As the job landscape evolves post-COVID and after the Great Resignation, social media is awash with trends about employee recruitment. Influencers spark conversations on TikTok while new buzzwords and terms develop on Reddit.
If you work in employee recruitment, you need to be familiar with these social media trends. After all, 88% of job seekers actively use social media when looking for employment. Terms like ‘Quiet Quitting,’ ‘4-day week,’ and ’employer ghosting’ should all be in your lexicon.
Ready to learn the latest social media trends in recruitment? We’re delving into 7 employee recruitment trends changing the workplace in 2023 and beyond.
Table of Contents
7 Social Media Trends in Employee Recruitment
Quiet Quitting
Hardly a month goes by without a new social media term arising to describe a phenomenon. Quiet quitting is different, however. It stuck around. Originating from a 2008 book by Kelly Love Johnson in which she called it “quitting in place,” the concept has evolved in recent years. TikTok influencers like former corporate recruiter and career coach Bryan Creely popularized the term, leading to its meteoric rise. It hit such a nerve that the Collins Dictionary made it the word of the year in 2022.
Soon, everyone from YouTube Shorts to Reddit started talking about the concept. Put simply, it describes doing the bare minimum at work to keep your job. No above and beyond. No overtime. No extras.
Some have praised the movement for reconfiguring employer expectations compared to their remuneration. There’s some truth to this. For several decades, employees have seen little or no increase in income while employers have become increasingly demanding and corporate. When the pandemic came along, burnout saw millions of workers cut back to the perimeters of their job. It was about safeguarding their mental and physical well-being.
Others, however, label the movement lazy. They argue that if you sit back and do the basics, don’t be surprised when you don’t see the rewards you feel you deserve. As always, there’s some truth to both sides. Regardless of which side you agree with, this is one employee recruitment trend that isn’t going away.
Quiet Firing
If quiet quitting is laziness at its worst, quiet firing is downright malicious. The term refers to the practice of making an employee’s job so difficult that they quit. Employers skirt the edge of acceptability – avoiding a tribunal – while doing everything in their power to make a person miserable.
That includes demeaning tasks, no pay raises, internal ghosting, no room for development, and more. It can even lead to gaslighting and passive aggression.
It’s not hard to see why it’s popular: you remove an employee without giving reason or paying expensive severance packages. The morality of such decisions, however, is clearly troubling. Nonetheless, 48% of workers say they’ve witnessed a colleague being quiet fired – according to a LinkedIn poll of 200,000 respondents. In some cases, employees may be reassigned to another role and told to “take it or leave it.” For employers, this could be a genuine necessity, reorienting a company in a difficult market. However, in many instances, it’s just another example of quiet firing.
Job Hopping
Once upon a time, changing jobs was unheard of. It’s a generational thing. The median tenure for employees ages 55 to 64 is 9.9 years, while for ages 25 to 34, it’s just 2.8 years.
Formerly, these younger “job hoppers” would be seen as a liability. Only individuals with a long tenure at a company were considered good candidates. They had loyalty and commitment.
However, a new employee recruitment trend is reframing the issue.
In younger generations, people don’t change jobs because of poor performance. Rather, they look for new roles to expand their skills and push them further. With career change easier than ever, candidates with a proven track record of different skill sets and experience are an asset, not a risk. They bring a change of perspective and perform well all-round.
It’s a move from over-specialization and back toward the generalist. Expect this to be a long-term trend as AI, creativity, and innovation continue to dominate the workplace.
Advertising on BeReal
Heard of BeReal? It’s a new French social media photo-sharing app released in 2020. That’s just Instagram, right? Well, the key difference is that BeReal tells users to post photos without filters or editing – hence the name. It’s basically the anti-Instagram. It’s fast becoming an effective recruitment tool.
Because it strips away the filters and fakery prominent on other social media platforms, BeReal has an aura of authenticity and trust. What you see is what you get. Therefore, posting company events, recruitment drives, and snaps of the daily lives of employees can advertise your company as a fun place to be.
Given that Gen Z expects transparency and honesty from employers – BeReal is a simple way to level with prospective employees.
Candidate Ghosting
We all know the phenomenon called ghosting – it’s a situation where one moment, you’re deep in conversation with a date or a friend, and the next, radio silence ensues. There’s no communication, no replies, nothing. It’s like you’ve been handed the digital version of a cold shoulder, akin to the age-old gesture of “speak to the hand.”
In the professional world, candidates often express frustration at employers who go dark after a promising job interview, leaving them in a limbo of uncertainty. Yet, ironically, many candidates themselves can be guilty of this, especially when they receive a more appealing job offer elsewhere and fail to inform other potential employers of their decision.This lack of communication, however, is not just a one-way street. Employers also bear a significant portion of the blame. In their quest to hire the best, many organizations overlook the importance of fostering a positive candidate experience. In today’s cutthroat job market, attracting top talent goes far beyond just offering a competitive salary. It’s also about the impression, the vibe, and the image an organization projects. The way potential employees feel during the recruitment process can often be the deciding factor in their final decision.
In-House Content Creation
You’ll notice a theme through these employee recruitment trends: they favor the employee. Why? Because employees dominate social media and have the potential to go viral. That also means disgruntled employees can tarnish a company’s name and harm their recruitment process.
As a result, recruitment teams are moving away from outsourcing their content creation to agencies or freelancers and are bringing everything in-house. According to Content Stadium, 58% of recruiters said they create the content themselves – up 7 points from the previous year.
Doing so also allows recruiters to encourage employee advocacy. That means asking current employees to share their success stories, advise prospective candidates, and boost your overall brand. Not only does this improve employee recruitment, but it also helps brands control their image.
And with short-form content taking over platforms like BeReal or TikTok, creating content involves nothing more than a quality smartphone and a little bit of talent.
Closing Thoughts
As we’ve explored the landscape of 2023’s social media recruitment trends, it begs the question: what’s next?
Picture this: ‘Recruitment Livestreams’ on platforms akin to Twitch or YouTube Live. Companies could broadcast their work culture, live Q&A sessions, and even real-time job interviews, bringing an unprecedented level of transparency to the hiring process. Or perhaps, platforms like TikTok might evolve to allow for ‘Day-in-the-Life’ AR (Augmented Reality) experiences where potential candidates can virtually walk through a typical day at a prospective job. As social media continues to innovate, the line between engagement and recruitment is set to blur even more. Job seekers and recruiters, keep your notifications on; the future of employee recruitment on social media promises to be anything but mundane!
Sources:
- https://pierpoint.com/blog/social-media-hiring-trends-2023/
- https://www.reed.co.uk/recruiter-advice/recruitment-social-media-trends-explained/
- https://www.argentus.com/fess-up-is-your-company-ghosting-job-candidates/
- https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/signs-quiet-fired-quitting_l_63177546e4b0faa556c1724d
- https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/podcasts/social-media-recruitment/
- https://blog.firefishsoftware.com/recruitment-social-media-trends
- https://www.contentstadium.com/blog/social-recruiting-statistics/
- https://www.thebalancemoney.com/how-often-do-people-change-jobs-2060467
- https://www.thebalancemoney.com/how-long-should-an-employee-stay-at-a-job-2059796
- https://www.usiq.org/what-is-employer-branding/
