How to Get Hiring Managers to Create Video Content - with Meghan Cantrell

Meghan Cantrell:00:00

The reality was when faced with the assessments, were just getting ghosted by candidates. What do

Rhona Pierce:00:04

you do when candidates are ghosting your skills assessment before they've even met the team? You get creative. Today's guest didn't just tweak her hiring process. I get texts saying, this is awesome. I'm so

Meghan Cantrell:00:16

much more excited now. I could see myself working for this person. She found a

Rhona Pierce:00:20

way to build trust with candidates before the first interview by doing something most recruiters only dream about, getting hiring managers to create short, authentic videos that actually made candidates care.

Meghan Cantrell:00:33

I needed a way for the hiring managers to not have to give an hour of their time to each candidate, but to have this one hour or, you

Rhona Pierce:00:40

know, fifteen minute video for rather be accessible to each candidate. The result? 40% increase in skills assessment completions, faster interviews, and even a million dollar rookie who applied after watching one of those videos.

Meghan Cantrell:00:55

That shoe video, we got 8,931 impressions on LinkedIn from that video. It drew the attention of a candidate that ended up getting hired and then ended up being our rookie of the year last year, bringing in, like, over a million dollars in sales in her first year.

Rhona Pierce:01:10

This episode is full of smart, scrappy strategies you can use right now. No fancy tools, no budget, just a better way to connect. Let's get into it. Okay. So thank you so so much for being on the pod today, Megan.

Rhona Pierce:01:26

I'm excited to have you here.

Meghan Cantrell:01:27

Thank you for having me, Rona. I'm excited

Rhona Pierce:01:29

to be here. So for listeners who are just getting to know you, what's one thing about your approach to talent acquisition that might surprise folks?

Meghan Cantrell:01:41

I would say that I'm very transparent with candidates because I value their time. You know, candor is just crucial. So I cut right to the baker break questions explaining why things don't align, and I'm just not afraid to pick up the phone. I think a lot of recruiters use, you know, just email or LinkedIn messages and just just get on the phone. Just jump on the call.

Meghan Cantrell:02:02

And surprisingly, most of the time I'm talking to people after hours because who has time to find a job when they're doing their full time job during the day? So there are moments where I'm I'm texting somebody at seven at night so we can get that interview scheduled because timing is crucial and I want to get them in the door as quickly as possible if it does align.

Rhona Pierce:02:20

Yeah. For sure. What industry do you recruit in?

Meghan Cantrell:02:25

I'm in the tech industry. I recruit for all roles for a company called Oxblue as their senior talent acquisition manager. I specialize in SaaS sales teams, but I build dev teams, marketing teams. We have client support, we have production. So there's a wide variety that I source for.

Rhona Pierce:02:44

Amazing and we're talking today about a topic that is my absolute favorite but I wanna start a little like what was your challenge? Like what wasn't working in your hiring process that made you say, we need to try something different?

Meghan Cantrell:03:01

Yes. So my team and I noticed that candidates were not completing a required skills assessment that we had as part of our interview process. The reality was when faced with the assessments, we were just getting ghosted by candidates. And it's understandable. It's tough to get candidates to complete assessments early on in an interview process, but it's also a challenge to wait to do the assessment later in the interview process if you find out that the results of the assessment does not make the candidate align.

Meghan Cantrell:03:29

So it's this catch 22 where you're like, where do I put this assessment in the process and how do I get the candidate engaged early on even though I need to ask them to do something they don't necessarily want to do?

Rhona Pierce:03:41

That is so challenging because and then they go online and there's all this like, don't do work for free, don't do this. And it's like, we get it but it's like, so would you say yes, you were getting ghosted but do you think that the issue was that they didn't know you guys enough or trust you enough to spend that extra time?

Meghan Cantrell:04:04

Yes, absolutely. That was the problem. When I first started, our hiring team, because I was the first internal talent acquisition leader they'd had, so I got to kind of rewrite the playbook. But when I first started, the hiring team was doing all the interviewing really early on in the process and then doing the assessments, and then we were finding that folks weren't completing or weren't passing the assessments, and it was a huge waste of our hiring team's time. They just couldn't put that much in so early on.

