Earlier this month, TikTok released it’s new recruitment feature, TikTok Resumes.
In their launch statement, the popular video sharing app said that the move to introduce a channel for recruitment comes in light of a rise in career and job-related creative content being created and shared throughout the platform.
“Short, creative videos, combined with TikTok’s easy-to-use, built-in creation tools have organically created new ways to discover talented candidates and career opportunities.”
TikTok
Initially launched as a pilot programme with a limited selection of employers (including Chipotle, Target, WWE, and Shopify), TikTok Resumes invites job seekers to apply for a jobs via a creative video resume that showcases their skills, experience, and authenticity, and tagged with #TikTokResumes.
As a pilot programme, TikTok Resumes is only available for users to apply for US-based jobs, but there are plenty of reasons why recruiters in Australia and New Zealand should be paying attention to this important development.
If you’ve never heard of TikTok, there’s a good chance you’ve been hidden away in a cave on a deserted island with your fingers in your ears past two years because it’s EVERYWHERE.
The viral video-sharing app now boasts a whopping billion users in more than 150 countries (for comparison, Twitter currently sits at 353 million and LinkedIn at 740 million users), and is a favourite among users for everything from dance challenges, cat videos, life hacks, and activism.
Users can share videos of up to 3 minutes in length on any topic and then categorise them with relevant hashtags to allow their content to be discovered by other users from all around the world interested in similar topics.
As its users skew towards the younger demographic there’s a tendency for the more “established” among us in the working world to shrug the app off as something frivolous.
But if the rampant success of other social media apps like Facebook employers risk ignoring TikTok’s growing influence at their own peril.
It’s not a new concept for recruiters to be thinking about what role TikTok should play (if any) in their employer brand and sourcing strategies.
Career development is already a thriving subculture on TikTok. Hashtags including #careertiktok, #interviewtips, and #careertips have hundreds of millions of views so it’s not an unnatural progression that TikTok would look to capitalise on this trend by developing a recruitment platform.
Moreover, with roughly 50% of TikTok users under the age of 34 it provides a great opportunity for recruiters who are looking to specifically attract and engage with younger candidates.
But the demographic target and sheer depth of audience numbers isn’t the only benefit for recruiters when it comes to viewing TikTok as a sourcing platform.
Our resident TWIT columnist and Talent Acquisition Lead @ Level Crossing Removal Project Jody Smith is a recent TikTok convert and says that the move to include a more strategic recruitment focus on the app will allow TA leads to gain better insight into candidates’ creativity, communication skills, and resilience.
“I’m a TikTok convert (absolutely obsessed) and I’m constantly blown away by the creativity of people on the platform. Blown away, and … jealous. I’m old and tired. How are these people so creative and tech savvy? Where do they find the time and energy to create this stuff?” says Jody.
“They have an idea, they use their initiative to film it, get others involved, then put music to it. If it isn’t super popular they look at lessons learned and use that to inform their next video. They are resilient too – they open themselves up to feedback in the comments section and cop the negative/nasty stuff on the chin (most of the time).”
“These are the types of people we want working for our businesses!”
Cover image source: Shutterstock
