Employer branding

Employers

Tips and trends for modern recruiting

Find the talent you’re looking for

Have you ever had this thought?

I worry that candidates don’t know enough about my company to want to work here. I want to stand out to early talent and learn how to use Handshake to build my employer brand with Gen Z.

If so, we hear you!

So we thought it would be helpful to share how you can build a brand that early talent loves—on Handshake, where your target audience of Gen Z talent can get to know you better.

Why it's important to invest in your up-funnel recruiting strategy

We looked at Handshake Network Trends research as well as platform data to identify Gen Z job seeker behaviors on Handshake. For example, in a survey of the Class of 2024:

94% of students would consider applying in the future if they had a positive experience with an employer

75% of students read reviews of an employer brand before applying to a job

73% of students are more likely to apply to a job after seeing employer content

If you haven’t gotten started yet with your up-funnel recruiting strategy on Handshake, here are some tips for building a brand that early talent loves.

6 things that early talent loves from an employer brand

1. Authenticity

Employer brands that Gen Z talent considers authentic are showing they’re a trusted voice in the space, keeping content casual and not overly produced, and using approachable language and tone.

The way you deliver content, like on the Handshake feed, matters to Gen Z, who prioritize authenticity from brands. What type of Handshake feed content, hiring events, and messages can help you get authentic and conversational with Gen Z job seekers?

Relatable day in the life content to help students see themselves in the role

Career advice and tips that are empathetic to students and new grads navigating a big transition

Industry insights and trends to build trust and credibility in your brand

Application and interview tips from recruiters to set students up for success

Networking advice from relatable sources, especially for underrepresented talent

Peeks behind the scenes, like office/site tours or typical schedule information, can demystify the job

2. Transparency

One way to build brand affinity with early talent is to be transparent across talent acquisition channels. A student having to search far and wide for info that can help them decide between one employer and another won't make a positive brand impression.

Building a brand that early talent loves includes being transparent about what you can offer. For instance, tailor your job descriptions geared at an entry-level audience to clearly list:

Salary range

Benefits

Work schedule

Work location

Professional development perks

For another example, Teach for America's Recruiting Director took an application FAQ from students to mythbust: “How much does my GPA really matter?” and scaled his response into thoughtful, transparent content on the Handshake feed.

3. Engagement

Your brand can stand apart from the rest by engaging with early talent, human to human, all the way through the hiring funnel. For example:

Comment on student's posts on the Handshake feed

Help students build their networks through events

Keep interns and entry level hires engaged once they’re onboarded

Joining the conversation by commenting on student's posts is a great way to make your brand more accessible, especially if it's less well-known. This gives students a chance to explore your profile and your brand page, which can turn the flywheel on impressions, follows, and overall engagement—and boost your brand's organic growth. 

Plus, students are 2.2X as likely to click on an employer message if they previously saw a post from that employer on the Handshake feed. Being more active on social channels like the Handshake feed is also a good way for you to build community with your peers!

4. Peer reviews

Gen Z job seekers look to peer reviews, testimonials, and real employee experiences to research employers. On a Professional or Advanced Handshake Brand Page, you can include employee testimonials, videos, feature posts from the Handshake feed, and other dynamic content to help students picture what it’s like to work for your brand.

It’s not just on Handshake and digital channels where you’re building your brand—it’s on campus too, through tried and true channels like word-of-mouth. You can further amplify your brand by empowering Advocates and line of business stakeholders outside the recruiting team on best practices for representing your brand through campus events and personalized messaging.

5. Follow up

First time job seekers don’t necessarily have perspective on what the working world is really like, or how their skills can map to a job, career, or industry. Early career candidates will love a recruiting experience that provides clear next steps, so you can stand out by following up after each touchpoint in the hiring process.

For instance, after an interview, provide feedback that will help the candidate learn and grow—and show that you’re invested in their success. Driving qualified candidates to take next steps is something you’re uniquely positioned to execute on—and measure—on Handshake.

Another way to follow up is to ask for feedback. From sending out a survey after an event to learn what you did well and what you could do better, to asking in a poll on the Handshake feed about which swag you should bring to a career fair, you can become a brand that early talent loves by listening to their feedback.

6. Have fun!

The interactions you and your team have with students at fairs and events, through interviews and message exchanges, and on your digital channels all contribute to a student’s impression of your brand. 

Now that “influencer” is a career path in and of itself, campus recruiters can take notes from Gen Z for how you can market your opportunities. In the age of AI perhaps more than ever, your brand can stand out with humor, creativity, empathy, and fun!

For example, the Cognizant team posted a video to the Handshake feed poking fun at themselves while being supportive of students' success, with a script that several recruiters voiced over that ended with a CTA:

“We’re campus recruiters. Of course I have a basement full of swag, and a purse full of Sharpies and hand sanitizer.”

“I’m a campus recruiter. Of course I’m gonna give you unsolicited career advice.”

