fortunate position to be in.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, and it gives us a really interesting perspective. We know our company culture and what we deal with on a daily basis within Recruit Rooster and DirectEmployers, but it's really interesting and exciting to be a fly on the wall in some of these other companies and see how they hire and what their company cultures are and their employment branding. Then everything that we do is exclusively tailored to that company.
Jordan Hartman:
Even though we might have an idea on what we think it should look like or the final product, ultimately we are putting the power and the control in the human resources department that we're working with.
Drew Palmer:
Yes, exactly. So when you're defining your creative process or your recruitment process, you're trying to spruce up your career site with video or photo or design, and you're working with the agency, a lot of the times companies don't have enough resources for HR to complete some of their goals. I find that very surprising because a lot of the companies that we have been fortunate to work with have great marketing departments and products, and very, very tech savvy. But when it comes to building out their career site or recruitment, they just lack funds.
Drew Palmer:
So it's either they get put on a list, the HR department does, for let's say a video project, and then they have to wait until our marketing has time. Usually by the time that is produced, it's too late. So turn around time is a big thing, but it's just very cool to help these HR departments express themselves quickly and efficiently.
Jordan Hartman:
So Drew, we've done a lot of different projects with a lot of different companies. Do you have a favorite one, or a project or a video that you think you knocked it out of the park?
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, if I had to choose a favorite, I'd probably go with Frontdoor. That was a wild project where Justin Clem was a great customer in the fact that he kind of let us spread our wings and get creative, and push the limits. The three projects that we kind of narrowed it down to was essentially a puppet show where we had puppets represent employers or the current employees and ask questions and answer questions related to recruitment. That would have been quite the challenge.
Drew Palmer:
The next one was bringing in the kids to answer questions on behalf of the employees as well, another just wild idea out there. The one that we landed on was the first person video where it was kind of representing the first day as you walked in for your interview, and then your first day also working there. So it was a very cool first person experience that we got to dive into. Jordan was on-site with me helping the shoot.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, that was my first on-site visit and it was definitely high expectations for any future trips to build off of. So we had Drew in a mountain bike helmet with a camera attached to the top. We had the Memphis Grizzly's mascot. We had a confetti tunnel. It was a crazy, crazy week, but all around I think the final product really fit their brand and fit the company culture that they were trying to convey. On our side of things, it was great. It was really exciting and let us push the creative limits.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah. It wouldn't be a creative project if there wasn't a wrench thrown into the mix. We filmed 12 scenes of this on helmet camera. We had someone take us around and narrate for us what was going on, showing each part of the building. We got home, we edited up the first draft and found out that the person who led the video, narrated it, was in every scene, actually had left the company and we weren't allowed to use him in the video, which is back to the passionate thing of showing people who actually work at the company in the video.
Drew Palmer:
So we had to really reevaluate with all the footage and crop around him, get really creative with that. So that was definitely a challenge, but we were able to get creative with it. Different transitions and cropping, and edit out. We had to kind of alter the plan a little bit, but it ended up working out.
Jordan Hartman:
That's part of the creative process.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, even though you had a little bit of the plan changed halfway through, we were still able to execute it. I think the mood and overall plan and outline of the video was still the same. You wouldn't know now, so I think that's interesting to look back and watch. Definitely would recommend you check out the behind the scenes of that whole trip because it was crazy to look at. When you see the final product versus how we were actually recording it, and the looks that Drew is getting when he's walking around with a mountain bike helmet in this corporate office in Memphis, Tennessee. I think that defines what we do on a daily basis.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, definitely. If you're listening to this and kind of a little freaked out, like a first person mountain bike helmet recruitment video, how do you even start that process, don't be afraid. It's okay. We help and assist that. Actually, any agency helps and assists that. So we'll kind of give you some tips and tools on how to get that process going from the drawing board to reality.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah. Looking at the creative process, we typically start with step one is defining the problem. Then we brainstorm, we make the rough drafts, the storyboard, all that involving our HR person and their marketing team. Then we would either go on site and film and shoot photography, and capture all of this great content. Then we revise it and we deliver the solution.
Jordan Hartman:
So we can maybe look at one of our most recent projects we did with American Heart Association and defining what their problem was or the need that they had and how we went about solving that issue.
Drew Palmer:
American Heart Association thinks the problem of kind of being put in a box of it's a fundraising company is people who apply there, a lot of times people, when you think of American Heart Association, you think of fundraising, donations, that type of thing. But they're actually a full suite of job listings. They have all kinds of tech.
Jordan Hartman:
Very corporate.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, very corporate, very big. Much larger than I would assume. For that problem, basically what we did was just try and show as many different roles as possible. We came up with a script and a narrator to tell the story. I say narrator, but it was actually a person walking and talking throughout the shoot.
Jordan Hartman:
Very fast paced.
Drew Palmer:
Yes, very fast paced. Then we also supplemented it with some green screen testimonies of different faces and roles and names. So you can kind of maximize the diversity of what American Heart Association does.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, and a lot of that, the photography we took and some of the settings that we chose was showing off their corporate headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. I agree. I did not think about American Heart Association in that light. It was very much a fundraising company. They raise money, they do volunteer work. These Go Red campaigns. But it really is a full blown corporate business, and we got to talk to some of their IT people and some of their different departments on storytelling.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, there's so many stories we uncover while we're on there. For instance, their building is really iconic. It's a very modern looking building, concrete. I'm sure Jordan can describe it better. Basically the building was donated to them in the 80s and they have a 100 year lease on it that they're very proud of. That was just cool to show that to people who are clicking apply and wouldn't have known.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah. The office building itself was very ... parts of it were modern and then parts of it were this very 70s, 80s style office building. So it was cool to see how they merged all those styles together with all the different departments. They had the coolest green screen room I think we've ever seen.
Drew Palmer:
Yes.
Jordan Hartman:
We got to play around in that a little bit. Yeah, that's something that I wouldn't have expected American Heart Association to have, but they had a little bit of everything. Great setting. We got to do some drone work there as well, which is always ... That footage is just so cool every time that you see it in the final product.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah. They're very encouraging about walking around, which makes sense. They have almost only healthy snacks, which was different.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah.
