The 8 Best Recruitment Videos Ever Made (Statistically)

6 minute read

Posted by Chris Platts on 20 July 2020

There are a ton of great recruitment videos to inspire you. But which ones get the most traction with candidates?

Glad you asked.

We’ve compiled a list of the top 8 recruiting videos ever made by conducting hours of research and analysis into candidate reach, traction and mitigating for company size (see our Methodology below).

How mature is your hiring process?

There are lots of things that determine a successful recruitment strategy. Is it time to figure out where your weak spots are?

Ranking Methodology

First, we researched all the best HR, Recruitment and Employer Branding websites and blog posts on recruitment videos we know of and made a long list of 66 recognised careers videos. 

Some of these came from agency showreels, others from careers sites and others straight from YouTube and Vimeo.

Next, the videos were then ranked by view count which was then aggregated by date created to create a views-per-month average. These “views per month” averages were then adjusted against the employee headcount for the company on LinkedIn to create an overall “video score”.

This helped us to identify not just the companies with the biggest reach but those who were punching above their weight. As you can see by the table below Google and Apple both crush it from a views per month basis, but when adjusted for headcount they fall below smaller companies.

best recruitment videos
The long list included 66 of the best recruiting videos we could find

The 8 best recruiting videos ever made

1. Hillsboro Police

  • Our Score: 9.40
  • Views: 192,599
  • Date Created: 16/08/2013

This video created by a small police force in Oregon shows that you don’t need a massive employer brand to make a hit hiring video. This humorous and lighthearted take on the day in the life of a police department really makes you stop and think about the people you work with. If you were in the police already, you’d probably want to work with the team at Hillsboro too.

2. BambooHR

  • Our Score: 5.96
  • Views: 291,498
  • Date Created: 18/03/2014

BambooHR shows us what a true culture-related recruitment video is about. They buck the trend of the “results at all cost” zeitgeist of startup life saying literally “if you’re still working at 7 pm, something is wrong”. It’s this candid, realistic approach to leaving work at work and coming home to loved ones that are felt in this upbeat and happy video.

3. Uship

  • Our Score: 2.67
  • Views: 37,678
  • Date Created: 11/06/2013

UShip gets a customer (Marc) to take you on a guided tour of their office where humour, a meeting with the CEO, and a really cool moustache come along for the journey. This fun and friendly video allow the team at uShip to be creative when they come on screen and oozes both customer and employee-centricity.

4. Insomniac Games

  • Our Score: 2.30
  • Views: 111,973
  • Date Created: 20/02/2008

Music videos are a high-risk strategy but this one (created back in 2008) manages to pull it off. In this video, we are on a guided tour led by Chris, lead guitarist and office coordinator. We like the pop-up facts about the company and their benefits throughout the catchy song. 

5. Zappos

  • Our Score: 1.50
  • Views: 214838
  • Date Created: 27/09/2012

Again another customer first recruitment video (noticing a trend?) with Chris from Wistia meeting Zappos employees and asking them about their experiences. Zappos are well known for rather spending much longer in their hiring process if it means they get the correct culture fit in their new candidate. As you’ll see from the video, culture is highly emphasised and if you’re not having fun at your desk, something is very wrong.

6. Vimeo

  • Our Score: 1.46
  • Views: 118,000
  • Date Created: 21/08/2011

This unrehearsed (maybe), real-life video the Vimeo office shows us a glimpse of the vibe on an average day. The whimsical and charming video host makes this video feel warm and inviting. In fact, it kind of feels like it’s your first day at work there.

7. Founders Brewing Co.

  • Our Score: 1.36
  • Views: 36,384
  • Date Created: 13/06/2012

It’s the authenticity that makes this video so impactful. They’re honest about their mistakes and they’re vulnerable which makes the content so much more believable than most recruiting videos. The storyline focuses on the philosophy and purpose behind why they exist. Working in the beer industry means there’s “no glamour, but a lot of glory” to appeal to candidates who want to work on something they can be proud of.

8. Quirky

  • Our Score: 1.33
  • Views: 5,172
  • Date Created: 08/01/2014

We see a day in the life of an intern at Quirky. In this clever recruiting video, viewers explore the opportunities to move up the ranks with the goal of increasing their job application completion rates. Again it’s humorous, lighthearted and fun like most of the other videos on our list.

Top 3 most viewed recruitment videos of all time

Although they didn’t make our list of best, here’s an honourable mention to the most viewed recruitment videos of all time.

1. Google – Interns’ first week

  • Our Score: 0.63
  • Views: 11,137,983
  • Date Created: 04/06/2013

Unsurprisingly Google takes the most viewed top spot with over 11 million views! Wow.

2. Apple – Recruiter Video

  • Our Score: 0.04
  • Views: 729,379
  • Date Created: 10/07/2012

Apple’s generic recruiting video is the 2nd most viewed of all time. It’s low score was down to the fact it’s really old and due to it’s huge company size of course.

3. Zendesk

  • Our Score: 0.80
  • Views: 341,508
  • Date Created: 16/05/2012

Kudos to Zendesk, they’ve beaten much bigger brands including McDonalds, Starbucks, Ford and KPMG by a country mile with this engaging video.

Employer branding beyond the recruiting video

Creating a recruitment video is a great way to communicate your EVP, attract top talent and enhance your employer brand.

The team here at ThriveMap are on a mission to help companies create objective, fair and effective hiring processes. As part of this, we want to give shout-outs to the companies who are creating authentic and engaging recruitment videos.

We hope our list was helpful and if you are interested in building real-life assessments to simultaneously communicate your job realities and measure candidate alignment to key role and culture requirements then we’d love to hear from you.

Further reading

How mature is your hiring process?

There are lots of things that determine a successful recruitment strategy. Is it time to figure out where your weak spots are?

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ThriveMap creates customised assessments for high volume roles, which take candidates through an online “day in the life” experience of work in your company. Our assessments have been proven to reduce staff turnover, reduce time to hire, and improve quality of hire.

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