Most companies know almost to the euro what a job ad costs. A few hundred euros on one of the big portals, plus the time to write and publish it. That number sits in the books.
What sits nowhere: what the position costs while it stays open.
The number nobody talks about
In Germany, a skilled position stays vacant for an average of 224 days. That is seven and a half months in which the work still has to be done — by the people who are already there.
Run the numbers for yourself. Three open positions, each at €3,500 gross, plus roughly 20 % employer contributions. That is €12,600 of missing work every month. After four months, more than €50,000.
And that is the cautious version. Overtime, declined orders, a frustrated core team and the next job ad are not even in it.
The most expensive position is the one nobody fills.
Why more job ads don't solve it
The first reflex makes sense: another ad, another portal, maybe a bit more money. But that means competing on exactly the field where the corporate group next door always wins.
A Randstad study from this year shows that only about half of employees choose an employer based on salary. Considerably more decide based on the working atmosphere.
Which raises an uncomfortable question: how is anyone supposed to recognise your working atmosphere from a job ad? From "family atmosphere" and "flat hierarchies"? That phrasing appears in every second ad, including the ones where it isn't true.
What candidates actually want to know
Anyone applying asks one question: what is it like to work there?
Who are the people I'll deal with every day? What do the workshop, the hall, the office look like? Does the boss talk with people or about them? Can I picture myself driving there in the morning?
A job ad answers none of that. A film does — provided it is your own people talking, not models from a stock library.
One shooting day, many answers
One shooting day at your site produces up to ten short vertical videos. Three to five employees talk about how they came to you and what keeps them there. In between: real work, real machines, real colleagues.
Those videos then run where candidates already are — on the career page, in the job ad, on Instagram and TikTok. For apprentices that is by now the only channel that counts. They don't read classifieds, they scroll.
What a film cannot do
To be clear: a recruiting video does not repair poor leadership and does not compensate for a salary 20 % below market. If people quit for reasons, a film only makes those reasons more visible.
A film makes visible what is already there. If something good happens at your company that nobody outside can see, that is exactly the case where it pays for itself.
Do the maths yourself
There is a small calculator on my homepage. You enter how many positions are open, since when, and at what salary. It shows you what the vacancy has cost you so far.
Compare that number with what a video production costs. In most cases, the budget question answers itself.