Drew Palmer:
But made sense. It's on brand. Also, it was very cool to see all the employees and how they have close ties to the mission of American Heart Association and personal stories about heart disease and overcoming it and family members effected by it. So it was very cool to just be there and see the history as well. They had a little museum little area. Very cool to show it so other people can experience it before showing up on an interview.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah. All of the employee testimonials you could really hear and feel that everybody was so invested in the company mission. They all knew exactly what the American Heart taglines are and their company mission, and values. So that made our jobs really easy, right?
Drew Palmer:
Yeah.
Jordan Hartman:
We could ask anybody, "Why do you love working here?" And they would have a whole speil on how they've been personally connected to the message or why they feel invested in it, how they're hoping to make a better future for all. So I think that also really shows through. A huge part of their employment brand is that their employees are very invested in what they do. So, that's a huge part of showing on their website. You want to show off what your actual employees are actually saying. They're not reading from a script. They're just saying what they're feeling in their own personal journey to it.
Drew Palmer:
So here's a pro tip for working with an agency to help you create something. That's establishing the expectation. A video could be a good video, or photo or content, but if it doesn't meet what you're expecting, it's not going to work out. The same thing for job seekers and applying and seeing what they see on their career site. Then they show up, is it what they're expecting. So expectations are key.
Drew Palmer:
One way to help communicate that with someone helping you with some creative is to have a list of videos that you've seen so you can kind of express that. Are you thinking Superbowl-esque, full on production video? Are you thinking just some simple testimonial videos? It's just a matter of setting the expectation of what you want created. That will go a long way to get that out in the beginning.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, that's also really helpful to get us inspired. We consume so much content on a daily basis and it's extremely helpful to hear and see directly from a client what they're expecting. It's a lot harder to write out an email about what you want, but much easier to say, "Here's a YouTube link of something I thought was really great and elicited a response from me."
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, and we can take those YouTube links and analyze it, see how many cameras were involved, how many people were interviewed, how much time they spent onsite. So that's a big first step factor to get a really successful creative piece is to have that expectation ready and able to send it over.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, and that was a big part of what American Heart did, and that helped us immensely when we were doing the brainstorming and rough draft process, writing out scripts. It was all very collaborative between our department and company and the American Heart Association members that we were working with. When we deliver the solution, it now lives on their careers website, so that's the first thing you see when you log on.
Jordan Hartman:
Some of our photography is also scattered throughout their careers page and careers website. So everything that you're seeing is real, authentic employees and their actual work settings. It's all very natural. Nothing is super staged, so I think that it was a big change for their website and I think a much needed refresh that really shows off their employment brand.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah. Here's another pro tip from American Heart Association. Don't be afraid to give honest feedback. We took a lot of risks on this shoot and one of our videos that I put together, the feedback was, "Can you start over? Can you try it again?" Although that was devastating for me ... No, I'm just kidding. I can handle critical feedback. It was good that they were honest and we weren't meeting their expectation with this first draft because we did take a risk.
Drew Palmer:
So we re-spun it, took a different approach. We had enough footage to supplement it and change the tone and mood, and really created something very nicely, per Jordan's edit of course.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, definitely!
Drew Palmer:
So honest feedback is very good.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, being willing and open to completely change direction at a moment's notice. To that point, when we go onsite, we're going to say we're going to deliver X amount of photos, but by the time we get home the SD card is filled with thousands of images. We have so many different testimonial videos and office video clips and b-roll. Yeah, that's what we want to see. When we leave, we want to have so much information and content that, if you say no I don't really like that, we can say cool, well I have it from 12 other angles and at different times of day and with four different people.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah.
Jordan Hartman:
So having options is a huge, huge help. That way we can make sure that out expectations and what we're creating will fit whatever the client and company needs it to be.
Drew Palmer:
Yep, exactly. Yeah, the 25 professionally edited photos mean there's at least 250 photos taken and then 25 picked out, edited, and chosen from. Then we have 225 left to choose from if you don't like them.
Jordan Hartman:
Yep.
Drew Palmer:
So don't be afraid to voice your opinion, especially the earlier the better. You never want to be wrapping up and then get told, well actually we need everything to change, after we've done all this work. Yeah, voice your opinion, voice your feedback. Make sure you're getting what you're expected.
Jordan Hartman:
Absolutely. So during the pandemic this past year, obviously that has changed creative a lot with remote work and not being able to travel, go on site. So what is one way you think that we've been able to stay creative and keep up with the times? You've been remote for multiple years now, so you were more prepared than anyone when we went full remote.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah. Well, the obvious answer is Zoom videos, some way of showing Zoom videos. We've been doing that for our holiday videos, doing some different behind the scenes magic where we alter the environment and then cut to it. There's a lot you can do there, but that is very much over ... very popular to do. With COVID right now and our creative, going onsite to different company's buildings and showing future employees what it's going to look like to work there. It's a very difficult time right now and a lot of uncertainty.
Drew Palmer:
So we've been brainstorming on how to do this, especially if your company is transitioning to more remote workers. What does a remote worker video look like? Setting the expectation of what it's going to be like to work there, what are your coworkers going to look like, what are your schedules going to look like, what's going to be expected of you as a new employee if you're signing onto a new job and you're going to be starting remote? Very, very difficult.
Drew Palmer:
Creative solutions of taking someone who's working remotely and showing what their schedule is like. It's really an open box per company of what it's like to work remotely right now. Well, yes, we could do some remote videos, remote content, for right now with the hopes of going back to the office, but a lot of companies are opening up the floodgates for everyone to work remotely. So it really kind of changes the game.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, and I think to that point, now is when your employment brand really needs to shine. You need to be able to convey that because, if they're not in the office, you can't actively foster that in the same way that we used to be able to. So how are you still appreciating your staff while you're all remote? How are you still keeping people connected and having those interactions, even though you can't stop by the desk of the person next to you or talk while you guys are getting coffee in the break room? How are you still creating those opportunities and that environment for connections within your workplace even though you're remote?
Drew Palmer:
Yeah.
Jordan Hartman:
DirectEmployers with Recruit Rooster, we've done that in a number of ways. I think that the transition to remote work was pretty seamless because we'd already kind of been working one day a week at home and going to full remote, we still have video calls every day. We do happy hours together and trivia games. So I think that really speaks to the branding and culture of our company and that's one way that we show and kind of brag about ourselves on social media and videos is we get to brag about that and say, look at how we're still staying connected even though we're remote. We're doing all these great things that benefit our employees and we're still giving back and fostering that culture.
