TikTok - Tip top fundraising recruitment

Recruitment, for any industry, has morphed over the years. We've seen Newspaper ads, supermarket community boards, networking events and internet ads. Recently, our Aotearoa Face to Face recruitment team decided to do a switch up from the norm. Isabella Prendeville, who herself is only 18 years of age, had the idea to use the latest 'trending platform', TikTok. For those that don't know, TikTok is a short video platform that has a massive user base, especially for those under 30.

https://backlinko.com/tiktok-users

Whilst some old-fashioned sorts are quick to reject the idea of TikTok as an avenue for finding new talent, Isabella had the know-how and creativity to make it possible. After only 3 months of using TikTok to advertise for jobs and 15 videos later, Public Outreach's TikTok videos have been viewed more than 750,000 times.

In this article, we speak to the brains behind the idea and ask the questions that you will want answered if you're considering new recruitment tools in the future.

1) Why did you decide to recruit through TikTok?

Face to Face recruitment had been struggling since I first took over the role during COVID. No matter how many job ads or posts I made it wasn't getting the reach or results I knew we needed. I was getting increasingly frustrated knowing that there were people out there looking for jobs just like I once had been not long ago. I then thought "what did I do when I wasn't working?" and how could I market the job to people just like me? TikTok was the first thing that came to mind! Deciding to give it a shot, I posted my first video bracing myself for lots of trolls.

2) What results were you expecting to see?

I knew it was possible due to the TikTok algorithm to reach a large number of people but wasn't sure if that was possible for a recruitment account. I was hoping the video could get us at least 2 or 3 people for an interview that week. I remember after posting the video going home and refreshing all night. It stayed at 0 views and 0 followers and I assumed it was a flop...

3) How do you feel about racking up over 750,000 views in 3 months?

I woke up the next morning after posting the video to my phone literally nonstop buzzing. We had linked our TikTok to Instagram and the messages of people looking for work did not stop flowing in. I checked the video and felt star struck at how many views it had gotten since I went to sleep. It's still crazy to our recruitment team how many views we get from posting 15-second videos and I don't think it's a feeling we will ever get used to!

4) Has TikTok recruitment led to more applicants?

Since we have started using TikTok it has become our main platform for finding candidates. The day after posting our first video we had to have three of us working the whole day barely being able to take a breath. Filtering through all the messages and calling candidates to try to contact everyone as we didn't know how long it would last! Every time we cleared the messages we would refresh and there would be 50+ new message requests - all of them were people wanting jobs.

5) What's the 3 best things about using TikTok for recruitment?

TikTok's algorithm is designed to push accounts you don't follow, which is different from any other social media platform. This algorithm is a huge advantage for recruiters as we are able to target the job towards people who might not even be actively looking for new work. Public Outreach Aotearoa is definitely far from a "corporate" job and a casual fun workplace; it never felt quite right trying to make our job ads seem that way! Using TikTok has also helped our retention of staff as candidates understand our culture before even walking in the door. By using TikTok we have been able to market the job directly to our target audience and at the same time, understand what we are missing in our recruitment process. Users leave lots of comments giving us feedback, concerns and ask questions surrounding the role. We are able to easily engage directly with candidates to answer comments. This is something job seekers previously haven't been able to do when applying for jobs conveniently.

Its game changing and the results of job seekers feeling like we are 'human and approachable" has definitely shown in the number of applications we have received. - And of course it is way more fun posting videos then writing job ads haha!

6) How do you see TikTok impacting the recruitment process for all industries?

The platform is able to reach job seekers in a faster and easier way than ever before! I see TikTok as the future of recruitment and marketing as we are able to get real time feedback on what candidates do and don't like about roles, and to be the most up to date. It brings a level of humanity to what can be a gruelling and demoralising hiring process for job seekers. The platform is completely free so not only is it fun and brings in great candidates, companies are saving time and money!

The future?

As we've seen, generational perceptions & usage of social media have changed since its inception in the late noughties. Underpinned in a recent article by the GlobalWebIndex. Their research shows that most baby boomers use social media to keep updated with family & current affairs. Gen Z however, are using social media to 'find inspiration for new things', 'making new contacts', 'avoiding missing out on things' and 'filling spare time'. This makes TikTok the perfect place to find new, up & coming talent!

Public Outreach has a long history of empowering our people and providing opportunities for young people, in particular, to learn skills and excel in jobs they feel passionate about. TikTok is the perfect platform for where we are right now and is a great example of how new platforms provide great spaces for fundraising agencies to take existing challenges and turn them into fun and innovative solutions. Isabella is a perfect representation of many of the folks over at Public Outreach. She's creative and has the constant ability to "embrace the new". We can't wait to see where we go next on this platform!