Meghan Cantrell:04:32

We shifted things and put the assessment earlier on with me doing an initial pre screen to get through those make or rate questions. So I did my best in the time that I have with these pre screens to give them that quality engagement and understanding about the role. But there's only so much we can do early on because we got to get past this assessment hurdle. But how do we do so if they don't feel engaged? That was the challenge.

Meghan Cantrell:04:58

That was kind of the catch 22 that we had to get past. And so I started to brainstorm.

Rhona Pierce:05:07

And and we'll get into the the details of what you actually did. But I wanted to know to know a little before we get into that. Like, what was the the candidate experience and like your hand or hiring manager experience at that point?

Meghan Cantrell:05:24

So with the way that we had things structured, they hadn't met the hiring managers yet. I was doing the pre screens and just going through the elimination questions like, for example, are you open to a hybrid model? Is the commute to our office reasonable? Does the salary align? Going through pockets of tenure gaps, that kind of thing, just understanding.

Meghan Cantrell:05:44

So the hiring team wasn't involved yet. It was me, then assessment, because we were trying to protect the hiring manager's time because part of why I was brought on board was they just didn't have time to interview unless it was going to be those candidates that we knew were a good fit to put in front of those hiring managers.

Rhona Pierce:06:02

Amazing. So at that point, like what made you start thinking maybe content or even video could help you solve this challenge?

Meghan Cantrell:06:11

So I started to think we've we've got to get the candidates to care enough to complete a skills assessment before and they're just not invested in the role yet. So how do we get them to care before meeting the hiring managers? We've got to find a way to get them to meet the hiring managers. But I I I needed and video seemed like a great solution, I needed a way for the hiring managers to not have to give an hour of their time to each candidate, but to have this one hour, or you know, fifteen minute video for you rather, be accessible to each candidate. So We got this candidate buy in early on in the interview process because we could give them this introduction to the hiring team, get through some frequently asked questions, and get them really engaged in envisioning themselves in the role before they took that assessment.

Meghan Cantrell:06:58

They kind of they got pumped, they got interested and they said, Sure, I'll take an assessment.

Rhona Pierce:07:05

Cool. Had you seen anyone use video for that before or was it just like an idea that you got? I've seen some more formal production videos used in the interview process and I started this about three years ago, so

Meghan Cantrell:07:19

I think back then, it was a little bit more formal. But nowadays, I am starting to see it catch on that you you will have more scrappy videos, for example, going on within recruiting, whether it's internally or outside agencies utilizing it as well.

Rhona Pierce:07:35

Hey, have you subscribed? Let's fix that. It's the easiest way to support this show. So everyone, I've had other people on the podcast talk about this and I obviously talk about video a lot and I think one of the main questions I always get is like, well, how do I get my hiring managers to do this? So like, let's talk about, okay, you got the idea, you saw it, you're like, this is gonna solve our problem.

Rhona Pierce:08:02

How did you get like, how do you approach that? How did you get your hiring managers to do this?

Meghan Cantrell:08:09

So it can be tough because not everyone wants to be in front of a camera. You have got to keep in mind the social anxiety of members of your team. I had one person that I approached about this who is super bubbly and engaging, but the second he got in front of the camera, was a deer in headlights. So it's not for everyone for sure. What I would do to engage them, I mean, first of all, just let them know, hey, here's what's not working.

Meghan Cantrell:08:34

I have an idea. I wanna try it. Can we just do like a little sample and see what the impact is? If that works, then grow it from there. I I started out actually with very scripted, very formulaic videos and learned quickly I needed to shift from that because the hiring team themselves, they're not actors.

Meghan Cantrell:08:55

They couldn't memorize lines. They would get lost in trying to remember what they needed to say next and it wasn't genuine, it wasn't authentic. So when I approached them, said, hey, like, let's let's try this. We're gonna try it a couple different ways. Obviously, the first way didn't work the scripted way, so we threw that out the window.

Meghan Cantrell:09:14

We said, let's let's go back and my team really got them to to see that this could work pretty quickly because they could see that they could see in the moment and explaining things to a camera like, wow. Okay. This is so much really valuable information that then I don't need to repeat in the interview when we first meet. So for them, they can see that the time efficiency of it was gonna be a huge value to them.

Rhona Pierce:09:39

Isn't that amazing how it's like, you have that idea and you present it and it clicks. It's like, yes, I don't have to say this 20,000,000 times.

Meghan Cantrell:09:49

Exactly.