Drew Palmer:
Yes. Yeah, we've been very fortunate DirectEmployers with our parent company as to doing monthly challenges of fitness and mental health, along with sending little gifts. There's this llama-
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, pinata for-
Drew Palmer:
Pinata. Yeah, a llama pinata that was mailed. It's in a clear plastic bag and it's this llama pinata. It's filled with candy and has a nice little message. Then we do a reveal. You can create a video around something like this, some activity to show that your future remote workers are still thought of and cared for and involved. I can see something where you can record via Zoom of everyone opening up their package at once in the little story along that we're doing fitness classes in a way, or some sort of Zoom activity to show just how connected we are still.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah. That's given us a lot of opportunities to be creative and think outside the box, and do some of these crazy things. Our Christmas video was a lot of recycling old footage we had. Then just home video that you were recording at your house.
Drew Palmer:
Oh yeah. Yep.
Jordan Hartman:
So even though we aren't in the studio and we can't have big groups together, we're still making things work and trying to utilize some of that older content that we might have, stating that it was pre-COVID, because now it's weird to look at people in groups without masks on and shaking hands.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah.
Jordan Hartman:
There's a lot of opportunities now for doing things you might not have thought about doing beforehand with your employment branding.
Drew Palmer:
Sure. Yeah, here's another pro tip just in case of things like a pandemic hits, is just having stock footage ... not stock footage, but extra footage of your company. We call it b-roll readily available for a creative agency to come in and use on behalf ... A lot of times, we go onsite to record and we only have a few days to capture as much as possible. In some of the testimonies we record, they might reference a company event from a month ago or so, or some tradition that the company has that's highlightable.
Drew Palmer:
Really, for us as creatives to put that in the video, we need actual footage of it. It's one thing to talk about it, to reference it, but then what we want to do is also show it. A lot of times, we can't be there on these types of parties and events. So if you have a library of footage that you can keep handy, that would be very helpful for an agency to help compile an all encompassing video.
Jordan Hartman:
That's a great point now, especially if you're wanting a video, but obviously you can't hold that event anymore. You can't have that big gathering. If you have old content of it, that is definitely something you can pass off and still utilize. Even though it might not be the most current thing, you can still utilize and still make it into something great with the help of an agency.
Drew Palmer:
Yep. There's also, as the technology grows, user generated content is also very helpful for an agency creative, for calling on your employees to record on their phones or to send you photos of past events. The quality of these cellphones we're carrying around is insane. So any type of generated content is helpful.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, your employees are definitely your most valuable asset and what you want to be showing off. Yeah, that's a great point that they have their phones on them, they have their computers on them. You can always rely on your employees to see what they're doing behind the scenes and how they're transitioning and living the work from home life. I know we did a few blogs where we collected how people were handling the first month or two of working fully remote.
Jordan Hartman:
We've had virtual take your dog to work day. We've had costume contests where our employees will send in photos of crazy outfits or crazy hair day or something, and we put those together. But yeah, that's a great point. Your employees are still a great asset and a resource for you to utilize.
Drew Palmer:
When they record video, remember to record it landscape, not portrait. It's very helpful for post production, but that's just me griping.
Jordan Hartman:
Yes.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, so when you set out on one of these projects, obviously you want people to see them. You set goals. That's something that we hold very important. We kind of get your top five values of what you want to get across in the video. It's very important to establish those early so we can build around them. My philosophy degree is always saying what is the point of this, why am I watching it.
Drew Palmer:
To get that out in the beginning is very important. To keep that focus in mind, why you're recording or why you're creating this piece of content, is very important.
Jordan Hartman:
Yes.
Drew Palmer:
So the stats are attention. The first 10 seconds are the most important to keep someone's attention. You want to have some sort of a hook there. But really your time is limited to get your message across, so you really want to put the most important/the best shot in the beginning.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, you definitely want to hook them from the get go and defining the why of what's the purpose of this video, putting that right at the beginning, having that be the very start of our creative process when we're defining the problem. Part of that is defining the why. Why do you need this video? What purpose it's going to serve, and then how do we fulfill that.
Drew Palmer:
This video can go viral, right? No, probably not. We hope so, but probably not. So as far as analytics and data points that indicate whether it is a success or not, views are always kind of a debate in the video world. Obviously more views is better, but what type of views are you getting. We host our videos on Vimeo and then, when we deliver them to the clients, they can put them on their YouTube channel or whatever one they want to.
Drew Palmer:
Vimeo especially is very stingy on giving views. If I were to watch one of my videos three, four, five times in a row, it will only count as one. Part of me doesn't like that, but part of me does because it's more accurate of a view count. So a view count is lower, but what you want is to see the number of the average of how long they watched it.
Drew Palmer:
We have a really good example of riffles. We made five videos for them. They were all a minute and a half long-ish videos, and we have ... I'm trying to think of how many views they have. In total, over 60,000 Vimeo views, which is solid. But the average watch rate is 80%. So on average, those people watched the video 80% of the length, which is about a minute, which is usually our sweet spot that we aim for is a minute long video.
Drew Palmer:
So it's just very important to make it interesting, make all the important points early on, and quick cuts and b-roll and storytelling so that they stay interested.
Jordan Hartman:
All right, Drew, so what do you hope potential job seekers will take away from visiting a career site that has authentic photography and vibrant recruitment videos, that highlights the emotional connections and culture of that company?
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, so as the old saying goes, a picture is worth 1,000 words. Is that how it goes?
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah.
Drew Palmer:
A video is worth like 10,000. So basically, when you show someone an image versus a paragraph of text, they pick up on all kinds of things when they see it. What does the lighting look like, what is the dress code? Is that what a desk is there in the corner? Is that where I'm going to be working? All this information is passed simultaneously versus reading a fluffy paragraph about how it's so great to work there.
