Mobile & Video in Recruitment London Conference Sept 2010

1. Tel +27 21 818 8600 | Fax +27 21 818 8609 | Email info@careerjunction.co.za
The Forum B&C, North Bank Lane, Century City, 7441
PO Box 87, Century City, 7446
Mobile & video in recruitment
conference – Sept 2010
Kris Jarzebowski, CEO, CareerJunction
5 October 2010
Last week I attended a conference in London that outlined the various developments in Mobile and Video
technologies as applied to recruitment. It was the first of its kind ever to be held in the UK or Europe so it was
an interesting and valuable knowledge gathering session coupled with great networking opportunities with like
minded people.
I have taken the liberty of editing an article found on the Internet from Ri5 who attended the conference and
have aptly summarised the day. Each subject is outlined and I have summarised the subjects with my personal
conclusions on their applications within the South African context.
Summary
The two fast-developing technologies of mobile and video and their increasing adoption within recruitment
strategies were the twin topics of a new conference held at London's Hotel Russell on Wednesday
28th September. The event was organised by Mike Taylor, MD of Web-Based Recruitment. And while the
morning agenda looked at the various applications of video, the afternoon session focused on at the rapid
growth of mobile (as one speaker put it, if 2010 isn't the long-promised ‘year of mobile', we must be getting
pretty close).
Posting recruitment-related videos on YouTube
With YouTube unable to attend, Google's Luke Mckend – who has now been appointed as Country Manager for
Google South Africa, stepped in at short notice to review best practices for video brand-building - confessing
that he'd been unable to find many good examples of recruitment-related videos from direct employers, in
contrast to the consumer world which offered a whole variety of exciting executions. (Even the education sector
seems to have embraced video in a way that recruitment has yet to match.) He did suggest, however, that
recruitment's use of video had matured over the last two to three years from simply being "a window into the
organisation" to a way of actively engaging with the target audience and developing a pool of candidates who
really relate to the employer's brand. (Now the bigger risk for employers is probably not to feature video
content, as it could suggest they have something to hide.)
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Optimising the emotional connection
Nick Price, founder of Working Films, took the evolution of the employer brand over the last twenty years as his
starting-point. For Nick, the key thing that film can get across is the value of someone's work - it gets closer to
the heart of why people get up in the morning, do the job they do, and indeed select that particular employer.
An important aspect of the film medium is the way it makes people feel - and emotional connection is, of
course, a vital component of employee engagement. In their different ways, video examples from Weston Area
Health, GCHQ and Thomson Reuters all served to demonstrate how powerfully film can engage rather than
merely inform.
Staying on message
On a more technical note, Nick stressed that the starting-point for producing films about organisations and their
work should always be the employer brand and value proposition - and that proper planning is essential.
Organisations need to be clear about their message, select the right people as brand ambassadors - and find a
production team who can put these people at their ease. Production values don't need to be unduly slick,
although sound ("70% of film", according to Danny Boyle) can play a big part in adding a professional gloss.
Once produced, videos can be uploaded to sites like YouTube as well as incorporated into recruitment websites,
while microvideos can also be posted on to job-boards.
Video as an interviewing tool
Kes Thygesen and Dimitar Stanimiroff of Inovaz then presented a session on the use of video within the
recruitment process itself, primarily as an interviewing medium - either two-way (i.e. real-time) or one-way
(time-shifted, with interviewees responding to pre-recorded questions). Inovaz's OVIA (online video interview
application) product is already being used by a number of volume and graduate recruiters to this effect. Among
the reasons for the video medium continuing to gain traction are the growth of faster internet and the
incorporation of webcams as standard product features. Dimitar also rebutted a number of ‘myths' about video
interviewing, including suggestions that it might be potentially discriminatory, was impersonal, and wouldn't be
used by baby-boomers. Looking ahead, Kes and Dimitar felt that although video was still "at an early stage of
the adoption curve", it had the potential to replace phone as a pre-screening medium.
