We’ve all watched something on youtube (ok perhaps not for work reasons) and we’re seeing a big shift from print media spend in recruitment advertising to the use of video online. Instead of trying to build brand presence by buying ad space in prominent newspapers, companies are giving people insight to the organisation and what they are about using videos. Recruitment Directory does a great job explaining these videos and highlighting some good ones.

I have to admit I love these videos because it can really go a long way to getting potential employees excited about a career at your organisation and convey your employer branding message to the market.

Here are a few examples that I really like.

This one is actually CSIRO, and I like it because it hits all the key touch points about what it is like to work there.

This ones from Google and talks about the great benefits of working there and gives you a feel of the working environment. It’s a little bit corporate and scripted, but overall I still think they’ve done a great job.

I like this one from Atlassian because it’s honest, down-to-earth and gives you a great insight to working there.

I’m not really a tech expert, but I do have a lot of friends who are able to help me with my questions as they arise. I recently gave video a go on a blog that we created at my workplace for our student scholarship program. This is the first time I’ve ever created a video and it took me a while to work out how to edit the content, but I was really pleased in the end. While you might not understand some of the content (a bit sciency) I found it kind of interesting to listen to a student explain what they are doing and what the impact in the real world will be.

If making videos just isn’t for you, you still might enjoy watching them for personal pleasure or as a source of inspiration for work. Good friend and awesome guy Michael Specht has now launched Inspecht TV which is a site that he’ll be finding videos that will be of interest to HR people like us. Already there is a video on employee engagement and social media on there. If you like what you see, you can subscribe to the videos to get this info delivered to your inbox.

The other day as you may remember I went down to Melbourne for a HR Planning Day and was able to talk about Social Media and HR for about 40 mins to some of my colleagues. The room was somewhat quiet but being the nerd that I am, I got really excited about what I was talking about and just pushed on. Gradually some questions started being asked and they became enthused about what might actually be possible.

However there was a certain level of “wow that’s cool, but would I ever be able to do this myself?”

I was even asked if all people my age would know how to create a wordpress site. And the answer is of course no. I’m a HR professional by trade so I’m not a techie by any stretch of the imagination but I do like learning about these things and I do have a lot of friends who are able to help me out.There are varying degrees of how much you get into this stuff, but it pays not to be completely oblivious to the trends.

HR people are always trying to be strategic but there is a certain element of the HR generalist role that means you still do have to put the fires out when they occur. So I get that most of the time we feel like we are playing catch up but I try and make time for a bit of social media and online reading each day because I know that I learn a lot from it. If I keep going with my head buried in the sand, in a few years time I won’t be as good as I want to be.

So take a few minutes out of your day now and watch this. It’s interesting and might be enough to persuade you to spend a little more time on yourself to persue your interests online.

Have a great weekend!