'The future is absolutely in video – it’s not in written resumes'

The rules of engagement have changed. These days, about 20% of Gen Z job-hunters are landing interviews through TikTok, according to a survey by US recruitment tool Resume Genius.

The ability to post a video resume in minutes, rather than agonise over a written one, has strong appeal.

The Australian arm of Hilton hotels was quick to catch on. At the HR Awards 2024 in September, senior director of HR Australasia Mary Hogg accepted the Referoo Best Recruitment Campaign trophy for a TikTok drive that fired a 43% month-on-month increase in job applications.

Targeted messaging on TikTok

The hospitality industry is growing, Hogg told HRD, but it’s getting harder to attract workers under 35. In a drive to fill entry-level roles, Hilton needed to cast its net wide.

“About 75% of TikTok users are 35 and under,” she said. “It’s about going to where they are spending their time.”

Hilton isn’t new to posting ads on social channels, and the team knew TikTok returned higher click-through rates than Snapchat or Facebook. Sponsored ads on TikTok allow for locations and age cohorts to be targeted, but it is not exactly a laser focus.

“Knowing that TikTok particularly caters for Gen Z [born between 1997 and 2012], we knew we were onto a good thing,” she said. “What we then wanted to do was find what barriers might exist [to a viewer applying for a job] that we can remove.”

Social media’s role in recruitment

The four-week pilot campaign was timed to overlap with high school graduation. Hilton launched the @HireMeHiltonAU TikTok channel and populated it with “day-in-the-life” workplace content, filmed and produced by Gen Z Hilton team members.

Jobseekers were invited to respond with 60-second video resumes – without the need for written CVs and cover letters. If the HR team at Hilton liked what they saw, applicants would get a direct message and take it from there.

The only problem was that everyone else got to see the resumes as well.

“If you wanted to apply, you had to do it loud and proud and post onto a public channel,” Hogg said. “That’s going to work for some applicants, but it’s not going to work for all.”

As a pilot, the exercise delivered, but the next iteration might use a private channel, she said.

“If you’re in a sales role, this is an amazing way to showcase your skills, rather than a written resume,” Hogg said. “Those are the kinds of roles we see [recruiting this way]. The future is absolutely in video – it’s not in written resumes.”

Video CV a better expression of personality

Gen Z applicants might be eager to work but they are often self-conscious they haven’t got much experience. That’s no reason to hold back on an application, Hogg said.

“For a lot of the roles we have, you don’t necessarily need relevant experience, and you don’t necessarily need great literacy skills,” she said. “We need people who can communicate well and think on their feet. That comes across far better in terms of videos and how people can express themselves in that medium.”

Job hunters want different ways to express their personalities and skills beyond just a CV, Hogg said.

 “[The campaign] showed us that social media is completely the way forward when it comes to engaging with candidates – it’s just around how you use those platforms wisely and enable people to be able to express themselves privately.”

Although they were attracted by an upbeat ad, which called on the talents of comedian Nick White and his alter ego Carli, the roll of hopefuls wasn’t exclusively extraverts.

“It was a real mixture,” Hogg said. “I was expecting it to be more extroverts, but we also had quite quiet applicants who just wanted to talk through why they were enthusiastic about working in the industry. You just can’t get that off a CV very effectively.”

Looking for work triggers stress, the US survey found: About 72% of respondents said job-hunting has negatively impacted their mental health, 44% chose being ghosted by employers as a major frustration and 48% have lied or considered lying in their resumes.

Most Gen Z prefer social media when job-searching

Research by Hilton found one in four workers under-35s had been recently recruited via social media. It also showed 68% of Gen Z would rather apply for a job via social media than write a resume, while 43% of 18-24-year-olds said they face barriers when applying for and securing work, including not having “relevant” experience.

 About 63% said a written application limits their ability to show who they really are.

The rise of AI has changed hiring for good. ChatGPT and Copilot are legitimate work tools and using AI to apply for a job “has probably been the case for a few years now,” Hogg said.

“We should be taking down those barriers. Treating our candidates like consumers has got to be the way forward. We have got to make it easier and more relevant in terms of their experience and what we need to see from their skills and personality.”

And what’s to stop applicants posting video avatars of themselves as resumes?

“They might do,” Hogg said. “But on the flip side, we’ll probably have an avatar interviewing them.”