Drew Palmer:
So basically what it does is it transports the future candidate into the role of this is what my life will be like if I work there. There's ways to tailor this to match to your employment value proposition of reinforcing these values so that you attract the right type of people, the people that you're after, the top tier talent that fit your values. You can really do that very quickly with high quality images, with authentic images, and videos.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, it absolutely helps the potential employee see themselves in that video or in that photograph of, yeah I could be in that desk in that corner. Especially the first person point of view video we did for Frontdoor. You are really in the shoes of the viewer moving through that office space as if you were actually walking and talking to some of these people.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, and that's the type of people you want to fill out the application and apply it, someone who's already thought about that, who is constantly replaying what their future life is going to look like, what they're going to put on their desk. Those are the people who are going to be most interested and most successful. On the contrary, if you have a text description, you show up to the interview, you're not 100% sure. Then if you have a bad hire, someone who doesn't fit the culture, how long does it take for that issue to fix itself. That's like a six month to a year issue.
Drew Palmer:
If someone gets offered the job, who doesn't necessarily love it or is a good fit, that's kind of a costly mistake that could be avoided by showing qualifying content.
Jordan Hartman:
Right, and setting that expectation like we've been talking about.
Drew Palmer:
Expectation, that's' right.
Jordan Hartman:
Well, do you have any final thoughts about the creative process? You gave us a lot of great tips for creating content and promoting content during COVID and these weird times.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah. I would just continue to think outside the box. Anything is possible. I feel like, as an HR person, you have the capability to contract an agency to help you with your creative outside your marketing team and give you that power to do it. I've worked with all kinds of different people and it's a little scary but it's doable.
Jordan Hartman:
We are going to do some rapid fire questions. So feel free to say the first thing that comes to your mind, all right?
Drew Palmer:
Okay.
Jordan Hartman:
Coffee or tea?
Drew Palmer:
Coffee.
Jordan Hartman:
Awesome.
Drew Palmer:
Espresso.
Jordan Hartman:
Caffeine.
Drew Palmer:
Not expresso.
Jordan Hartman:
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Drew Palmer:
To fly.
Jordan Hartman:
That's a good one.
Drew Palmer:
I like to fly drones, so I can just bring my camera up there.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, that would make our job so much easier. What is a small thing that makes your day better?
Drew Palmer:
Instagram likes.
Jordan Hartman:
Nice. Building that brand.
Drew Palmer:
Isn't that shallow? Yeah.
Jordan Hartman:
Would you prefer the book or movie?
Drew Palmer:
Movie.
Jordan Hartman:
Visual person. Got to respect it.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah.
Jordan Hartman:
Lastly, are you a night person or a morning person?
Drew Palmer:
Night person I guess, although I've had to wake up early lately.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah. You're an all kind of day person.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, all day.
Jordan Hartman:
24 hour kind of person. Nice.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah.
Jordan Hartman:
Well, thank you Drew for talking with me today and getting some creative juices flowing on the DE Talk Podcast.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, it was very fun and I hope the viewers ... the viewers, the listeners take something away.
Jordan Hartman:
Yes. If you want to learn more about Recruit Rooster, visit us at recruitrooster.com or follow us on social media. Like I said, this is the season finale of the DE Talk Podcast, but stay tuned on DirectEmployers social media and blogs for more exciting updates. Thanks for listening.
Candee Chambers:
Thank you for tuning in for another episode of the DE Talk Podcast. Stay connected with DirectEmployers on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and be sure to subscribe to the podcast to receive notifications of new episodes each month.
Welcome to the DE Talk Podcast. Tune in for dialogue between HR experts to amp up your HR strategies. Don't worry, we'll mix in a few laughs as we know you need it.
Drew Palmer:
Welcome to another episode of DE Talk Podcast. This episode is a Recruit Rooster take over. We're a wholly-owned subsidiary of DirectEmployers, and we are also your podcast producers. My name is Drew Palmer. I'm the creative director at Recruit Rooster.
Jordan Hartman:
And my name is Jordan Hartman. I am the creative coordinator of Recruit Rooster and also your podcast producer the last two seasons. So we are the creative minds of Recruit Rooster. We've had to implement a lot of creative thinking in the past year to create content and amazing recruitment marketing materials in the midst of a pandemic. Today we're going to take you through the creative process, why employment branding is so important, and some of the ways that we got creative during COVID.
Jordan Hartman:
So let's start a little bit with how we got to where we are today. Drew, your background isn't directly in art, but you kind of have an interesting journey on how you got to where you are now.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah. I studied philosophy and art in college, but mainly philosophy. When I graduated college, I moved out to Arizona and worked at a golf course of all places. I was kind of in this mindset of working in the golf business, becoming a golf pro at a golf course. It was actually at that golf course where I was introduced to my first employer branding experience. You really wouldn't expect a service industry place like a golf course to have a really well established employment brand, but this one in particular had an amazing brand.
Drew Palmer:
When we started there, you were assigned to read a book. Like most golf industry people, they're not into reading books or studying very hard. Yeah, we read a book. It was called Raving Fans, and it talked about how to differentiate the business from other golf courses and how to deliver this great experience. All of the company values were plastered on the walls in the break room. It was something very different from what I was used to.
Drew Palmer:
From there, the very good experience working at this golf course, and I had a background in photography and videography, and I did a lot of freelancing up and down Arizona. I moved back to Michigan, got connected with Wabash College. Some alumni there, Seth and Steven, who were our coworkers. I got hooked up as a digital strategy support rep. Little did I know, that experience would help me kind of brand out other larger companies.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, so you started at DirectEmployers how long ago?
Drew Palmer:
In 2013.
Jordan Hartman:
Nice, and then you were here building the ground up from Recruit Rooster when they broke off as the creative strategy department.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, that's right. I had the great honor to be part of the meeting when we were establishing the company and actually deciding on the crazy name that we landed on. So very much a part of that, yes. Jordan, what's a little bit of your background? How long have you worked for Recruit Rooster?
Jordan Hartman:
I have been with Recruit Rooster for about a year and a half now. Most of it in the pandemic, unfortunately, but I graduated from Hanover College in 2019 with a degree in art and design and also business. So combining a little bit of fine art, digital art, graphic design as well as marketing. My background is mostly in studio photography. I'm very technical. I worked in a museum setting for two years doing very technically focused studio work and photography and that type of setting, so that's definitely helped build my portfolio and some of the technical skills that I'm bringing now to Recruit Rooster.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, it's awesome that we have such diverse backgrounds, and yet we get to support HR departments, which usually has more of a business oriented background. So we get to tap into our creativity.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, we bring a lot of different things to the table. I think, in the past year and a half, we've pushed the limits at Recruit Rooster and done a lot of crazy creative things for getting employment branding to the absolute max we can for Recruit Rooster and also all of our clients that we've worked with.