Rhona Pierce:09:51

That was really how I started using video with my hiring managers and incorporating it into the process because I like to say I'm a proud lazy worker. I never wanna repeat things or do them over and over again and when I realized that on my phone screens, I kept saying the same thing over and over again, I'm like, let's just do a video and then people can ask you follow-up questions on that but not just the basic thing. So how do you keep it like simple and doable? Like what tools or tactics helped you stay scrappy? So first of all, like just again, going back

Meghan Cantrell:10:33

to picking the right people, thinking about who that new hire would be involved with when they first started, thinking about the culture of the company and who's gonna represent that best and tapping those people on the shoulder, know, choosing the right people is first and then not worrying about production value. We did not use our marketing teams and make we're a camera company and we didn't use our our camera equipment per se. We some of our videos are filmed on iPhones and the authenticity factor I think went a long way because we realized that the candidates, they don't care about how good the lighting looks, they care about what is in the content of what people are saying. So I asked people to really dig deep on and put themselves in candidate shoes, like what would they want to know if they were interviewing. I learned pretty quickly that outtakes and humor can make a huge difference, just keeping it unscripted and letting it flow.

Meghan Cantrell:11:29

We had a specific incident where we were filming and then there was an outtake because our CSO, he had on crushed velvet Gucci shoes and he in between you know, doing one video doing another, he picked up the shoes and said to the camera about how you want to make that crushed velvet Gucci shoe money come work at a company you know, that does this. And that outtake was something we shared on LinkedIn and we got we just we had more results from that video than we did from just the straight frequently asked questions like this is what you can expect coming in, like because it gave insight into what it like a flavor of what it's like

Rhona Pierce:12:08

to work for that CSO. Isn't it amazing? I think it's because humans in general, we're nosy and I've had, it was funny, I've posted recently a blooper reel and I have people, I have someone message me and say, oh, for someone selling video services, I don't think you should be doing this, it's not the most effective and my reply, they were trying to sell me their service of course. Of course. My reply was actually my blooper videos are the ones that get me the most leads and that leads that convert.

Rhona Pierce:12:42

People just love seeing the humanness of it all. So I can imagine for a candidate because you're in that situation, you know how hiring is, it's like everyone's trying to put on their best foot and like be the best version of themselves and when you get to see that like, no, these people are human, things happen, that's gold right there and you can never script that.

Meghan Cantrell:13:09

Yeah. It breaks down so many barriers, how nervous someone can be, how they're just they're too composed and they're not they're not being genuine and you can you can break that down so quickly if you if they can just

Rhona Pierce:13:20

see that, oh my gosh, the hiring managers are silly too or they can be human too. Exactly. So what started to shift once you introduced video into the process and like how did you notice these changes?

Meghan Cantrell:13:35

Yeah. So I mean, on a metrics level, we saw a 40% increase assessment completion. Just right off the bat, the goal was achieved. That shoe video, which taught us so much in terms of the humor and the outtakes, we got 8,931 impressions on LinkedIn from that video. Engagement, there were four forty nine members it reached.

Meghan Cantrell:14:03

It drew the attention of a candidate that ended up getting hired and then ended up being our rookie of the year last year, bringing in like over a million dollars in sales in her first year. So we were seeing quite quickly how thinking outside the box was bringing us engaging amazing talented candidates that were making such a difference impact in our company. In addition to that, with the candidates, like I said, they are envisioning themselves in the role. It was helping to give access to these hiring managers early on. So when we were getting into actual interviews, you were seeing the interview itself be that much better.

Meghan Cantrell:14:42

Second love second tier questions were being asked because they didn't have to spend the time going through, what's a day in the life? What's training like? What are challenges in the job? They could ask much more specific questions about stats and quota or about career pathing. You know, just cut right to it and make sure that these are the right candidates and this is the right job for you in a much more engaging and effective manner.

Rhona Pierce:15:06

Amazing. Were you getting any, like beyond metrics and what you've mentioned, were you getting any specific feedback from candidates or hiring managers? Yes. So the candidates were telling us that I I

Meghan Cantrell:15:22

would get messages because again, I've been using my phone to reach out to candidates and to talk to them. I get texts saying, This is awesome. I'm so much more excited now. I could see myself working for this person. Like, they're they're totally in alignment with my own vision of my own career goals.