Consumers look to mobile
Moving to the mobile half of the agenda, Jobsite digital marketing manager Gary Robinson offered an interesting
insight into the future of mobile recruitment. He noted that while consumers tended to be running ahead of
businesses in terms of adopting mobile technology, the latter were now moving fast to incorporate mobile into
their digital strategies. Users are increasingly seeking mobile solutions for job-hunting, with the key drivers to
even greater use seen as accessibility, convenience, privacy, and freedom (especially in terms of bypassing
corporate restrictions, firewalls etc). And one thing that users will be looking for in the near future is the
synchronisation of services across platforms (e.g. mobile and desktop).
Keeping it simple
Roundpoint CEO Trevor Shonfeld provided a concise overview of how to make mobile work for recruitment.
Quoting a range of statistics to chart the exponential growth of mobile use, he suggested that all future
"credible" organisations will work with their audiences over mobile, but exhorted recruiters to keep their mobile
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functions relatively simple, since users tend to have less patience with the medium than with their PCs. He
added that early adopters would be the pathfinders that other organisations followed.
The advantages of apps (applications on the mobile)
Dave Martin of AllTheTopBananas introduced his session on the use of mobile apps for recruitment by predicting
that all employers would be using mobile recruitment within three years. And although the recruitment industry
was only just waking up to mobile recruiting, things were now moving fast. Just two years ago there were no
UK job-search apps, whereas now at least 5% of UK job-boards have their own apps. And even where sites are
fully optimised for mobile, having a dedicated app can still deliver big advantages in terms of the quality of user
experience and sheer findability, thus boosting brand value and retention.
Mobile as an integral campaign element
A revealing study of the effective use of the mobile channel within a wider recruitment campaign context
completed the formal presentations, co-presented by Andy Bamford, MD of ThirtyThree Bristol, and Stuart
Affleck, head of resourcing and development at LV= (formerly Liverpool Victoria). Following a major corporate
rebrand some three years ago, this "sleepy mutual" needed to introduce a new employer brand to help it recruit
the people needed to drive continuing business growth, especially in its key locations of Bournemouth, Bristol
and Croydon. After the launch of a new website and an extensive digital marketing campaign, the brand was
"further brought to life" through an outdoor campaign (including ads on buses, trams, taxis and at bus-stops).
The benefits of an innovative approach
Using image recognition technology, potential applicants could take a photo of a poster on their mobile and then
receive a (pre-recorded) phone-call from the featured employee, plus a subsequent text message including the
relevant corporate web address. It's thought to be the first recruitment campaign to utilise image recognition
software in this way. The benefits of the overall campaign have been huge, helping LV= to move from a
situation where 75% of its hires came through third-party agencies to a point where over 80% now come
direct. And apart from reducing the cost per hire from around to £2,000 to nearer £500, the initiative has
provided a huge boost to employee engagement, not to mention generating valuable PR and media coverage of
its successful transition to the direct sourcing model.
Two lively panel discussions, featuring speakers on the respective technologies, completed the day's packed
agenda.
Summary and Applicability for the South African Market
Clearly the UK and Europe are significantly ahead (probably about 2-3 years) in terms of general consumer
adoption of high end technology i.e. smart phones and video in the workplace, which is supported by their easy
availability of bandwidth which South Africans still struggle even with the improvements brought on by Seacom
to Africa. South Africa needs to enjoy much higher bandwidth availability within the shores of Southern Africa
before it can take full advantage of the new and exciting technologies. Having said that, it is clear that this is
coming to South Africa and within 2-3 years we would have caught up with the UK in terms of bandwidth
availability and associated cost benefits. It is therefore my opinion that we should start now to look at both
Mobile and Video applications that practically relate to our consumer audience. There is no doubt that these new
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methods enabled through technology will be used here in South Africa within 2-3 years with much higher
acceptance than one would expect thanks to Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media initiatives which are
already coupled closely to Mobile for a start!
Watch this space folks as we see some interesting applications being rolled out in South Africa that will
revolutionise the Recruitment process and therefore the recruitment business will be changed – probably
forever.
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