Drew Palmer:
Yes, we often say we're trying to push the limits. We're trying to go too far and we're very fortunate to be with Recruit Rooster who encourages that. We have not hit that limit yet. We've gotten some pretty wild stuff out there and we're continuing to push the limits. What I'm really passionate about with my background and everything is showing people a transparent view of your company before they apply. That comes from personal experience, from applying to jobs and being misled, and also just furthering the resources that companies have to show future employees what it's like to work there, to empower them, to help qualify them to get better candidates through the door.
Drew Palmer:
The first thing, the most important thing, is just showing off your real office and your real people that work there. I'm extremely passionate about being transparent, showing actual employees as opposed to having no photos or, worst case scenario, stock photos of models.
Jordan Hartman:
So yes, rather than creating traditional recruitment marketing materials, we focus a lot on content that builds emotional connections. You can't really do that with stock photos. You're probably not going to bond to the stock photo model that's pretending to write on a notepad. That doesn't show you what your brand culture actually feels like, what your office feels like, who your employees are.
Jordan Hartman:
I think a big part, especially in COVID with the lack of face to face interaction, is you want to know who you're working with. I don't want to go to your website and see a bunch of stock models or fake office space, or a fake environment. I want to see what it is actually going to look like and what your company culture is all about. The best way to do that is through photos and videos.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah. I think the industry as a whole is moving towards this way. Trying to figure out what your future life will be like through just a text job description on a website is very difficult to imagine. These decisions aren't taken lightly. A lot of times, you're going to completely change your life if you take a new job. So it's very helpful to help qualify yourself to see who you'll be working with, what types of environments you'll be working in to help self select in or out.
Drew Palmer:
If I see something that I relate to, like really cool office furniture, open environment, snacks, I'm going to be that much more excited when I go to apply, put more effort into my cover letter and application process, and be more likely to complete it versus someone who sees those things and that doesn't attract them to the company. That's almost a good thing. It is a good thing because someone goes through the apply process and shows up on their first day to interview, if they don't like what they're seeing, it's kind of a waste of time for both the recruiter and the applicant.
Jordan Hartman:
Right. You're setting that expectation at the very beginning, immediately from your career site page.
Drew Palmer:
Yep. So a really interesting part of Jordan and I's job is we get to experience a lot of different company environments, prior to COVID of course. We travel onsite to help companies brand their recruitment, so we get a lot of exposure to different companies, different work environments, different issues, different solutions. It's a really fortunate position to be in.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, and it gives us a really interesting perspective. We know our company culture and what we deal with on a daily basis within Recruit Rooster and DirectEmployers, but it's really interesting and exciting to be a fly on the wall in some of these other companies and see how they hire and what their company cultures are and their employment branding. Then everything that we do is exclusively tailored to that company.
Jordan Hartman:
Even though we might have an idea on what we think it should look like or the final product, ultimately we are putting the power and the control in the human resources department that we're working with.
Drew Palmer:
Yes, exactly. So when you're defining your creative process or your recruitment process, you're trying to spruce up your career site with video or photo or design, and you're working with the agency, a lot of the times companies don't have enough resources for HR to complete some of their goals. I find that very surprising because a lot of the companies that we have been fortunate to work with have great marketing departments and products, and very, very tech savvy. But when it comes to building out their career site or recruitment, they just lack funds.
Drew Palmer:
So it's either they get put on a list, the HR department does, for let's say a video project, and then they have to wait until our marketing has time. Usually by the time that is produced, it's too late. So turn around time is a big thing, but it's just very cool to help these HR departments express themselves quickly and efficiently.
Jordan Hartman:
So Drew, we've done a lot of different projects with a lot of different companies. Do you have a favorite one, or a project or a video that you think you knocked it out of the park?
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, if I had to choose a favorite, I'd probably go with Frontdoor. That was a wild project where Justin Clem was a great customer in the fact that he kind of let us spread our wings and get creative, and push the limits. The three projects that we kind of narrowed it down to was essentially a puppet show where we had puppets represent employers or the current employees and ask questions and answer questions related to recruitment. That would have been quite the challenge.
Drew Palmer:
The next one was bringing in the kids to answer questions on behalf of the employees as well, another just wild idea out there. The one that we landed on was the first person video where it was kind of representing the first day as you walked in for your interview, and then your first day also working there. So it was a very cool first person experience that we got to dive into. Jordan was on-site with me helping the shoot.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, that was my first on-site visit and it was definitely high expectations for any future trips to build off of. So we had Drew in a mountain bike helmet with a camera attached to the top. We had the Memphis Grizzly's mascot. We had a confetti tunnel. It was a crazy, crazy week, but all around I think the final product really fit their brand and fit the company culture that they were trying to convey. On our side of things, it was great. It was really exciting and let us push the creative limits.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah. It wouldn't be a creative project if there wasn't a wrench thrown into the mix. We filmed 12 scenes of this on helmet camera. We had someone take us around and narrate for us what was going on, showing each part of the building. We got home, we edited up the first draft and found out that the person who led the video, narrated it, was in every scene, actually had left the company and we weren't allowed to use him in the video, which is back to the passionate thing of showing people who actually work at the company in the video.
Drew Palmer:
So we had to really reevaluate with all the footage and crop around him, get really creative with that. So that was definitely a challenge, but we were able to get creative with it. Different transitions and cropping, and edit out. We had to kind of alter the plan a little bit, but it ended up working out.
