TikTok is now a well-established platform for building your employer brand and supporting recruitment efforts. But decoding its language and finding the right tone to stand out isn’t always straightforward. Here are three angles to work with.
1. Team Camaraderie
The first content pillar is humor-driven. It aims to showcase the bond between team members. The trends themselves aren’t specific to the workplace, but they translate really well.
For example, the “AirPod Switch” trend features two colleagues crossing paths, bumping into each other, and “accidentally” swapping earbuds. The video shows each person’s reaction as they discover the other’s unexpected or unlikely music taste.
Another “humorous” trend that involves multiple employees is the “Tone Challenge.” A team gathers and each member reads the same hollow corporate phrase (something like “As mentioned in my last email…”) but with an assigned emotion: angry, sad, dramatic — set to appropriately dramatic music.
The last two suggestions lend themselves beautifully to team building. The “What type of employee are you” video features classic office archetypes: the one who’s always late, the one who’s always snacking, and so on. The “Shake hands with the person who…” version makes it more interactive, as employees draw an employee type and then go find that person to greet them.
2. Self-Deprecation and Honest Cynicism
The second content pillar is self-deprecation. Rather than putting work life on a pedestal, you speak more candidly about what annoys you at work, without taking yourself too seriously.
Videos with anxiety-inducing background music highlighting an unpleasant moment in office life always get a reaction. The subtext reads something like: “Getting a surprise meeting invite from your manager with no agenda at 4:30 PM,” “Watching the ‘typing…’ indicator on Teams for three straight minutes,” “When a colleague’s Teams/Slack status turns red right when you need to ask them something.”
Some people like to show they stay “cool” despite the relentless chaos of work, through the “POV: I’m listening to music and ignoring the chaos at work” trend.
Under the hashtag “#unannouncedteamscall,” employees dramatize their panic at being unexpectedly called into a Teams meeting.
3. Behind-the-Scenes
More broadly, there’s an entire content segment dedicated to offering a behind-the-scenes look at a professional career or workplace.
From a career perspective, here are some popular themes that perform well on TikTok:
- “How I Got My Job,” where the employee shares the story of how they landed their position,
- “Career Transparency,” where the employee reveals insider insights about their profession, sometimes including salary,
- or the “Career Timeline,” where the employee walks through their professional journey chronologically, backed by personal photos along the way.
Now go create your own content… and good luck!
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