Anatomy of An Awesome Job Video | Hotel Housekeeping at Holiday Inn

Whether you’re considering making your very first job video or are an employer branding pro, this question has probably crossed your mind: What makes an awesome job video? I’ve certainly asked myself that question countless times over the past 5 years.

So now that my team and I have had the privilege of helping create over 450+ job and company videos, I did a little dissection of our very best videos (top 10 videos for views, completion and conversion). In full research geek mode, I will dive into one of our top 10 videos and share the secret sauce that makes them interesting to candidates.

See Holiday Inn's Video

This was one of our very early job videos. In fact, this was in our startup days when the Skill Scout video team consisted of Elena and me and a couple of Nikons. We shot this video outside Rockford, IL and Elena edited it! 

So, why is this an awesome job video?

There are a few things I think make this special:

It features someone who has done the job. ​

The General Manager, Lawrence, had performed housekeeping duties in his tenure at Holiday Inn. So while he was not in the position at the time we filmed, he very much knew the ins and outs of the job. He’s also an extremely empathic person who is in tune with why his staff do well, and what elements of the job can be challenging.

It’s honest about the reality of the job.

He calls the Housekeeping position a “behind-the-scenes” job and describes it as, physically, the hardest job in the hotel. As he walks us through a typical day, the video cuts directly to what he’s saying: cleaning behind the tv, making the bed. You can see how fast the housekeeper is moving in these shots. The speed is tangible, and easy to see why Lawrence says it can be tiring. This job is all about speed, accuracy and taking the extra step, which is illustrated by a housekeeper folding a towel animal as a little token of delight.

It shows, more than tells.

67% of this video features b-roll footage of the job in action. Meaning, only 33% shows Lawrence on screen talking. We hear time and time again from candidates that they want to see the job. This video does a good job of showing Housekeepers working in the hotel.
​
You can see in the word cloud above that Lawrence touches on tangible aspects of the job. The way we captured this video has something to do with it. As we always recommend, we did the interview with Lawrence first. Then we captured b-roll. Elena did a fabulous job of capturing detailed footage of the tasks Lawrence mentioned in his interview because she created a shot list during the interview to make sure she got the footage she needed.

---

By: Abby Cheesman

Workplace storyteller and IO Psychologist, Abby spends her days leading the team to bring jobs to life on video. Every workplace has a story to tell, and Abby helps tell those stories to attract the right candidates for the job. Abby really geeks out on: new media (360, VR, POV videos, silent storytelling), data & analytics, product development for Skill Scout's DIY Video app and client happiness.