Finding qualified employees, and especially apprentices, has become a real challenge in recent years: workers can choose the employer that aligns with their expectations and values. The good news: for companies, this is both a challenge and an opportunity! Pioneers like Ziehl-Abegg, the Berlin Police, and EDEKA show how it’s done, using TikTok as an effective tool to build awareness for job openings and creatively showcase their employer brand. In this article, we explain the benefits of TikTok for employer branding and provide tips on how you can use the platform to reach Generation Z and strengthen your employer brand.
The importance of TikTok in employer branding
HR and marketing actually have much more in common than many might initially assume: while marketing focuses on attracting and retaining customers, the HR department pursues the same goals regarding potential employees. And even though almost every company promotes its products and services on social media, only a few seize the opportunity to present themselves as an attractive employer. This is exactly where you can score as a first mover—especially because it is becoming increasingly difficult to fill apprenticeship and job positions. Companies must find new ways to reach young talent. Using social media platforms, especially TikTok, for employer branding is proving to be an effective strategy to generate awareness that a company has job openings. Furthermore, alongside review portals like Kununu, Glassdoor, and others, these platforms are becoming a go-to resource for candidates who want to learn more about a company, providing the perfect setting to strengthen your company's image as a desirable employer and connect directly with potential applicants.
The benefits of TikTok for employer branding at a glance
- High reach, low costs: TikTok offers the chance to go viral far beyond your own follower base, achieving extensive, cost-effective reach.
- Recruiting employees: Employers primarily reach users aged 16 to 24 there—those who have just finished school or their first degree and are starting their professional lives.
- Retention and loyalty: A presence on a young and dynamic platform like TikTok positions companies as modern and trend-savvy—an aspect that appeals to and retains both new talent and existing employees.
Tips for effective employer branding on TikTok
Companies like Ziehl-Abegg, the Berlin Police, and EDEKA already impressively demonstrate what effective employer branding on TikTok can look like. These companies use the platform not only to showcase their brands but also to highlight the culture, the people behind the brand, and career opportunities in a personal and creative way. Their successes serve as best practices for other companies looking to strengthen their employer brand on TikTok. Below, we present three key tips based on the strategies of these pioneers, showing how you can get Generation Z excited about your company.
Tip 1: Approachability and brand recognition
To win over today's generation, it takes far more than material incentives or benefits like a fruit basket and a foosball table. Young professionals place increasing value on a company's culture —in a survey, 78 percent of young professionals emphasized the importance of being able to identify with company values. This doesn't require perfectly polished advertising videos. What matters is that your content is authentic and genuine and stands out from the mass of social media content. The keywords for your employer branding are therefore: approachability and brand recognition! Give your brand or company a distinctive face—whether through a (fictional) brand face or influencer. This strategy helps to clearly link your content to your brand and can be implemented organically even without large employer branding budgets. Ziehl-Abegg, a German manufacturer of fans for air and climate technology as well as drive motors for elevators, relies on a permanent crew of real employees who appear in the videos repeatedly. The TikTok actors come from various departments such as product management, sales, HR, or development. Their secret to approachable content? They never claim to be cool or trendy, and they don't advertise their company with logos—they simply show it by being featured with authentic reactions and realistic stories while demonstrating a sense for trends. Around 106,000 followers, 3.3 million likes, and several marketing awards prove that the company succeeds in strengthening its employer brand on TikTok. The most important thing is to trust your own team and let those who are enthusiastic and can tell real stories get in front of the camera.
https://www.tiktok.com/@ziehl_abegg/video/7140312165294034181
Tip 2: Creative and entertaining content
Unlike other media, TikTok videos are primarily characterized by their entertainment value —if a video is boring, irrelevant, or not entertaining (as job ads so often are), users will scroll past. The use of humor and creativity is therefore crucial to capturing the target audience's attention and presenting the otherwise dry application process in a positive light.
EDEKA succeeded in doing exactly that: perfectly timed with the distribution of mid-year report cards and a time when many students are considering what to do after graduation in a few months, EDEKA launched the innovative apprenticeship campaign "Komm in die Gruppe" in February 2024.
https://www.tiktok.com/@edeka/video/7330587401737211168
Instead of presenting career paths and entry opportunities in a dry manner, the corporation parodies online finance coaches and sells the apprenticeship as a clever way to make easy money. With a white polo shirt, a silver chain, and a fake Rolex on his wrist, the fictional character Jeremy Keulig looks like the typical online gurus on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. However, Jeremy Keulig stands for the exact opposite: honest work that pays off in the long run. Even the text, music, and design are reminiscent of well-known money-scam videos, so you almost forget that it is an apprenticeship campaign. With this exaggerated approach, EDEKA demonstrates humor and irony —things you should also use for your employer branding. Don't be afraid to take unconventional paths and present your employer brand with a pinch of humor and plenty of creativity. Think about how you can lighten up complex topics like career opportunities and make them more accessible to build a stronger connection with your target audience.
Absolute no-gos in this context: content that doesn't fit the platform and trends that could damage your reputation.
Tip 3: Interaction and dialogue
Community management is becoming increasingly important on TikTok. This involves active interaction under your own posts as well as under the posts of others, primarily through comments. This direct communication with the community makes companies incredibly accessible to their target audience and, above all, fosters sympathy for your employer brand. It shows that you are engaging with current trends and understand the interests of your target audience.
The Berlin Police have been active on TikTok since early 2021, regularly posting content about training and careers at the police force while tapping into current trends. Through active community management and a resulting campaign, they even achieved viral success in February 2024. It all started with a simple question: Why was the application of creator @deinmou rejected by the police?!
A daily back-and-forth quickly developed between the agency and the creator: The Berlin Police addressed Mou's statements and user comments in their content, building a narrative arc that users could identify with and get invested in. At the same time, they provided authentic insights into the agency's daily operations and the application process, thereby strengthening their employer branding.
This strategy generated over 16 million views on the police's TikTok channel alone, another 45 million views via the creator's channel, and led to a 1000 percent increase in profile visits for the police—all purely organic, without any media budget.
Expanding communication beyond TikTok is also a great way to strengthen employer branding. For example, EDEKA used a WhatsApp channel to deepen interaction with their target audience and offer additional content related to training. By leveraging the strengths of each platform to reach your audience where they are most engaged, you provide content that encourages them to read on and dive deeper.
Conclusion
TikTok is indispensable for employer branding, especially when it comes to targeting young talent. It’s about showing candidates who you are as an employer, what your company stands for, and the culture it embodies. By providing authentic insights into daily work life, telling real stories with actual employees, creating a clear brand identity, integrating humor and creativity into your content, and interacting on eye level with your target group, you position your company as a potential employer for many young job seekers.
