Employer Branding Video Examples: Formats Swiss Employers Use
The best employer branding videos are rarely the most expensive ones. They are the ones where a candidate can picture a normal Tuesday at your company after 60 seconds. Below are nine formats that achieve this, with a sketch of how each one looks on screen, who it suits, and what it takes to produce. It is written for Swiss HR teams, marketing departments and SMEs who must recruit in a tight skilled-labor market and want to know what good looks like before commissioning anything.
TL;DR
Choose one message per video (culture, a career path, one specific job) instead of trying to say everything about your company.
The most dependable formats use real employees: short interviews, “a day with…”, team introductions and career stories.
Humor and concept-led films can work, as long as real jobs and real people stay on screen.
Film once, cut many: one shoot can yield a main film, career-page clips and vertical cuts for social media.
Budget by scope, not by hype: a simple interview series and a multi-location brand film sit in very different price brackets.
Table of Contents
What an employer branding video has to do
A job ad tells a candidate what you want. An employer branding video shows what it is like to work with you. That difference matters most in Switzerland, where ICT, healthcare, engineering, hospitality and finance compete for the same skilled people, and where a candidate in Geneva or Lausanne may also be weighing an offer from a cross-border employer.
A good video does three jobs:
It makes the work visible. Candidates see the tools, the rooms, the pace and the people.
It filters. A video that shows your real culture attracts people who fit and lets others opt out early. That saves interviews.
It gives recruiters something to point to. A clip embedded in a job post or a career page answers questions before they are asked.
One vendor write-up, which attributes the figure to LinkedIn’s internal data, claims job posts with video attract five times more applications than text-only posts. Treat numbers like this as directional rather than a promise: results depend on the role, the audience and the quality of what you show. Your own application data, before and after, is the number that counts.
Nine employer branding video examples by format
The formats below are ordered roughly from easiest to most ambitious. Each is described as a format you can adapt, not as a case study of a named company.
1. Employee interviews
The workhorse of the genre. One employee, one quiet corner of the workplace, three or four questions: what do you do, what surprised you when you joined, what would you tell someone considering this job?
What makes it work: unscripted answers, natural light, and an interviewer who asks follow-ups. Keep each clip between 45 and 90 seconds.
Best for: SMEs and departments who need volume of content at a modest budget.
2. A day in the life
We follow one person from arrival to the end of the shift: the first coffee, a team meeting, the actual work, a lunch break. A nurse at a Lausanne clinic, a site engineer in Geneva, a developer on a hybrid schedule: the format fits every role where the day is not obvious from the job title.
What makes it work: show the unglamorous parts too. A candidate who sees the real rhythm of the day trusts the rest of the video.
Best for: roles that are hard to explain in a job description, and roles with shift work.
3. Team introductions
A short film about one team, not the whole company. Who are they, what do they own, how do they work together? Candidates apply to a team and a manager more than to a logo, so this is often the most relevant video on a job page.
What makes it work: the future manager is on screen, speaks honestly about what the team needs, and the film ends with a clear, small next step.
4. Culture and values in action
Values printed on a wall mean little. The same values shown in behavior mean a great deal: a team shipping a late fix together, a manager handing credit to a junior colleague, a quiet moment of mentoring. This format replaces adjectives with scenes.
What makes it work: every value you claim is backed by one concrete moment. If you cannot film a moment for it, drop the value from the video.
5. Career-path stories
Two or three employees tell how they moved through the company: from apprentice to team lead, from intern to specialist, from another industry into this one. Swiss employers with strong apprenticeship programs have a natural advantage here, because the story of growth is real and can be shown in years.
What makes it work: a simple timeline graphic, real job titles and the honest detail of what the person had to learn.
6. One question, many answers
Ask five or six colleagues the same question, for example “What do you like most about working here?” or “What did you do wrong in your first month?”, and cut the answers together. The rhythm is quick and the variety shows the breadth of your workforce.
What makes it work: a good question, diversity of age, role and language region. In Switzerland, letting colleagues answer in French, German or Italian, with subtitles, shows the real multilingual workplace.
7. Behind the scenes of the actual job
This format is the opposite of a polished brand film. A craftsperson, lab technician, chef or pilot shows the work itself. It is particularly strong for technical, physical or specialized roles. If your drone operators, mechanics or event crews are your selling point, filming them at work says more than any slogan.
What makes it work: the expert explains what they are doing in plain words, as if to a new apprentice.
8. Events, team activities and after-movies
A company day, a sports tournament, a trade-show stand, a launch party: the energy of real gatherings is hard to fake. A well-cut after-movie can become raw material for your recruiting content for months. If you are already filming a corporate event, ask for a recruiting cut at the same time. Corporate event and trade show videography is a natural starting point for this, since the footage is captured live and edited into several versions.
What makes it work: show people interacting, not stage speeches. Keep it under two minutes.
9. Concept-led and humorous films
Some employers stand out with a bold idea: a parody of a job-ad cliché, a short narrative, a stunt. These films travel further on social media, but they carry a risk: if the tone does not match the real workplace, new hires notice on day one.
What makes it work: the joke is built on a true detail about your culture, and real employees play themselves.
Which format fits which goal
Hiring goal | Strongest formats | Typical length | Where it lives |
Fill one specific role fast | Team introduction, behind the scenes of the job | 60 to 90 sec | Job post, LinkedIn |
Build a long-term talent pool | Culture in action, career-path stories | 90 sec to 3 min | Career page |
Reach students and apprentices | One question many answers, day in the life | 30 to 60 sec | Instagram, TikTok, school events |
Strengthen reputation among peers | Concept-led film, after-movie | 60 sec to 2 min | Social media, newsletter |
Reduce early turnover | Day in the life, honest interviews | 2 to 4 min | Interview invitations, onboarding |
These lengths are working guidelines from our practice, not rules. A video should be as long as its message needs.
