The new era of employer branding : employer branding on TikTok

Companies, especially Human Resource Managers, are currently faced with the War of talent, which means that attracting the right talent is increasingly difficult these days. This is why it gets more important for companies to brand their own products and the organization as an employer. Employer branding on social media has become increasingly important since reaching a broad target group is possible. Studies show that employer branding can be key to a company's success. Additionally, to employer branding, recruiting on social media became an interesting topic. Much literature deals with employer branding and recruiting on social media, yet there is a research gap regarding the social media platform TikTok. With the growing success of TikTok, it is crucial to have a more detailed look at this platform and its users. This research focuses on Generation Z, born between 1995 and 2010, representing an essential TikTok user group. The chosen methodology was a qualitative approach, to be more specific focus groups, to get a deeper insight into the attitude of the participants towards employer branding and recruiting on TikTok. Since these two focus groups were conducted online, participants from different countries could attend. It was researched that participants find corporate content, when done right, very entertaining. It is essential that this is entertaining because the participants are only on TikTok for entertainment purposes. The main aspects that are important for the participants are that the TikTok’s are informative, authentic, realistic, and presented in an entertaining way. However, researchers cannot agree on recruiting on social media. This research found that Generation Z is not yet ready for recruiting, and TikTok is unsuitable. The participants think it is more beneficial for companies to recruit on specific job portals than on TikTok