Are you still using Job Descriptions ? Switch to Job Narratives & Job Shorts

In the past, a good traditional Job Description could attract potential talent and candidates. Applicants would read about the job and the company and would apply for the position. However, times have changed significantly.

In a recent study conducted 39% of employers surveyed have been using Video Job Ads. 31% of organisations are using video to communicate their Employee Value Proposition. 50% of organisations believe video is useful in attracting top talent or acquiring specific skills. (source — VideoMyJob)

Attention spans have gotten shorter and Job Seekers really do not have the time or patience to read long Job descriptions. A potential applicant is looking to discover your job in a powerful and smart way and will not open a word document to go through a verbose boring Job Description.

Enter Job Shorts and Job Narratives. Job Narratives or Job shorts are a powerful way to get an authentic and impactful message about the job, the organisation and the value proposition of a job across to a potential applicant. They use videos or animated graphics to deliver the message.

Below are Five Pointers to keep in Mind while creating a Job Narrative or a Job Shorts:

Understand the interests and the context of your Applicants

This is critical to get some awesome applicants, you need to use channels and mediums that appeal to your candidates and where they are most likely to be found, Social Media, Short Video Platforms, Gaming platforms and other non-traditional platforms. Take the job to them. Do not wait for them to discover your job openings.

Use Video, Animated graphics and Stories to showcase your Job Narrative

Job Narratives need to give an applicant a sense of what the job involves besides articulating the role applicants want to get a sense of who are the major players, what is the nature of the business the type of industry, company culture and who are their peers what do they think of the role. Video and animation are powerful mediums to engage and showcase a job Narrative. Both the long format and a short format 40-second video can do wonders.

Story Board Your Job Shorts & Job Narrative

Developing a Storyboard for your Job Narrative is critical because that is what generates engagement and shareability and leverages crowdsourcing. I believe a storyboard for a Job Narrative should have an opening where you introduce the company, showcase the job, the Value proposition to an applicant and the process of selection. The duration of your Job Narrative should be between 45–90 Seconds.

Sharing and Broadcasting Your Job Narrative

In this day and age of shorts and videos, it is important to use platforms such as social media, Whatsapp, and Telegram and platforms such as YouTube Shorts, IG Reels, Tiktok and other Short format platforms to share your Job Narrative. The objective is to broadcast and advertise to maximise your reach to access talent in a non-linnear fashion, unlike a Job board. Job Narratives can have the potential to go Viral, unlike Job Descriptions.

Keeping your Job Shorts & Job Narrative Real

Applicants want to see authenticity in your communication and who you say you are. It’s about developing trust through your Job Narrative and driving them to action to apply to your position. They want to see a real person talking about the job and the opportunity.

Whether you are someone who is on the front lines of hiring talent or leading Talent these are some very important changes that our impacting recruiting and it is best to be ahead of the curve than play catchup.