Bank of America : Answering in person
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Responses to frequently asked questions on careers pages are in video.
The Site
Bank of America responds to frequently asked questions on its careers pages in video.
Bank of America’s Careers section has tailored information pages for each of 10 Job Areas ranging from Administration and CFOGroup/Finance to Sales and Technology. The format is consistent across all areas and includes a Frequently Asked Questions panel that is headed by a column-wide Flash video viewing screen showing a still of a woman presenter. Beneath this is a list of questions and a prompt to ‘Play response’.
Clicking the prompt animates the presenter into replying to the question. A ‘Video transcript’ option on the screen control panel opens a mirror page with the question list expanded to show all the answers. Each has a link to ‘Return to standard page with video’.
The Takeaway
Not for the first time careers sections are proving to be early adopters, with more and more wading purposefully into the video waters while others have barely looked up from their beach towels. Most of the pioneers have so far experimented with short company promos and employee profiles and testimonials. Bank of America is among them – each area page features an employee video – but has gone in deeper by extending the medium to cover FAQs.
Like most good ideas the benefits are obvious as soon as you see (and hear) them – this literally brings life and humanity to a worthy but hitherto scarcely exciting online tool. The provision of a transcript is a useful back up as well as an accessible alternative for sight impaired or bandwidth-challenged users.
Video FAQs are a natural match for careers, where your people can truly be a key asset in engaging prospective candidates and the candidates are often looking for something more than just the bare facts. Whether they would be appropriate or work so well in areas such as ‘contact us’ when enquiries are more direct and users in more of a hurry is debatable. But in the right place, this is a powerful application of a ‘now’ medium.
http://careers.bankofamerica.com/consumerbank/First published on 06 March, 2008