Jordan Hartman:
That's part of the creative process.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, even though you had a little bit of the plan changed halfway through, we were still able to execute it. I think the mood and overall plan and outline of the video was still the same. You wouldn't know now, so I think that's interesting to look back and watch. Definitely would recommend you check out the behind the scenes of that whole trip because it was crazy to look at. When you see the final product versus how we were actually recording it, and the looks that Drew is getting when he's walking around with a mountain bike helmet in this corporate office in Memphis, Tennessee. I think that defines what we do on a daily basis.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, definitely. If you're listening to this and kind of a little freaked out, like a first person mountain bike helmet recruitment video, how do you even start that process, don't be afraid. It's okay. We help and assist that. Actually, any agency helps and assists that. So we'll kind of give you some tips and tools on how to get that process going from the drawing board to reality.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah. Looking at the creative process, we typically start with step one is defining the problem. Then we brainstorm, we make the rough drafts, the storyboard, all that involving our HR person and their marketing team. Then we would either go on site and film and shoot photography, and capture all of this great content. Then we revise it and we deliver the solution.
Jordan Hartman:
So we can maybe look at one of our most recent projects we did with American Heart Association and defining what their problem was or the need that they had and how we went about solving that issue.
Drew Palmer:
American Heart Association thinks the problem of kind of being put in a box of it's a fundraising company is people who apply there, a lot of times people, when you think of American Heart Association, you think of fundraising, donations, that type of thing. But they're actually a full suite of job listings. They have all kinds of tech.
Jordan Hartman:
Very corporate.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, very corporate, very big. Much larger than I would assume. For that problem, basically what we did was just try and show as many different roles as possible. We came up with a script and a narrator to tell the story. I say narrator, but it was actually a person walking and talking throughout the shoot.
Jordan Hartman:
Very fast paced.
Drew Palmer:
Yes, very fast paced. Then we also supplemented it with some green screen testimonies of different faces and roles and names. So you can kind of maximize the diversity of what American Heart Association does.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, and a lot of that, the photography we took and some of the settings that we chose was showing off their corporate headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. I agree. I did not think about American Heart Association in that light. It was very much a fundraising company. They raise money, they do volunteer work. These Go Red campaigns. But it really is a full blown corporate business, and we got to talk to some of their IT people and some of their different departments on storytelling.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, there's so many stories we uncover while we're on there. For instance, their building is really iconic. It's a very modern looking building, concrete. I'm sure Jordan can describe it better. Basically the building was donated to them in the 80s and they have a 100 year lease on it that they're very proud of. That was just cool to show that to people who are clicking apply and wouldn't have known.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah. The office building itself was very ... parts of it were modern and then parts of it were this very 70s, 80s style office building. So it was cool to see how they merged all those styles together with all the different departments. They had the coolest green screen room I think we've ever seen.
Drew Palmer:
Yes.
Jordan Hartman:
We got to play around in that a little bit. Yeah, that's something that I wouldn't have expected American Heart Association to have, but they had a little bit of everything. Great setting. We got to do some drone work there as well, which is always ... That footage is just so cool every time that you see it in the final product.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah. They're very encouraging about walking around, which makes sense. They have almost only healthy snacks, which was different.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah.
Drew Palmer:
But made sense. It's on brand. Also, it was very cool to see all the employees and how they have close ties to the mission of American Heart Association and personal stories about heart disease and overcoming it and family members effected by it. So it was very cool to just be there and see the history as well. They had a little museum little area. Very cool to show it so other people can experience it before showing up on an interview.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah. All of the employee testimonials you could really hear and feel that everybody was so invested in the company mission. They all knew exactly what the American Heart taglines are and their company mission, and values. So that made our jobs really easy, right?
Drew Palmer:
Yeah.
Jordan Hartman:
We could ask anybody, "Why do you love working here?" And they would have a whole speil on how they've been personally connected to the message or why they feel invested in it, how they're hoping to make a better future for all. So I think that also really shows through. A huge part of their employment brand is that their employees are very invested in what they do. So, that's a huge part of showing on their website. You want to show off what your actual employees are actually saying. They're not reading from a script. They're just saying what they're feeling in their own personal journey to it.
Drew Palmer:
So here's a pro tip for working with an agency to help you create something. That's establishing the expectation. A video could be a good video, or photo or content, but if it doesn't meet what you're expecting, it's not going to work out. The same thing for job seekers and applying and seeing what they see on their career site. Then they show up, is it what they're expecting. So expectations are key.
Drew Palmer:
One way to help communicate that with someone helping you with some creative is to have a list of videos that you've seen so you can kind of express that. Are you thinking Superbowl-esque, full on production video? Are you thinking just some simple testimonial videos? It's just a matter of setting the expectation of what you want created. That will go a long way to get that out in the beginning.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, that's also really helpful to get us inspired. We consume so much content on a daily basis and it's extremely helpful to hear and see directly from a client what they're expecting. It's a lot harder to write out an email about what you want, but much easier to say, "Here's a YouTube link of something I thought was really great and elicited a response from me."
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, and we can take those YouTube links and analyze it, see how many cameras were involved, how many people were interviewed, how much time they spent onsite. So that's a big first step factor to get a really successful creative piece is to have that expectation ready and able to send it over.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, and that was a big part of what American Heart did, and that helped us immensely when we were doing the brainstorming and rough draft process, writing out scripts. It was all very collaborative between our department and company and the American Heart Association members that we were working with. When we deliver the solution, it now lives on their careers website, so that's the first thing you see when you log on.
Jordan Hartman:
Some of our photography is also scattered throughout their careers page and careers website. So everything that you're seeing is real, authentic employees and their actual work settings. It's all very natural. Nothing is super staged, so I think that it was a big change for their website and I think a much needed refresh that really shows off their employment brand.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah. Here's another pro tip from American Heart Association. Don't be afraid to give honest feedback. We took a lot of risks on this shoot and one of our videos that I put together, the feedback was, "Can you start over? Can you try it again?" Although that was devastating for me ... No, I'm just kidding. I can handle critical feedback. It was good that they were honest and we weren't meeting their expectation with this first draft because we did take a risk.
Drew Palmer:
So we re-spun it, took a different approach. We had enough footage to supplement it and change the tone and mood, and really created something very nicely, per Jordan's edit of course.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, definitely!
Drew Palmer:
So honest feedback is very good.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, being willing and open to completely change direction at a moment's notice. To that point, when we go onsite, we're going to say we're going to deliver X amount of photos, but by the time we get home the SD card is filled with thousands of images. We have so many different testimonial videos and office video clips and b-roll. Yeah, that's what we want to see. When we leave, we want to have so much information and content that, if you say no I don't really like that, we can say cool, well I have it from 12 other angles and at different times of day and with four different people.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah.