Meghan Cantrell:15:38

From a hiring manager's perspective, they loved it because once they got to the interviews with these candidates, they could tell who did the work, who watched the videos, who was that was taking those extra steps to learn and engage. So much of what we do in in the tech industry, we need people who are curious, who want to take you know, make that extra effort, watch the podcast, read the books. So when somebody is watching the videos that we send, that says they care, that they are doing the work and wants to make the impact and the difference and demonstrate that curiosity. From both a hiring manager standpoint, it was yes, we're seeing people who are curious and care. From a candidate perspective, was yes, I can connect with this hiring manager.

Rhona Pierce:16:21

Let's talk a little about the videos themselves. What types of videos do you create? Yeah, what types of videos do you create? Like what topics do you cover?

Meghan Cantrell:16:34

So many. You can do so much and keep it simple. First of all, keep your video short. I like to do a la carte videos where it's just one question at a time per video so that they can pick and choose what they want to watch. They want watch them all great.

Meghan Cantrell:16:47

If they just have one question that they want to get to the bottom of, then they can cut straight down the table of contents of your video options and look at it. So you could do a welcome video, a day in the life, you can do challenges a new hire might face in the role, What does training look like? You could do a tour of the office. You can do what to expect in the interview process, or during orientation, or during onboarding in those thirty, sixty, ninety days. I've had hiring managers who want to do ones about career pathing, and we've even gotten into ones about how we care about mental health and that that's important to us.

Meghan Cantrell:17:22

We're kind of redefining, especially in sales, you know, the mental health journey. When we've even talked about that just amongst the sales team, we've seen a huge result just even years later about how salespeople say that mental health is just not something that's talked about a lot and it's so important and it's it's such a stressful environment. So that's actually something that I'm thinking of launching next in terms of just how we brand ourselves to our candidates is is that we care in that regard. So you can you can keep it very generic. You can go really specific into the brand and culture of your company and things that differentiate you from your competitors.

Rhona Pierce:17:58

And where do you store these videos? Like, how do candidates get to see and like binge through your videos?

Meghan Cantrell:18:05

So they're sent via hyperlink in the email with the skills assessment. It's, here's a test for you but also here is a full list of information for you to, you know, peruse and engage with. That's how the candidate is seeing it. We use Vineyard to store it and I have a wonderful marketing team and they do help just a little bit with this in terms of uploading them, adding just, you know, potentially a caption at the bottom about who the person is speaking with and saving them appropriately in the system.

Rhona Pierce:18:39

Perfect. Yeah. So how has doing these videos changed your relationship with hiring managers and like their involvement in the recruiting process?

Meghan Cantrell:18:54

So I think it's added a huge level of trust because they now can see that new ideas work. They now are willing to try other new things because they have seen the impact of these videos. They recognize that sometimes these things work, sometimes they don't, but that's okay. But I love that we have this this this next level of strategy and deployment that we can play around with and that we're now engaging in a kind of an outside the box methodology discussion together because they can come to me with ideas like, hey, would you be open to trying this? And I'll say, yeah, why not?

Meghan Cantrell:19:33

Because we now know that we can reach candidates in so many new and different ways. Like, we're brainstorming. There's lots coming because we have seen that level of success.

Rhona Pierce:19:47

That's amazing. And that's, I think, our goal as any recruiter, any TA person out there is to really have that partnership with the hiring managers where you're bringing ideas, they're bringing ideas because at the end of the day, you all have the same goal.

Meghan Cantrell:20:04

Stakeholders are so important, whether it's your candidate stakeholder or your hiring manager stakeholder and learning what they need and how to effectively be their advocate is ultimately how talent acquisition can can move forward and to integrate, you know, AI, of course, if needed, or or video to that matter because then you can you can add that extra level.

Rhona Pierce:20:25

So we there's lots of people who are on board. We've talked about how well this has helped with the hiring managers, but let's face it. There's usually one or two naysayers within the organization, legal, they're my friends. Did you get any pushback from legal, from marketing or from anyone in the organization on this initiative?

Meghan Cantrell:20:49

At the beginning, yes, because we wanted to make sure we were branding effectively. When it got down to talking about I think that's why we started with the script at first and just making sure that it fit parameters that we wanted to, of course, be in alignment with. We realized pretty quickly from a legal perspective, we're talking about training, we're talking about challenges in the job. I think can tread lightly on that and save those tough questions for the in person interviews.