“We are campus recruiters. Of course we think you’re a good fit for the role. But we want to know why YOU think so!”

Build. That. Brand!

Handshake offers students and employers so many ways to connect throughout the college to career journey. Recruiting teams that think like marketers are the ones that will win with Gen Z talent. Use Handshake as a platform for not just achieving your recruiting goals, but also for building a brand that early talent loves.

Check out the Handshake feed for inspiration on how the employer community is engaging students and new grads with authentic content.




Try these 6 things to build your employer brand on Handshake

How to create content for the Handshake feed (with calendar template)

Your game plan for winning early talent

How to use your employer brand to resonate with Gen Z

How to Build a Strong Brand That Attracts Gen Z

Engage early talent with your Brand Page

Network Trends

Actionable data from our network of students, career centers, and employers.

Data-driven insights from the Handshake network

Key takeaways

There has been an almost 17 times increase in jobs mentioning TikTok since 2019-2020.

A diverse range of sectors are seeking TikTok knowledge including Media & Marketing, Education, Non-Profit, Technology, and Healthcare employers.

For employers, TikTok signals an interest in a wide range of skills: including content creation, graphic design, video editing, knowledge of the Adobe Creative Suite, and Google Analytics.

Jobs mentioning TikTok have an application rate of 26 applications per every one job posted. Roles mentioning TikTok on average receive more applications than similar roles that do not mention the platform.

Introduction

Since its initial launch in 2016, TikTok has quickly outgrown its reputation as an entertainment app to become an education platform, podium for science communicators and medical professionals, and even White House outreach tool.

It’s no surprise then that the fastest-to-one-billion-users app has also emerged as a much desired skill by employers on the Handshake network. But what are employers actually looking for when they ask for TikTok skills? And are jobseekers, especially a digital-first generation that goes to video to make meaningful connections, actually applying?

To better understand how the video-first shift has affected early talent hiring, we analyzed almost ten thousand job descriptions from the Handshake network mentioning the video platform.

Below are four takeaways

According to data from the Handshake network, jobs mentioning TikTok have seen an almost 17 times increase since the same time period in 2019-2020. This rapid rise in employer demand appears linked to two factors: first, mentions of TikTok skills coincided with the exponential growth of TikTok’s user base at the beginning during the first COVID-19 lockdown, during which time the app became the fastest social media platform to reach 1 billion users.


Second, TikTok growth is correlated with a broader demand for video-related skills in employer job descriptions (specifically, video editing and video production). This is in response to a larger shift toward video content: Cisco has predicted that by the end of 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic, 15 times greater than in 2017. In either case, employers are going where the eyes are and recruiting Gen Z talent to get them there.

In what sectors are employers looking for TikTok skills? It turns out, all of them. The infographic above breaks down the sectors seeking TikTok knowledge: almost a fifth of jobs listing TikTok are in the Media & Marketing sector, followed by Arts & Entertainment (15%), Education (12%), Non-Profit (8%), Technology (8%), and Healthcare (3%). A closer read of job descriptions hint at the ways that employers across industries defer to prospective applicants to not only generate content, but create the broader digital marketing strategy: statements like “we want to create an environment where your creativity openly flows” and titles like “TikTok Guru” and “Junior Influencer Strategist” position applicants as the in-house experts.

For employers, TikTok signals a need for a wide network of skills that include knowledge of emerging social media platforms, content creation, verbal and written communication skills, graphic design, video editing, knowledge of the Adobe Creative suite, and Google Analytics. The visual above displays the results of a text analysis identifying phrases most commonly associated with “TikTok”.

In other words, employers are looking to Gen Z employees to do it all. And unlike the other most highly occurring social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), TikTok’s focus on user-generated, organic video content indicates yet another tool expected to be in the applicant’s toolkit that once belonged to a more highly specialized role. This is confirmed when looking at the top job roles asking for TikTok skills: Marketing Specialists, Public Relations Specialists, Graphic Designers, followed by, to a much lesser extent, Camera Operators and Film Editors.

Like employers, applicants to these jobs are cutting across industries and degree types: while marketing majors make up the most applications for TikTok roles (11%), other majors include Business Administration (11%), Communication (4%), Economics (4%), Psychology (3%), and Communication Studies (2%).

With the exception of Public Relations Managers, roles mentioning TikTok had a higher number of applications per job than comparable jobs not mentioning the platform. Graph 2 compares the application rate (application to jobs) for job roles mentioning TikTok compared to those that do not mention the app. Interestingly, the highest largest gap in application rates are seen in Graphic Design and Film and Video Editor roles, where jobs mentioning TikTok in the past two years received more than twice as many applications compared to comparable jobs not mentioning the platform.

There are a few potential reasons for this:

Interest in audience: jobs (and employers) mentioning the skillset may be in spaces that are more attractive to applicants than those that do not, with audiences that applicants are eager to engage with.