Jordan Hartman:
So having options is a huge, huge help. That way we can make sure that out expectations and what we're creating will fit whatever the client and company needs it to be.
Drew Palmer:
Yep, exactly. Yeah, the 25 professionally edited photos mean there's at least 250 photos taken and then 25 picked out, edited, and chosen from. Then we have 225 left to choose from if you don't like them.
Jordan Hartman:
Yep.
Drew Palmer:
So don't be afraid to voice your opinion, especially the earlier the better. You never want to be wrapping up and then get told, well actually we need everything to change, after we've done all this work. Yeah, voice your opinion, voice your feedback. Make sure you're getting what you're expected.
Jordan Hartman:
Absolutely. So during the pandemic this past year, obviously that has changed creative a lot with remote work and not being able to travel, go on site. So what is one way you think that we've been able to stay creative and keep up with the times? You've been remote for multiple years now, so you were more prepared than anyone when we went full remote.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah. Well, the obvious answer is Zoom videos, some way of showing Zoom videos. We've been doing that for our holiday videos, doing some different behind the scenes magic where we alter the environment and then cut to it. There's a lot you can do there, but that is very much over ... very popular to do. With COVID right now and our creative, going onsite to different company's buildings and showing future employees what it's going to look like to work there. It's a very difficult time right now and a lot of uncertainty.
Drew Palmer:
So we've been brainstorming on how to do this, especially if your company is transitioning to more remote workers. What does a remote worker video look like? Setting the expectation of what it's going to be like to work there, what are your coworkers going to look like, what are your schedules going to look like, what's going to be expected of you as a new employee if you're signing onto a new job and you're going to be starting remote? Very, very difficult.
Drew Palmer:
Creative solutions of taking someone who's working remotely and showing what their schedule is like. It's really an open box per company of what it's like to work remotely right now. Well, yes, we could do some remote videos, remote content, for right now with the hopes of going back to the office, but a lot of companies are opening up the floodgates for everyone to work remotely. So it really kind of changes the game.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, and I think to that point, now is when your employment brand really needs to shine. You need to be able to convey that because, if they're not in the office, you can't actively foster that in the same way that we used to be able to. So how are you still appreciating your staff while you're all remote? How are you still keeping people connected and having those interactions, even though you can't stop by the desk of the person next to you or talk while you guys are getting coffee in the break room? How are you still creating those opportunities and that environment for connections within your workplace even though you're remote?
Drew Palmer:
Yeah.
Jordan Hartman:
DirectEmployers with Recruit Rooster, we've done that in a number of ways. I think that the transition to remote work was pretty seamless because we'd already kind of been working one day a week at home and going to full remote, we still have video calls every day. We do happy hours together and trivia games. So I think that really speaks to the branding and culture of our company and that's one way that we show and kind of brag about ourselves on social media and videos is we get to brag about that and say, look at how we're still staying connected even though we're remote. We're doing all these great things that benefit our employees and we're still giving back and fostering that culture.
Drew Palmer:
Yes. Yeah, we've been very fortunate DirectEmployers with our parent company as to doing monthly challenges of fitness and mental health, along with sending little gifts. There's this llama-
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, pinata for-
Drew Palmer:
Pinata. Yeah, a llama pinata that was mailed. It's in a clear plastic bag and it's this llama pinata. It's filled with candy and has a nice little message. Then we do a reveal. You can create a video around something like this, some activity to show that your future remote workers are still thought of and cared for and involved. I can see something where you can record via Zoom of everyone opening up their package at once in the little story along that we're doing fitness classes in a way, or some sort of Zoom activity to show just how connected we are still.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah. That's given us a lot of opportunities to be creative and think outside the box, and do some of these crazy things. Our Christmas video was a lot of recycling old footage we had. Then just home video that you were recording at your house.
Drew Palmer:
Oh yeah. Yep.
Jordan Hartman:
So even though we aren't in the studio and we can't have big groups together, we're still making things work and trying to utilize some of that older content that we might have, stating that it was pre-COVID, because now it's weird to look at people in groups without masks on and shaking hands.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah.
Jordan Hartman:
There's a lot of opportunities now for doing things you might not have thought about doing beforehand with your employment branding.
Drew Palmer:
Sure. Yeah, here's another pro tip just in case of things like a pandemic hits, is just having stock footage ... not stock footage, but extra footage of your company. We call it b-roll readily available for a creative agency to come in and use on behalf ... A lot of times, we go onsite to record and we only have a few days to capture as much as possible. In some of the testimonies we record, they might reference a company event from a month ago or so, or some tradition that the company has that's highlightable.
Drew Palmer:
Really, for us as creatives to put that in the video, we need actual footage of it. It's one thing to talk about it, to reference it, but then what we want to do is also show it. A lot of times, we can't be there on these types of parties and events. So if you have a library of footage that you can keep handy, that would be very helpful for an agency to help compile an all encompassing video.
Jordan Hartman:
That's a great point now, especially if you're wanting a video, but obviously you can't hold that event anymore. You can't have that big gathering. If you have old content of it, that is definitely something you can pass off and still utilize. Even though it might not be the most current thing, you can still utilize and still make it into something great with the help of an agency.
Drew Palmer:
Yep. There's also, as the technology grows, user generated content is also very helpful for an agency creative, for calling on your employees to record on their phones or to send you photos of past events. The quality of these cellphones we're carrying around is insane. So any type of generated content is helpful.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, your employees are definitely your most valuable asset and what you want to be showing off. Yeah, that's a great point that they have their phones on them, they have their computers on them. You can always rely on your employees to see what they're doing behind the scenes and how they're transitioning and living the work from home life. I know we did a few blogs where we collected how people were handling the first month or two of working fully remote.
Jordan Hartman:
We've had virtual take your dog to work day. We've had costume contests where our employees will send in photos of crazy outfits or crazy hair day or something, and we put those together. But yeah, that's a great point. Your employees are still a great asset and a resource for you to utilize.
Drew Palmer:
When they record video, remember to record it landscape, not portrait. It's very helpful for post production, but that's just me griping.