Rhona Pierce:21:26

Amazing. Yeah, it's always good to have that. It's like, yes, you're presenting yourself always thinking about the brand and we love legal. I love legal around here. They keep us in check, but it's their job to think about these things when everyone else is excited.

Rhona Pierce:21:43

I always like to to give people those practical tips of how you went around that because that is the reality of what will happen.

Meghan Cantrell:21:53

Keep it simple. Keep it simple. That's the best way to start. And I mean, get on board with your mark I mean, recruiting is sales, but recruiting is also marketing. Get on board with your marketing team when you you started a company because you wanna make sure you're aligned perfectly with how they have the brand, and then potentially contribute to that if there's things you see missing that might be for a candidate and not a client that you can utilize and ask marketing to enhance and help you regurgitate in the way, in the manner that in which they want to have everything presented.

Rhona Pierce:22:26

For sure. So if someone is like ready to start with this, like what kinds of videos would you recommend that they start with? Like what's a low hanging fruit? Like I said, the welcome video,

Meghan Cantrell:22:45

ones that are just gonna talk about the role itself and what the interview process looks like. But I would always just say, put yourself in the shoes of someone who is job hunting. What would you want to know? If you were going to go out on an interview tomorrow, what questions would you have? Because I've even noticed in the last six months, those questions are changing.

Meghan Cantrell:23:03

For example, AI, again, it's not AI that's going to take your job, it's people who know how to use AI who are. So I'm noticing that those types of questions are emerging. What AI skills can you bring to the table? What tools you already integrate, for example? So just putting yourself in the person's shoes of like what questions as an interviewer you might ask or as a candidate you might ask.

Meghan Cantrell:23:27

And then just like remember that your biggest commodity is influence. These videos are not about production value, they're about getting the candidate's attention and keeping it. So just stand out. Have a funny outtake shoe video. Like, what does it mean to work at your company?

Meghan Cantrell:23:42

Well, here's why, and it's it's just a couple takes of some really great culture events that you've had recently. I've also seen an emerging trend which I love where candidates want to make sure companies care in a community service standpoint and having an answer for that at the ready. It can be simple and easy or it can be generic and broad, but can talk about the messaging of your company that, you know, really does make you stand out because you guys care. Maybe it's about mental health. Maybe it's about the community.

Meghan Cantrell:24:11

But stand out and start with just what would you wanna know if you were job hunting tomorrow.

Rhona Pierce:24:17

So someone's listening and they're like, great, I'm sold. I want to do this. This is a great idea. What But they don't know where to start. Like, what's step one?

Meghan Cantrell:24:27

I would say talk to the hiring manager you work with the most and just have a brainstorming session because that's the person you're probably wanna you're engaging with the most. They're probably the the the final decision maker in the interview process. And I would start with them and say, let's get on I need you on board with this, and would you be willing to do this? And get them excited about it. Because step one is it's not you wanting to do it, it's the hiring managers wanting to do it.

Meghan Cantrell:24:56

So start with that big fish, the final decision maker for, you know, like let's say it's your COO or your CSO depending on the department, and get them excited about doing this with you and explain to them why this could work. And then start brainstorming with them because it should be an engaging and interactive process. I definitely also learned early on making the videos. I can't be just telling the hiring managers what to do. I need it to be a conversation and I need them to feel like their ideas are included.

Meghan Cantrell:25:25

So to start with them, I would say.

Rhona Pierce:25:27

Let's get back on a on a practical level. So right, you start, you spoke to your hiring manager, you get them in a room whether it's virtual or in person if you work in person, record the videos, how do you go about editing them?

Meghan Cantrell:25:43

So that is where I have my lovely marketing team to help occasionally, but to to be honest, I don't really edit them. I I want it to be free flowing. If people make mistakes, that's actually okay. We've had one where again, you know, humor and authenticity count, but we've had one where people kind of are like, wait, you know what? Let me rephrase that and that's okay.

Meghan Cantrell:26:05

Again, candidates like that it's not scripted and can tell when people kind of flub over a word or something that they're being genuine. I don't I try not to edit them if I can, to be honest.

Rhona Pierce:26:16

That's amazing. That's amazing. So let's, we're gonna shift gears for a second and I'm totally putting you on the spot here because I did not prep you for this, this is a little, this is a segment that I like to call, well, don't like to call it, it's called Plead of the Fifth and I'm gonna ask you three rapid fire questions. Okay. You're allowed to plead the fifth only once.

