How Inspiring Interns Streamlined Recruitment Processes
Shorter, Focused Processes Increase Retention Rates to 85% and Drive 30% Revenue Growth
There are few things more stressful than a job search – both for applicants and employers. For new graduates with limited work experience, finding that first job in a competitive market can be particularly difficult.
Inspiring Interns, the UK’s leading graduate recruitment agency, is disrupting the status quo, using video to transform a traditionally lengthy, impersonal ordeal, into a short, personal, and effective hiring process. In 2009, Inspiring Interns introduced an innovative recruitment program anchored by the Video CV, a new concept designed to pair graduates with jobs in an impactful and accelerated way. It is changing the way applicants interact with potential employers, leading to a better matching process and higher retention rates.
“Video sets our company apart from other recruitment agencies, and the Video CV sets our applicants apart from the competition,” states Ben Rosen, Inspiring Intern’s founder and CEO. “It can be difficult to stand out in a competitive job market. The Video CV enables applicants to inject their unique personality into an otherwise faceless process and demonstrate their communication skills, professionalism, and passion.”
Video Expedites the Decision-Making Process
Over the past five years, Inspiring Interns has placed more than 5,700 graduates, with almost 85% receiving offers of full-time employment at the end of their internship. The agency credits the Video CV with matching the right applicant to the right job. Unlike a one-dimensional paper CV, video enables applicants to showcase their personality, to bring their strengths and skills to life and highlight the contribution they will make to the business. For most companies, hiring is a top priority, but there are risks associated with the traditional interviewing and hiring process. Inspiring Interns has demonstrated that those risks, such as losing a candidate due to a lengthy process, can be reduced by using video.
Rosen also stresses the importance of video in shortening the decision-making process. Video CVs are helping employers eliminate screening interviews and move directly to face-to-face interviews, helping to make the entire process considerably quicker, without compromising quality. In some cases, the applicant is called for an in-person interview as quickly as the next day.
Each Video CV is about one minute in length, and Rosen reports that within about 12 seconds employers get a sense of the applicant. In contrast, it takes between two to four minutes to read through a paper CV to determine if an applicant is qualified. “With a Video CV, you can get an idea of the applicant’s personality and style and if they will fit into the culture of your organization,” states Rosen. “Employers have told us they hired people they might not have hired if they just considered their paper CV. But what they saw on video really impressed them.”
Video Enables Applicants to Control the Message
At any given time, Inspiring Interns hosts approximately 500 Video CVs on their website, and each Video CV stays on the website until the agency places the applicant. Inspiring Interns provides applicants the option of filming their Video CV at home, on a laptop computer or tablet, or on their mobile device. They can also come to one of the Inspiring Interns’ three production studios located in London and Manchester, UK, where their team produces about 100 new Video CVs each week.
“Video CVs fit with the way Millennials communicate,” adds Rosen. “They are comfortable with mobile devices and social media. Video makes applying for a job more interesting and personal. Plus, Video CVs encourage applicants to focus only on the jobs that are most relevant to them, instead of applying to a multitude of jobs online or to jobs, which may not fit their skills. The Video CV helps drive the applicant to be more selective.”
Inspiring Interns uses Brightcove Video Cloud, the leading online video platform, to publish videos on its website, social media pages, and in email marketing campaigns. The company posts a daily ‘candidate of the day’ on its LinkedIn page and posts links to candidates’ videos weekly on Twitter and Facebook. “We’ve seen great engagement across the platforms, including a candidate that was hired after somebody saw her video CV on LinkedIn,” states Rosen.
“Brightcove Video Cloud forms the foundation of our Video CV program. We can upload new Video CVs quickly and easily, and clients can search our database easily by skills and industry. It easily scales to meet our peak demand period, from July through October, when we receive an influx of applications from new graduates.”
The Brightcove platform also helps Inspiring Interns grow and incorporate video into other areas of the recruitment process. They are currently helping companies develop video job specs that provide applicants with more insight into the company. “Video job specs make the job come alive. It can show the employees and office space, and what they do on Fridays,” explains Rosen. “I see a big shift in the way companies hire people, not just recent graduates. I want to turn the Video CV into a smorgasbord of content for a variety of people to showcase their skills.”
Today, more than 2,000 companies use Inspiring Interns, and the company is seeing 30% growth in revenue year over year. “We started this company solely as an online video recruiting model; this wouldn’t have been possible without a reliable online video platform,” concludes Rosen.