Employee video testimonials: why they work (with examples)
Today, candidates expect more than a wall of text when they visit your careers page. They want to see and hear what life is like inside your company so they can envision themselves in the role you’re hiring for.
Employee video testimonials allow you to give them just that, spotlighting the experiences of real people already working at the company and experiencing the culture day to day.
But what makes a successful employee video testimonial, and which employers are nailing them today?
We’ll cover that, and more, in this guide.
Written by George Barlow
27 Jun, 2024 – 5m read
What are employee video testimonials?
Employee video testimonials are short films that provide an insight into what it’s like to work at a company by interviewing employees about their experiences at the business.
The featured employees are filmed answering a series of questions about the company’s ways of working, perks, values and culture. In some cases, an employee video testimonial will even take viewers through a day in their life, giving an authentic and realistic glimpse into what it’s like to work for that company day to day.
While employee video testimonials can vary in their length, message and content, the best ones all share one objective: to promote and showcase the employee experience as candidly, authentically and engagingly as possible.
Why choose video testimonials over other formats?
Employee testimonials exist in lots of forms. Why focus on video?
Well, videos are more engaging than other formats, receiving 1200% more shares on average than text and image formats combined. Employee video testimonials are no exception to this rule. In fact:
Employee-generated videos on career pages lead to a 2x increase the click-through rate
Job listings get 36% more applications when they’re accompanied by a video
Recruitment agencies report 800% more engagement on job ads that have a video embedded
If executed well, employee video testimonials can expand your applicant pool and help you compete for the top talent.
Let’s explore some of the best employee video testimonial examples we’ve seen in recent years, and some actionable takeaways that will help you replicate their success.
Best employee video testimonial examples
1. Salesforce: Celebrating Trailblazers
Salesforce relies on the power of storytelling to engage viewers in their employee video testimonial. They focus on the experiences of their ‘Trailblazer’ employees before and after they started working at the company. The stories cover everything from poverty to abuse, and how they pay their success forward.
Celebrating Trailblazers at Salesforce | Spring 2024
What we love
We love that this employee testimonial shares the background stories of the employees at Salesforce, as well as their impact in the company today. The testimonial doesn’t just describe their experiences - it shows them. That level of detail isn’t always possible in written testimonials.
Takeaway: incorporate storytelling techniques into your testimonial videos
When attracting talent, you want the audience to see themselves on the same journey as your existing employees. Crafting strong narratives makes this possible. When the brain hears or sees a story, it lights up in the same way as the speaker’s brain does, which is called neural coupling.
This means that storytelling is a powerful tool for employee video testimonials, particularly when it involves vulnerability and the sharing of personal experiences. These narratives evoke empathy from the viewer, creating an emotional connection with the employer brand as a result.
If you’re not sure how to get started with storytelling, or how to perfect it, check out Masterclass’ guide onhow to tell a story effectively.
2. Google: What’s it like to work at Google?
Google’s employee testimonial video is one of the most viewed in the world, with 1.2 million views to date. In the video, employees talk comprehensively about their shared mission. They also describe how they get personal fulfilment from their roles, providing a more rounded insight into life as a Googler.
What’s it like to work at Google?
What we love
Google is well-known for its offices around the globe, and the employer strikes a perfect balance by showcasing these vibrant HQs without stealing the spotlight from employees. They do this by adding it as B-roll, but also through subtle placement in the background of employee interviews.
Takeaway: include subtle nods to your employer brand
When employee video testimonials align with the visual identity and messaging of the employer brand, they contribute to a consistent brand image across all communication channels. This consistency is key to building brand recognition and trust.
When creating your employee video testimonials, make sure you weave in these brand elements, whether it’s a branded wrapper for the video or a quick glimpse into the office. These small but intentional efforts contribute to a stronger brand sentiment.
3. Amazon: What Do Brand Specialists Do?
This employee video testimonial provides a candid look into the lives of Brand Specialists across the globe, sharing everything from how they prepare for work in the morning to the tasks they take on day to day.
The vlog-style filming strips back the corporate feel and shows an unfiltered, authentic insight into life as Brand Specialist working for Amazon.
Brand Specialists at Amazon. What do they do?
What we love
We love that the testimonial focuses on the different experiences of those working as Brand Specialists across the globe, rather than covering the employee experience from a more generic angle.
We also love the measurable impact it had on Amazon’s career page engagement. The video, which was originally designed to promote the Brand Specialist role and fill 300 positions, was viewed over 45,000 times.
Takeaway: swap expensive production teams for employee-generated videos
The most impactful testimonials aren’t always those with expensive equipment and fancy camera movements. They’re often raw and authentic. After all, applicants don’t want to see a polished version of a company, they want to see the unscripted version they’ll wake up to every day as an employee.
User-generated videos, or employee-generated videos, are a great way to achieve this authenticity.
They’re also quicker and cheaper to create. On average, a platform like SeenIt reduces spend on video by 70% and increases video output by 9x. Seenit allows you to easily collect user-generated video from your community in minutes, anywhere in the world, and turn that into engaging video content.
Want to find out how SeenIt can help your team create authentic and engaging employee video testimonials? Book a live, interactive demo today.
