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A day in the life video is a powerful piece of recruitment marketing content. The best day in the life videos are balanced: they are realistic job previews that also show your company’s culture in action.

And they are great vehicles for employee storytelling – you’re showcasing a particular employee and giving an inside scoop into their life at work. 

Here are our top tips for creating effective day in the life videos for recruitment marketing and recruiting. 

Build a realistic job preview

Realistic job previews show both the good and the less desirable parts of a job.

Showing the reality of work is important for all roles, and critical for high-volume positions. You aren’t serving your company or candidates if new employees arrive with expectations that don’t match reality. It puts both at risk for early turnover.  

To address this, plan for a filming day that incorporates all the key elements of the job candidates need to know about. Start by answering the most important or frequently asked questions by showing the actual experience. Is work conducted in an office, in person? Virtual or hybrid? Do you need to travel? Does your job require physical labor? 

And for high volume or always-on positions, try to understand why people leave and why people stay. You’ll want to highlight these in your day in the life video.

Bonus tip! Sometimes people leave and stay for the same reason: internal mobility and promotions. If this is true for your organization, it’s shout-from-the-rooftop news and you should highlight it in your content.

We worked with Great Clips® Salons to create a day in the life video showcasing the General Manager position:

All Great Clips® salons are independently owned and operated by third-party franchisees. Franchisees, not Great Clips, Inc., are responsible for all hiring and personnel matters at their individual salons.

In this video, candidates can see how Hannah balances both the organization and people-facing sides of her job.

Infuse your day in the life video with broader cultural insight

Candidates want to know about the job itself and also what it’s like to work at your company more broadly. In fact, it’s a best practice to talk about more than just the job. There are many ways to speak to the overall culture while you showcase a typical day. 

For example, you could:

• Show how your employee storyteller is supported at work by showing a clip of a meeting with their boss, an all-hands, or team meeting

• Show that friendships are developed and encouraged by featuring other colleagues that pop in

• Ask your storyteller to show how their role ties into the bigger picture or purpose at work

Stories Inc. worked with Activision Blizzard to highlight the tech talent behind the hit franchise World of Warcraft. In this video, Elsbeth shares how she collaborates to create new tech workflows. And more importantly: how her work ultimately impacts the player experience.

Audio and video quality matters

It’s not enough to get candidates to click. They have to watch to get the message! While it may be tempting to simply ask a team member to create their own a day in the life video, this approach often comes at the expense of audio and video quality. No matter how great the content is, candidates won’t get the message if they can’t easily see or hear the video. Quality matters.

Also true: candidates are clicking on day in the life videos because they are searching for insight into what it’s like to do that job at your company. As a content creator, that’s what you need to deliver. Make sure your day in the life videos are great educational tools.

When your day in the life content is both substantive and visually interesting, it’s more likely to engage viewers.  It’s also more likely that you and the employee storyteller will be more excited to share it as a good representation of your culture, the job, and your employer brand. 

In this video from Children’s Mercy, we experience high quality audio and visuals while getting a look into the Care Assistant role. We hear about a few of the daily tasks care assistants are expected to perform, as well as a story about how one care assistant felt she was able to make an impact in her patient’s health journey.

Be smart about content distribution 

Embedding or linking your video in job descriptions is the #1 place to put your day in the life video. This is often the first place candidates are learning about an opportunity so give them insight up front. 

But, don’t stop there! Here are other places you should promote and share your day in the life video: 

LinkedIn and other social channels

• Organic: Share on your corporate channel

• Sponsored: Serve the day in the life ad to a relevant candidate audience

Employee advocacy bonus tip: Ask the employee storyteller to share on their networks – when the content is great, they’re more willing to share – and tag their peers who are also in this role for added engagement.

Landing Pages 

• Create a landing page that is targeted to a specific candidate audience, and share the video there along with engaging copy and photos. 

• We like this example from Deloitte. It targets students and graduate students with culture content including a tab for a day in the life video.

Get started creating a day in the life video

Creating day in the life videos are great employee storytelling vehicles because they can balance information about a job with broader cultural elements. When you create engaging snapshots into a typical day, you’re educating candidates about what it’s like to work in that job, at your company. 

Need help? Get in touch with our team to learn more!