Rhona Pierce:26:43

Okay. You have to answer two questions. Right? You can answer them all as well.

Meghan Cantrell:26:49

It was like inside the actor studio, the rapid fire at

Rhona Pierce:26:52

the end, love it. Yes. So let's go. Have you ever pushed a questionable candidate forward just to prove a point to a hiring manager? Oh, yes.

Meghan Cantrell:27:10

I can give a better example. I can give a story. I had a candidate that I was pretty confident didn't want to leave their job. They just wanted to get a they wanted to come back to their job after getting an offer from a company and say, give me a raise. And I I said, look, if I wanna I wanna show you this person because I think that you think that they're great on paper, but in reality, if you talk to them, you're going to see what I see.

Meghan Cantrell:27:36

But I knew that the hiring manager liked the person and I pushed them forward anyway prove the point that I didn't think they were the right fit, you had to talk to them to see it and and to know that their heart wasn't really in leaving their current company.

Rhona Pierce:27:51

Were you right? Yes. But I didn't. And I mean, I wish I weren't

Meghan Cantrell:27:57

right in the sense that they were they would have been a great candidate if they were ready to leave their current role, but they weren't. This was at a company prior to my current one. But, I could I could I could just tell.

Rhona Pierce:28:08

Perfect. Let's call that recruiter intuition. I think we all develop it after a few years. Mhmm. So have you ever faked enthusiasm for a role that you wouldn't personally recommend to anyone that you know?

Meghan Cantrell:28:25

That is part of why I got out of agency recruiting. Because I I didn't I didn't like an agency recruiting that not every company was created equal, and some I just couldn't stand behind in terms of I knew they weren't perhaps the best company. I knew they had high turnover and that was forced enthusiasm that I didn't like. I really like being in Integrity is important to me, that was tough for me, which is part of why I shifted. I know not all agency recruiting is like that, there are there are times where you're faced with roles that you're not excited about working.

Meghan Cantrell:29:03

That's just the

Rhona Pierce:29:03

truth. Amazing. So have you

Meghan Cantrell:29:08

Haven't pleaded the fifth yet.

Rhona Pierce:29:09

Yeah. Haven't pleaded the fifth yet. So let's see. Have you ever ignored a hiring manager's must have because you knew it was just b s?

Meghan Cantrell:29:22

I will rephrase it as not b s but unrealistic. Yes, because transferable skills, skills based hiring, that is the way to really effectively hire and sometimes those must haves, you have to show the pulse of the market. Sometimes I have to provide metrics of like, one of two things has to change, either the salary requirements or the experience requirements because you can't have both. So yes, I have absolutely, I don't want say ignored them or recognize their BS, but I've just said, I've recognized they're unrealistic and that's part of my job is to be a pulse for the market, to show what is out there and what you're going to get. That's changed so much even in three years, you know, because coming out of the pandemic, it was a candidate's market, then it shifted back to a client or company's market, and now it's in between again.

Meghan Cantrell:30:16

Those needs change. Sometimes hiring managers can have crazy high expectations. Sometimes they need to recognize that there are less candidates out there than there are qualified candidates. And you just have to be that that market representation and and let them know the tough truths.

Rhona Pierce:30:34

So you survived Plea to the Fifth. Honestly, those were some pretty solid answers. Before we let you go, final question. Actually, not final question. Okay.

Rhona Pierce:30:49

Going back to our our video topic, is there anything else you want listeners to know that I haven't asked you?

Meghan Cantrell:30:59

I love that question. I always recommend that question as a final, like, question for candidates to ask in an interview. Is there anything I haven't asked that I should? Candidates are watching. That's my tip.

Meghan Cantrell:31:09

As far as the videos go, I would say something you haven't asked. I think you covered pretty much everything. Would say let me think if there's anything I would add. We talked about how with the videos, candidates can come in and they can ask those second tier questions. You could keep that in mind when you're shaping your videos.

