Deloitte & Touche USA LLP (Deloitte) recently launched the first-ever Deloitte Film Festival, a new and innovative approach to leveraging employee-generated content to bolster Gen Y recruiting activities and drive workforce engagement.

With "What's Your Deloitte?" as the theme of this groundbreaking corporate initiative, all of Deloitte's personnel were encouraged to make short films that express the organization's culture and values.

More than 370 short films were submitted by teams of Deloitte personnel (one to seven individuals per team), from offices across the U.S. firms.

Each video offers a candid and unfiltered view of Deloitte's culture of inclusion, leading edge talent, and innovative workplace.

The submitted films were posted on an internal "You Tube-like" intranet site where they were viewed and rated by Deloitte employees.

To showcase Deloitte's commitment to innovation and the creativity, enthusiasm and passion of its people, the best films will be integrated into campus recruiting programs.

Film production kits, which included a high resolution Panasonic PV- GS320 Mini DV camera, were offered to the first 250 registrants to encourage maximum participation. Interest and excitement shattered expectations, prompting Deloitte to make an additional 100 cameras available to teams.

As part of Deloitte's Community Involvement Initiative, upon completion of the film festival, cameras and equipment will be donated to nonprofit organizations, including FilmAid International and IFP, that use the power of film to support displaced people around the world.

"With the explosive growth of social networking sites and the mass democratization of film-making (hand held cameras, user-friendly software), it’s very clear to us that the integration of self expression opportunities through film and other media are essential to recruiting and retaining top talent," said Cathy Benko, managing principal of talent at Deloitte. "Plus it's a heck of a lot of fun!"