Australia’s youngest workers appear to be leading the charge in a major change in how some industries are recruiting staff.

It comes as a study reveals young job hunters face many barriers when applying for and securing jobs.

According to the Randstad Employer Branding Report, 43 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds looking for jobs have struggled to find jobs, due to barriers such as not having the “relevant” experience.

Additionally, 63 per cent have issues with traditional written applications and resumes, believing they don’t allow them to best represent themselves. Instead, Australia’s youngest workers are turning to a more familiar tactic.

“We know from our research that different generations are increasingly looking in different places to find work – with Gen Z’s eyes turning to social media,” Jo Jakobs, director NSW Randstad said.

“Embracing a multichannel approach in recruitment will help to attract that all important diversity and supercharge potential through a future-ready workforce.”

Enter world-famous hotel chain Hilton, which is tapping into the younger generation with a unique social media recruitment scheme.

The global hospitality chain has just launched its HireMeHilton initiative, a six-week pilot program that encourages people to use Tiktok videos as job applications.

@hiremehiltonau

Looking for a job with #hilton? #tiktokresume #hospitalitylife #hiremehilton

♬ original sound – hiremehiltonau – hiremehiltonau

“Our research shows Australians are increasingly turning to social media to find their next gig. This isn’t surprising when too often the traditional application process can be labour-intensive and doesn’t allow one’s true personality and skills to shine through,” Hilton’s regional human resources director for Australasia, Mary Hogg, said.

“In adding TikTok into our recruitment channel mix, we can build a diverse workforce, simplify the application process, and remove barriers.”

The pros and cons of a video resume

Dr Emmanuelle Walkowiak, a vice-chancellor’s senior research fellow  at Melbourne’s RMIT University, said the idea had pros and cons.

“Basically, a CV is just a list of keywords that people add together to showcase their skills and their experience,” she told The New Daily.

But a video resume, as Hilton wants, can offer a bit more. Walkowiak said recruiters would be able to assess how a candidate talked, as well as their non-verbal behaviour.

With a traditional CV, a recruiter might discriminate based on a candidate’s school or their listed hobbies. That might not happen with a video resume or interview, Walkowiak said.

But videos did open up other avenues for discrimination. A candidate could be discriminated against for their accent, how they spoke or how they looked, she said.

Walkowiak said studies had found that discrimination based on looks did exist, with recruiters favouring those they considered attractive.

“Globally, digital technologies can remove some bias from the recruitment process because people are biassed anyway,” she said.

“But they also they can also create new bias. So there’s this balance to keep in mind to not to forget the kind of discrimination or bias that can be involved when changing the recruitment process.”

Dr Edith Hill, a Flinders University academic who is across all things social media, said TikTok had also been accused of bias.

“That’s very much a part of being on social media, and being in that public space is kind of putting yourself up against the inherent biases and discrimination like within the system in which you function,” she said.

Gen Z is turning to social media to find jobs.

Are TikTok resumes the future?

The reality is, a recruitment strategy like this won’t suit every industry. Walkowiak stressed it all depended on the type of job.

Hilton is recruiting customer-facing roles such as bar attendants, front desk receptionists and food and beverage team members across its 17 Australian properties. Anyone with working rights in Australia and a TikTok account can apply.

It said it would be “equally happy” to accept traditional written CVs – which Hill said was good, because not everyone had access to technology.

“I wonder how they’re going to actually measure that equal consideration,” she said.

It’s not too far-fetched to think that TikTok will help more people get jobs. Some people have already built careers off TikTok followings, while it’s common to use social media sites, particularly LinkedIn, to apply for jobs.

According to Randstad, one in four job seekers under the age of 35 has found a job through social media and 45 per cent of Gen Z use TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat to look for work.

Hilton’s marketing bonanza

Walkowiak agreed that TikTok could help “refresh” a brand and introduce it to a new, generally younger, audience.

Whether or not social media videos eventually replaced traditional written CVs, Hill did think Hilton’s program might be the start of a trend.

“Other companies will definitely try to replicate something like that and there might be some funny missteps around that,” she said.

“Trends where one company does something really excellent in their marketing on socials, other people try to replicate it and it never quite hit the mark in the same way.

“That’s going be interesting, to see if anything like that happens.”