Meghan Cantrell:31:35

Like, you can you can set it up that way. So it's not a skills assessment per se, but it's almost like, okay, we can we can specifically target videos that cover these things because we don't wanna talk about them in the interview. Like, there's there's something to that that I think I'm still working on and still playing with. So I'm I'm speaking about this in real time with you, Rona, but I feel like getting candidates to that that first interview, but at a at a at a next level, I feel like there is something that we can do with these videos to inform them, engage them, and and really continue to formulate creating that that experience. So I'm still thinking about this in real time.

Rhona Pierce:32:19

Yeah. And and let's workshop that a bit because it is really the goal, we want the interviews, at least that's my goal when I use video in the process, we want the interviews to be like where they ask the real questions because remember, both of us are assessing fit during an interview. So the more information you give to a candidate upfront, one, they can self select out if something that they see beforehand, they're like, yeah, this is a deal breaker, I could never work with someone who wears velvet shoes. Okay, fine, no one's time is wasted and you move on. But you want them to get to the interview and really ask the real questions, not what's the culture like?

Rhona Pierce:33:08

Well, now if you show them the culture, they can have questions of, I saw this video about where you guys were doing and giving back, for me it's very important to give back to this type of organization. Is that something that you do? So how would you go about like, these are your FAQs, this is what you're really asking. How would you go about anticipating those questions that can then get them to, that you can answer on video so that they can go into interviews with the second tier questions only? Honestly,

Meghan Cantrell:33:48

it might even be an inter it might even be like a final video where the hiring manager says something like, here here are some takeaways that I want you to think about because I'm looking forward to your feedback when you come into the interview. I don't want to say it's more homework or more assessment work, but I have a question for you as the hiring because the hiring manager is giving information in these videos. So maybe we haven't done this yet, but I like this idea. Ronit, you're giving me thoughts. Maybe it's a video where the hiring manager says, here are some key takeaways that I want you to think about, and I really look forward to your information and your insights when you come to the interview so that they do have the time to do the work in advance.

Meghan Cantrell:34:27

They do have the time to think about it. Maybe it's about what is the sellable differentiator about our product that is making us competitive, or it's a deep dive dev question about, is Linux still relevant? It could really anything that the hiring manager just really might wanna see a unique and refreshing perspective on from the candidate, but we give them the opportunity and the time to think about it and come to the interview with that answer.

Rhona Pierce:34:58

I absolutely love that because I'm team, give candidates the questions for interviews beforehand and I know that's not a popular thing and we can go back and forth and I've gone back and forth with everyone but I think that's a happy medium where it's like maybe you don't give all of the questions ahead of time but the really important things because that's gonna be something important that the hiring managers wanting to know, you give them that kind of time to prep for that so that they can get their best answer for the interview. I love that idea.

Meghan Cantrell:35:33

Thank you, Rhoda. Think you've given me my homework for

Rhona Pierce:35:35

the Excited to see that. So now really the final question. If someone listening wants to connect, just like swap ideas or just tell you that they've tried something because of this episode, what's the best way they can get in contact with you?

Meghan Cantrell:35:52

Oh, LinkedIn is always a wonderful starting point. Please feel free to connect with me. I do my best to respond to all all messages. And I mean, I even have candidates that write me saying they're gonna graduate college in a year and they wanna start the process now. And I'm like, yeah, let's let's have a conversation.

Meghan Cantrell:36:07

I'll tell you who to get in touch with. I'm happy to talk about specific jobs at my company. I'm happy to talk about the videos. I'm happy to talk from a candidate perspective or a recruiter perspective about anything I can do to support. So yeah, LinkedIn messages, an easy way to start.

Meghan Cantrell:36:25

Just connect with me.

Rhona Pierce:36:26

Amazing and I will link all of Megan's contact information and well, not all of it. I'll link Megan's LinkedIn in the show notes. This has been an amazing conversation. Thank you so much for being on the pod today.

Meghan Cantrell:36:42

Thanks for having me, Rona. It's been a pleasure.

Rhona Pierce:36:44

Thanks so much for listening. If you're enjoying the Workfluencer pod, share it with someone who's changing how we talk about work or who should be. And, hey, if this episode gave you ideas or inspiration, leave us a five star review. Reviews help other listeners find us. And honestly, it makes my day.

Rhona Pierce:37:02

If you try anything Megan talked about today, let me know. I'd love to hear how it goes. Workfluencer is produced by Perceptible Studios. Learn more about how we can help you use video to attract, engage, and retain qualified talent at perceptiblestudios.com. Thanks for listening, and I'll chat with you next week.