Show & Tell: How Life Time is Winning at Video Testimonials

This recap covers the July 15 episode of Talent Experience Live, where we explored the benefits of user-generated video content. Life Time’s Mick Joneja, Senior Director of Talent Acquisition, and Andrew Renschen, Talent Acquisition Lead of Sourcing shared tips and tools to produce high-quality videos that not only attract job seekers, but drive a more engaging employee experience to retain talent.

Who can tell your company’s story better than the people building it?

As the talent acquisition team at Life Time experienced, user-generated video content is on the rise for a reason. It’s cheaper, faster, and increases candidate engagement with a more authentic representation of your employer brand — all invaluable benefits for TA leaders pressed to hire top-notch talent now.

But how do you streamline the process of making your employees content-generating rockstars?

Leveraging video capture technology within their talent experience platform, Life Time put employees in front of the camera to tell their stories about working for the fitness club, which included videos on inclusion, career advancement, and more. Rather than working from a script, employees were given the freedom — and just a few basic guidelines — to share their own experiences and communicate their company’s EVP and culture.

Watch the full episode below for more on Life Time's user-generated video content strategies, or read on for highlights!

Why Is User-Generated Video Content Important in Recruiting?

User-generated content (UGC) is just what it sounds like. In the work world, it’s content generated by real employees themselves who explain what they love about a specific organization and what it's like to work there. And with the right strategy, these videos can help TA teams attract and engage top talent.

As Life Time discovered, these videos can create excitement about your employer brand and culture, increase employee engagement, save production time, and more.

Plus, user-generated video content is key for standing out from other companies in today's highly competitive job market, when qualified candidates are hard to come by.

Candidates get an authentic look at company culture.
“[User-generated] video really helps bring to life both the positions and the business groups that you’re hiring for,” Renschen noted. “A job description is super-important to give you specific details and requirements, but getting that day-in-the-life or testimonial about why your company is a great place to work really resonates with people.”

User-generated content is a hit with employees, too.
Giving employees the opportunity to contribute their own videos also drives a more engaging employee experience.

“I don’t know of anyone who’s ever turned us down,” Renschen said. “It’s a great recognition piece for them too — it gets them out there. They get to tell their stories, and most people are pretty excited to take part in it.”

TA teams can save a ton of time.
From eliminating scripts to shedding the constraints of production logistics, enabling employees to create their own videos is a huge time-saver. Getting content back from a studio typically took two to four weeks, Renschen said.

“Nowadays, you send a link out with guidelines for what you want them to talk about, and you’re getting it back in one, two or three days even. Part of it is [employees] being in a comfortable environment where they can make sure they have the right take when they submit it.”

How Life Time Creates Authentic Videos at Scale

After spending a lot of time and too many resources on traditional video production, Life Time sought out to find a simpler, faster solution to creating this content at scale — especially after pandemic-related shutdowns wiped out the ability to record in the studio or on location. Instead, they made use of Phenom’s video capabilities to allow employees to record right from their own homes.

Phenom’s Video Capture transforms the process.
With video capture tools included in the Phenom Talent Experience Management platform, the process has gotten much easier, Joneja and Renschen said, giving them the ability to make video at scale.

READ MORE: How Phenom Uses Phenom Video Capture

By simply sending out a link to employees, Life Time was able to quickly collect natural, engaging content that resonates with candidates.

“In the past, you’d have to book studio time and the right people to help you film and edit videos. And the way it’s changed for us with this platform is how easy it is, once you know the system, to create a shareable link and get it out to team members. We’ve been implementing that a lot here lately,” Renschen said.

Success Freeze Frame: Life Time’s DE&I Page

Recognizing that user-generated videos were ideal for bringing authenticity to the company’s DE&I page, the talent acquisition team forged ahead on an overhaul mid-pandemic.

“We wanted to have stories from our inclusion council members, leaders, and ambassadors, and we wanted them to be authentic,” Joneja said. Without being able to fly team members in to record, the team again used Phenom’s video capture tool – and got better-than-expected results.

“The output – the quality of the content – was exactly what we wanted,” Joneja said. “Our team members really felt in control of the whole process. We just provided some basic, foundational logistics for it, and they kind of scripted it and made it their own. The authentic piece of it carried over very well.”

He estimated that their new video strategy saved them months in re-launching the page.

Page performance metrics show video’s value.
Outside of its two largest career site pages — corporate jobs and club jobs — Life Time's revamped DE&I page has received a ton of traffic — more than 13,000 visits this year, according to Joneja and Renschen.

And first-hand candidate feedback tells a story beyond numbers.

“[Candidates] have said, ‘I really wanted to understand why it’s important to work at Life Time, and what does inclusion mean,’” Joneja said. “They’ve loved the quality of what they’ve heard, and it’s really helped us lock in a lot of candidates.”

Making the Most of Video Content

Because of their value in communicating company culture, employee videos have the power to enrich recruitment activities across the spectrum. And the Phenom content management system (CMS) makes it easy to store video content and embed it in other recruitment marketing efforts, Renschen said.

Life Time, for example, is refreshing its career site with videos featuring employees from its Inclusion Council. On the page, candidates — and employees — can watch four members of the Council as they share personal stories of women in leadership, LGBTQIA+ support, women of color, and BIPOC support.

“We opened Pandora’s Box … as soon as other leaders in corporate and the field saw these great testimonials and how engaging they are, they’ve been peppering us with requests,” Joneja said.

Exciting (Life) Times

It’s full speed ahead for Life Time as they continue to welcome members back to the in-person experience and prepare to open new clubs.

As for HR, the team is rolling out a new position – virtual personal trainer – based on the success of the remote fitness classes offered during quarantine. The ideal candidates will be able to train anyone, anywhere, according to Renschen.

"We're hiring like crazy," he said. "We're ramping back up to normal new club openings over the next year so we're looking for facility engineers, and people in technology, construction, architecture, and athletic events."

Interested in enabling employees to create their own video content?

Request a demo to see Phenom Video Capture in action!

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Devin Foster