Can you tell a compelling story about what it means to work for your company — and why other people should join you there — without including any photos or voices of employees?  Without showing what the office workplace looks like or sounds like?  Without portraying how the company’s products or services benefit the purchasers?

Herman Miller can.  The furniture design company’s recruiting video, developed by Hello Design, effectively uses surprisingly simple drawings, single words, and plain icons to connect the company’s heart and soul with the intended viewer’s values and emotions.  What’s more, the video highlights Herman Miller’s brand attribute of elegant creativity by telling an engaging, evocative story through repetition of the utterly non-descript word “this.”  In fact, the video’s narrator repeats the word “this” 61 times in 2 minutes 47 seconds.  I love this!

Watch the video.  Read this script that I transcribed.  And ask yourself: How would I have illustrated this video script?

“This is you.  We know this could be you.  Or this.  Or this.  Or this.  Or this.  But for the sake of toady’s story, let’s just say this is you.  And you have a decision to make.  You need to decide what kind of company you want to work for.

Think about it.  The average American works 40 to 50 hours per week, 50 weeks a year.  So when you’re thinking about where all that time will be spent, think hard.  You could make a salary.  You could make a difference.  Or you could work somewhere where you can make both.

Are you going to work for a company that is going to put these first, or this?  Let’s not kid ourselves: This and this are an important thing.  But the bigger question is this: Are they the most important thing?  Are this and this the only thing you’ll be proud of when you’re like this?  Are they going to make this better?  Or this?  Or this?

Because there are companies out there that care about things bigger than themselves.  Companies that care about things like this, this, and this.  Companies that care about you and your ideas, whether you’re this, this, this, this, or this.  Herman Miller is one of those companies.  We’ve been making things like this a priority since 1950.  This, too.  Even if it’s this, this, this, or this.

We’re the kind of company you’ll work with, not just for.  A company where someone who works here or here can voice ideas that are heard here.  A company that designs pieces for places like this to help people like this.  A company that sees this and designs this to make it better.  Or takes something like this and finds ways to make it become this.

When we design pieces like this, this, and this, we find inspiration from places like this, this, this, this, and this.  And not just places like this.  We help people do this, instead of this.  And we encourage people to work like this, this, this, and this.

Once people realize we’re competitive in our offerings of this, this, and this, they find the more interesting factors are around lists, like this, this, and this.  If you decide to work here, you’ll find we care about what’s inside here and here.  So if you have one of these, or even a bunch of these, be prepared to do this, because we will do this.

We hope we’ve given you a lot to think about because this stuff is important.  It’s important to us, and more important to you.  Because at the end of the day whether it’s making the chair, making the sale, making an environmental action plan, or making a difference in every little thing we do, at Herman Miller there’s one thing we’re all working to make: A better world — around you.”