4. Vodafone: How We #StayConnected
Vodafone’s employee video testimonial is another great example of employee-generated content that looks professional.
The video is a compilation of clips taken by individuals working from home. The clips show them working, exercising, and sharing their hobbies. It’s authentic, spontaneous, and it says so much about Vodafone’s community and engagement without their employees needing to say anything at all.
How We #StayConnected
What we love
Unlike most employee testimonials, Vodafone’s video testimonial relies exclusively on visuals, not words, to describe the culture at the company. The employee-generated content showcases how the teams adapted to stay connected during COVID-19, demonstrating how the company’s culture continued to thrive in a remote-working world.
With almost 40% of workers based at home either all or some of the time, the message remains as relevant today as it was in 2020.
Takeaway: remember that showing is just as important as telling
One of the biggest advantages of employee video testimonials is that they give you an opportunity to show real employees’ faces and personalities, which humanises your employer brand.
Letting personalities shine through in videos means that potential candidates can envision themselves fitting into the company culture better. They also know that they can bring their full selves to work as they’ve witnessed others doing the same thing.
We recommend making the most of this opportunity to build credibility by adding b-roll footage of employees connecting, working and enjoying your benefits between more traditional interviews.
5. HubSpot: 73(ish) Questions Series
HubSpot replicates Vogue’s hit interview series by asking employees quick-fire questions about what they’re working on and looking forward to right now. The fun and casual format allows employees’ personalities to shine. It also shows a playful side to HubSpot’s culture, which lots of candidates value in 2024.
73(ish) Questions for Tech Brand Strategist Francesca
What we love
HubSpot’s employer brand team does a fantastic job of tapping into a current trend to make their employee video testimonial more topical and engaging.
Best of all, they keep their video production simple. They don’t use a fancy and expensive video agency. Instead, they use the freedom and flexibility of employee-generated content to react quickly to the trend.
Takeaway: take inspiration from current trends and keep your finger on the pulse
The way people like to consume content is changing faster and more frequently than ever before. By keeping your finger on the pulse and understanding what content performs well across other platforms and channels, you’ll have a better idea of the formats and techniques that land best.
This can mean anything from repurposing templates that perform well on social media to monitoring video marketing trends more broadly.
Just remember: for reactive and trending ideas to be effective, the content needs to be quick, easy and inexpensive to produce. Otherwise, you’ll be left with expensive assets that date quickly.
6. Slack: 14 Reasons To Work at Slack
Slack’s listicle-style employee testimonial video shares 14 distinct benefits of working for the company, told by employees. These benefits include everything from private healthcare to sleek onboarding and working with the tool itself. It’s brief but effective.
14 reasons to work at Slack
What we love
Slack’s listicle approach sets its employee video testimonial apart from those that take a more traditional Q&A approach to interviewing employees.
This is appealing for lots of reasons. Listicles are easier to skim and they feel less taxing as a viewer. The format of the testimonial also means potential candidates are exposed to a wide range of employee perspectives without the video becoming too long or repetitive.
Takeaway: keep your testimonial videos short and sweet
It can be tempting to cram a lot into an employee testimonial video, especially if you’re proud of the employee experience you’ve created. However, long and complex testimonials will prove less engaging for the candidate, meaning they may not watch it at all, or bounce early.
Instead, you want to opt for a short and digestible format. The average length of the videos we’ve covered in this article sits at 2:17 minutes long, so between 2 to 3 minutes is a good benchmark for each video.
This is also important to consider when deciding how to distribute your employee video testimonial. A longer, more detailed video that performs well on your careers page may perform better in short-form across socials, for example.
7. Natwest: Whatever happens, we’re on our colleagues’ side
In this video, Natwest employees share personal stories about how the employer has supported them through milestones and challenges, covering everything from childbirth to various health diagnoses.
Made with Seenit, employee video testimonial is a compilation of employee-generated content, with three different team members describing their own experiences accessing the suite of benefits and policies available to them.
Whatever happens, we’re on our colleagues’ side
What we love
Natwest’s strong emphasis on wellbeing and the support the employer offers outside of work makes this one of the most focused and compelling employee video testimonials shared by companies in 2024.
Best of all, it taps into what truly matters to candidates in 2024 and beyond, with research by Gartner revealing that 82% of employees want to be recognized as a person at work, not just an employee.
Takeaway: choose an aspect of the employee experience to focus on
Selecting a theme to focus on in your testimonial videos enables you to deep-dive into employee experience, which is often more meaningful than providing a generic overview. For example, successful testimonials often focus on a core set of benefits, a recent campaign, or one particular role you’re hiring into.
Whichever angle you choose, remember to keep your employee video testimonials neatly aligned with your employer value proposition. This is how you’ll cut through the noise and stand out.
How to get started with employee video testimonials
If we can learn anything from the examples above, it’s that one size won’t fit all. Employers aren’t carbon copies of each other, so it doesn’t make sense for employee video testimonials to be, either.
That said, the best employee video testimonials do share some common ingredients: focus, storytelling, brevity, and authenticity.
SeenIt empowers real employees to create employer brand content that cuts through the noise and brings your employee value proposition to life through these elements.
