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Reshaping the recruitment funnel to win the talent war

Just like many other processes in your organisation, the one of recruitment is a funnel. It starts with a number of potential candidates that enter the first stage of it, and as the funnel narrows step by step, the group of people in it becomes smaller. Jobvite (2019) has perfectly visualized this five-stage process in their latest annual Recruiting Benchmark Report, which is replicated below:

Traditional Recruitment FunnelIt is a process that has worked well for a very long time: it started with an organisation that had a job opening it needed to fill. Some of the potential candidates that visited the career site applied and therefore turned into actual candidates. A portion of them made it to the interview stage, after which the best one received an offer. Being eager to start, chances were high the offer got accepted, meaning that the hire stage was reached.

In this day and age, however, we are in a war for talent. The same organisations that used to rely on the above given funnel cannot fill their open roles anymore. Less and less potential candidates visit the career sites and the ones that only consider to do so are already approached by the competitors. This has led to the current situation in which:

  • (A) organisations are desperately trying to attract potential candidates (the more persons in the first stage, the higher the chance someone makes it to the last) and
  • (B) they try to optimise their recruitment funnel (the less candidates lost at each stage, the higher the chance someone makes it to the last).

Situation A can be recognised in activities such as extensive sourcing, the use of social media campaigns and mass emailing campaigns. Situation B is expressed in employee profiles, mobile proof application forms, quick feedback and so on.

Although all these efforts (A and B combined) are a powerful combination, they have proven not to be sufficient. In order to make an actual difference, the funnel needs to be reshaped. Actually, it should be as little as a funnel as possible until stage four (offers), because there it is you – the recruiter – that decides who drops off and who stays in. That sound good doesn’t it? Finally back in the driver’s seat! But how do you get there? The answer is actually quite simple: use the power of video. A correct application of this medium can transform the shape of the first three stages of the recruitment funnel as follows:

Video reshapes the recruitment funnelThe first thing that happens is an increase from potential candidates to candidates (the move from stage one to stage two) by means of video job descriptions. I am sure you are familiar with many statistics that explain the effectives of video over text. Such as the fact that video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80% or more (Lister, 2019). This is why an increasing number of companies now have a video that, for instance, gives a glimpse of the company culture. But videos really win when they hold a call to action (CTA). This means you need a specific video for each vacancy that seduces the viewer (in this case the career site visitor) to click (in this case apply). It is, however, most likely not feasible to hire a professional production agency every time a new position opens. That is why Cammio Stories enables hiring teams to collectively create authentic video job descriptions in an instant.

Right after your career page visitors have clicked the ‘Apply Now’ link (CTA), they find themselves in stage 2 (applications). A look at the initial recruitment funnel indicates that many of them don’t make it to the interview stage though, meaning you lose a lot of talent. This can have multiple causes, such as the need to create an account, the hassle to schedule an interview or just a long period of time before they are finally invited to the interview (remember that the competitors are still approaching your applicants at this time). So, what if that above mentioned ‘Apply Now’ button in the video job description would immediately lead the applicants to an online video interview? Woow, stage 2 just became stage 3!

Altogether this process brings you the desired candidates that you happily provide with an offer. It is a transformation of the classic recruitment funnel and a friendly, yet effective weapon to fight the talent war.