How to build your own: a plain method
Start with one audience and one message
Write one sentence: “We want [type of person] to understand [one thing] so that they [apply, accept, stay].” If you cannot finish it, the video is not ready to be filmed. Our guide to video storytelling for brands explains how to turn that sentence into a story with a beginning, a turning point and a result.
Pick the people before you pick the script
Choose employees who are respected by colleagues, represent different roles and are comfortable on camera, or can become so within a few minutes. Ask, never assign. A reluctant participant shows on screen.
Plan the shoot around the workday
Film in the real workplace, at the real time of day. Brief the team a week ahead. Check privacy: patients, customers, screens and documents must stay out of frame, and everyone filmed should sign a release before the shoot. For questions on image rights and data protection in your sector, speak with your legal counsel or data protection officer.
Film once, cut many
Plan the deliverables before the shoot: one main film of two to three minutes, three to six short clips of 15 to 45 seconds, vertical versions for social media, and subtitles in each language your candidates read. This is where budgets are saved, because the day on location is the costly part. Our step-by-step branding video guide shows how we plan this from brief to delivery.
Measure what the video was for
Decide in advance which number should move:
applications per posting, comparing postings with and without the video
share of candidates who mention the video in interviews
completion rate and average watch time on your career page
quality of applicants, as judged by recruiters
offer acceptance rate, once new hires start citing the video
Review after three months, not three days. Recruitment cycles are slow.
What employer branding videos cost in Switzerland
Price depends on scope: number of shooting days, locations, people on screen, scripting, languages, motion graphics, aerial footage and how many cut-downs you need. We publish ranges so you can plan:
Package | Published range |
Forfait Vidéo Essentiel | 600 to 2,000 CHF, one-off |
Forfait Vidéo Signature | 2,000 to 10,000 CHF, one-off |
Forfait Vidéo Premium | 10,000 to 25,000 CHF, one-off |
A small interview series with a handful of employees typically lives at the lower end of such ranges. A multi-location brand film with scripting and drone footage belongs higher up. The exact figure depends on your brief, so the pricing page is the place to see what each package covers.
Our perspective: authenticity beats production value
We have worked for more than 20 years in video, and the pattern on recruiting projects repeats. Clients arrive asking for something cinematic. After a first conversation, they usually realize they need something believable.
Candidates compare your video with what they hear from friends, read on review sites and see in the interview. When these match, trust rises. When they clash, the video damages more than it helps. So we start every employer branding project by listening: who are you trying to hire, what do those people worry about, and what is actually good about working with you? Often the answer is plainer than the brand deck: a manager who answers questions, a flexible schedule, an apprenticeship that leads to a real job.
Our advice to Swiss employers is simple:
Let employees speak in their own words and their own language.
Show the work, not just the office.
Say one thing well. Add a second video for the second message.
Plan the cut-downs from day one, because a recruiting team needs five assets, not one.
Keep the film honest enough that your newest hire will say “yes, that’s it”.
This is also why we pair filming with a strategy conversation before the camera comes out. A video built on a clear message ages well. If you want to go deeper on the method, read about how video storytelling lifts engagement.
— Pieter
Work with us on your employer brand video
We produce corporate videos for businesses, NGOs and organizations in Geneva, Lausanne and across Switzerland, from the first strategy consultation and script to filming, editing and delivery, with a focus on fast turnaround. If you are planning a recruiting film or a series of employee stories, we can help you pick the right formats and shape the shoot so that one day of filming gives you a full toolkit.
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See our audiovisual production services or browse the portfolio to see our recent work. You can also contact us for a free consultation and we will outline a format and a budget range for your hiring goals.
Common mistakes in employer branding videos
Stock footage and stock smiles. Candidates can tell. Use your real people and your real spaces.
Too many messages. A film that covers culture, benefits, history, products and sustainability in 90 seconds says nothing.
Executives only. Leadership belongs in the video, but the main voices should be the people candidates will work beside.
Ignoring the language regions. A German-language video for a Romandie hire, or the reverse, shrinks your reach. Subtitles are cheap compared with the loss.
No distribution plan. A video hidden on a career subpage will not move applications. Embed it in job posts, send it in interview invitations, and cut it for social channels.
Never refreshing. People leave, offices move, tools change. Review the video each year and replace what is out of date.
Our article on corporate video ideas has more concepts you can adapt for recruiting and internal communication.
FAQ
How long should an employer branding video be?
For a main film on your career page, two to three minutes is a good range. Social clips and job-post videos work better at 15 to 60 seconds. Decide the length from the message and the channel, not the other way around.
Do we need professional production, or can we film with smartphones?
Smartphone clips can work for quick, informal updates from your teams. For a main film that represents the whole company, professional lighting, sound and editing make a visible difference, and sound quality matters most. Many employers use both: a professional shoot for the flagship, and in-house clips for ongoing content.
Should the video be in German, French or English?
Use the language your target candidates work in. In Switzerland that often means producing a version per language region, or one film where colleagues speak their own language with subtitles. For international roles in Geneva, an English version is usually worth adding.
How do we know if the video works?
Compare applications and applicant quality for postings with and without the video, and track watch time on your career page. Ask new hires whether they saw it. Give the evaluation at least three months, since recruitment cycles are slow.
How much does an employer branding video cost?
It depends on the number of shooting days, people, locations, languages and cut-downs. Our published packages run from 600 to 2,000 CHF (Essentiel), 2,000 to 10,000 CHF (Signature) and 10,000 to 25,000 CHF (Premium). We recommend a short consultation so the package matches your goals.
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