Jordan Hartman:
Yes.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, so when you set out on one of these projects, obviously you want people to see them. You set goals. That's something that we hold very important. We kind of get your top five values of what you want to get across in the video. It's very important to establish those early so we can build around them. My philosophy degree is always saying what is the point of this, why am I watching it.
Drew Palmer:
To get that out in the beginning is very important. To keep that focus in mind, why you're recording or why you're creating this piece of content, is very important.
Jordan Hartman:
Yes.
Drew Palmer:
So the stats are attention. The first 10 seconds are the most important to keep someone's attention. You want to have some sort of a hook there. But really your time is limited to get your message across, so you really want to put the most important/the best shot in the beginning.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, you definitely want to hook them from the get go and defining the why of what's the purpose of this video, putting that right at the beginning, having that be the very start of our creative process when we're defining the problem. Part of that is defining the why. Why do you need this video? What purpose it's going to serve, and then how do we fulfill that.
Drew Palmer:
This video can go viral, right? No, probably not. We hope so, but probably not. So as far as analytics and data points that indicate whether it is a success or not, views are always kind of a debate in the video world. Obviously more views is better, but what type of views are you getting. We host our videos on Vimeo and then, when we deliver them to the clients, they can put them on their YouTube channel or whatever one they want to.
Drew Palmer:
Vimeo especially is very stingy on giving views. If I were to watch one of my videos three, four, five times in a row, it will only count as one. Part of me doesn't like that, but part of me does because it's more accurate of a view count. So a view count is lower, but what you want is to see the number of the average of how long they watched it.
Drew Palmer:
We have a really good example of riffles. We made five videos for them. They were all a minute and a half long-ish videos, and we have ... I'm trying to think of how many views they have. In total, over 60,000 Vimeo views, which is solid. But the average watch rate is 80%. So on average, those people watched the video 80% of the length, which is about a minute, which is usually our sweet spot that we aim for is a minute long video.
Drew Palmer:
So it's just very important to make it interesting, make all the important points early on, and quick cuts and b-roll and storytelling so that they stay interested.
Jordan Hartman:
All right, Drew, so what do you hope potential job seekers will take away from visiting a career site that has authentic photography and vibrant recruitment videos, that highlights the emotional connections and culture of that company?
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, so as the old saying goes, a picture is worth 1,000 words. Is that how it goes?
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah.
Drew Palmer:
A video is worth like 10,000. So basically, when you show someone an image versus a paragraph of text, they pick up on all kinds of things when they see it. What does the lighting look like, what is the dress code? Is that what a desk is there in the corner? Is that where I'm going to be working? All this information is passed simultaneously versus reading a fluffy paragraph about how it's so great to work there.
Drew Palmer:
So basically what it does is it transports the future candidate into the role of this is what my life will be like if I work there. There's ways to tailor this to match to your employment value proposition of reinforcing these values so that you attract the right type of people, the people that you're after, the top tier talent that fit your values. You can really do that very quickly with high quality images, with authentic images, and videos.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, it absolutely helps the potential employee see themselves in that video or in that photograph of, yeah I could be in that desk in that corner. Especially the first person point of view video we did for Frontdoor. You are really in the shoes of the viewer moving through that office space as if you were actually walking and talking to some of these people.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, and that's the type of people you want to fill out the application and apply it, someone who's already thought about that, who is constantly replaying what their future life is going to look like, what they're going to put on their desk. Those are the people who are going to be most interested and most successful. On the contrary, if you have a text description, you show up to the interview, you're not 100% sure. Then if you have a bad hire, someone who doesn't fit the culture, how long does it take for that issue to fix itself. That's like a six month to a year issue.
Drew Palmer:
If someone gets offered the job, who doesn't necessarily love it or is a good fit, that's kind of a costly mistake that could be avoided by showing qualifying content.
Jordan Hartman:
Right, and setting that expectation like we've been talking about.
Drew Palmer:
Expectation, that's' right.
Jordan Hartman:
Well, do you have any final thoughts about the creative process? You gave us a lot of great tips for creating content and promoting content during COVID and these weird times.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah. I would just continue to think outside the box. Anything is possible. I feel like, as an HR person, you have the capability to contract an agency to help you with your creative outside your marketing team and give you that power to do it. I've worked with all kinds of different people and it's a little scary but it's doable.
Jordan Hartman:
We are going to do some rapid fire questions. So feel free to say the first thing that comes to your mind, all right?
Drew Palmer:
Okay.
Jordan Hartman:
Coffee or tea?
Drew Palmer:
Coffee.
Jordan Hartman:
Awesome.
Drew Palmer:
Espresso.
Jordan Hartman:
Caffeine.
Drew Palmer:
Not expresso.
Jordan Hartman:
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Drew Palmer:
To fly.
Jordan Hartman:
That's a good one.
Drew Palmer:
I like to fly drones, so I can just bring my camera up there.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah, that would make our job so much easier. What is a small thing that makes your day better?
Drew Palmer:
Instagram likes.
Jordan Hartman:
Nice. Building that brand.
Drew Palmer:
Isn't that shallow? Yeah.
Jordan Hartman:
Would you prefer the book or movie?
Drew Palmer:
Movie.
Jordan Hartman:
Visual person. Got to respect it.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah.
Jordan Hartman:
Lastly, are you a night person or a morning person?
Drew Palmer:
Night person I guess, although I've had to wake up early lately.
Jordan Hartman:
Yeah. You're an all kind of day person.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, all day.
Jordan Hartman:
24 hour kind of person. Nice.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah.
Jordan Hartman:
Well, thank you Drew for talking with me today and getting some creative juices flowing on the DE Talk Podcast.
Drew Palmer:
Yeah, it was very fun and I hope the viewers ... the viewers, the listeners take something away.
Jordan Hartman:
Yes. If you want to learn more about Recruit Rooster, visit us at recruitrooster.com or follow us on social media. Like I said, this is the season finale of the DE Talk Podcast, but stay tuned on DirectEmployers social media and blogs for more exciting updates. Thanks for listening.
Candee Chambers:
Thank you for tuning in for another episode of the DE Talk Podcast. Stay connected with DirectEmployers on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and be sure to subscribe to the podcast to receive notifications of new episodes each month.