Perceived employer competence: jobs (and employers) that see TikTok as a strategic channel are seen as being more competitive or forward-thinking than those who don’t.

Applicant confidence: applicants may view the request for TikTok expertise as aligned with their own skillsets, encouraging them to apply.

Conclusion

Like the platform itself, employer demand (and applicant interest) in TikTok has exploded over the past two years. However, to focus only on the platform itself is to miss some of the key trends driving it:

What this means for employers: For those already seeking out Gen Z talent to run social media platforms, think beyond TikTok to the underlying video-first transition that it represents. As well, consider the way this set of once-specialized skills (analytics, video editing, content creation, graphic design) are converging into single roles—and make sure the role speaks to the other factors that Gen Z is seeking in their next job. Finally, be sure to integrate your “TikTok Gurus” into the larger organizational culture to ensure they’re ready to adapt to the next communication channel.

What this means for jobseekers: TikTok (and user-generated content) is a marketable job skill, but it's not the only skill employers are looking for. Lean into the underlying competencies that the platform is speaking to: digital marketing toolkits, video editing, brand awareness. How will you talk about these skills 2 years from now?

Employer and job seeker interest in TikTok explodes

Recruitment used to work like this: 

You’d post a job ad in the newspaper or on an online job board and watch applicants roll in.

Today? 

Job boards still have their place in the modern recruitment process, with 78% of job seekers identifying job network sites as their primary place for finding employment.

However, with Gen Z having officially overtaken Baby Boomers in the workforce  as of 2024, hiring teams aren’t only experiencing a shift in who they’re recruiting—there are also major shifts in how they’re attracting them.

Put simply: 

It’s no longer enough to think like a recruiter. You need to think like a marketer.

A recruiter’s role is no longer transactional. It’s transformational.

Not that long ago, recruitment was mostly transactional. This is the job—take it or leave it.

But that one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t resonate with today’s job seekers, particularly Gen Z. 

They see the recruitment and hiring process as more of a two-way exchange. They know employers are evaluating them, but they’re also evaluating employers to find the right match for their values and career ambitions.

That means a single, copy-pasted job post isn’t enough to grab their attention and encourage them to apply.

A recruiter’s role is changing to one that can influence careers, and transform how a generation of talent engages with the job search process.

How does Gen Z research your employer brand and decide if they want to take next steps?

Why are talent acquisition teams are at the forefront of developing a strong employer brand and getting it out in front of candidates, rather than waiting for them to stumble into your pipeline?

Recruiters need to think like marketers now because as Gen Zers evaluate career opportunities, they want to see:

Behind-the-scenes peeks about what it’s like to work for your organization: 73% of Gen Z candidates say they’re more likely to apply after seeing behind-the-scenes content from an employer.

Information about your company values: 70% of Gen Z want to work for a company whose values align with their own.

Content from existing employees and interns: 75% of 2024 graduates prefer to read reviews from current and former employees before applying for a job.

Proactive outreach from employers: 46% of new hires polled in the first quarter of 2024 said they were recruited to their jobs rather than applying themselves and 87% of Gen Z job seekers say they think responding to an employer’s message online can lead to job opportunities.

Think it all sounds like an entirely separate function on top of your already towering to-do list? It doesn’t need to be. 

Recruiting Gen Z on Handshake means you’re seamlessly integrating your brand content with your recruitment strategy in one place so you can target and connect with early talent where they already are.

4 ways to recruit like a marketer on Handshake

Understandably, it can feel daunting to adapt to new expectations in your role. But the future of work requires you to stay on top of Gen Z trends in your recruitment marketing and expand your skillset.

Fortunately, making the transition to modern recruiting and flexing your marketing muscles doesn’t need to feel like a drastic departure from what you’ve already been doing.

You’re likely used to putting yourself out there at career fairs and campus events, and you can tap that same energy and enthusiasm when engaging students on Handshake. Not to mention, most people create or engage with digital marketing or social media in their personal lives on a daily basis.

To start recruiting like a marketer, here are 4 ways you can shift your recruiting tactics from transactional to transformational.

1. Actively post to the Handshake feed

With 68% of students saying they research an employers’ brand when considering a job through social media, news stories, employer testimonials, reviews and more, you can more effectively target, attract, engage, and hire early career talent with full-funnel recruiting.

Handshake’s early career social network brings together students, employers, and career services to create key moments for early talent, where and when it matters most.

Go beyond job descriptions to share your story on the feed. You can post photos, videos, and other content on behalf of your company or post using your personal brand.

Wondering what to post? Here are examples based on top-performing content:

Behind-the-scenes video clips of a day-in-the-life of an employee or intern

Short interviews with employees about why they love your company

Tips from hiring managers about what they look for in candidates

Advice for getting the most out of fairs and events

2. Connect and engage with proactive outreach

Boost your impact by reaching out to right-fit candidates—rather than waiting for them to come to you. In fact, 70% of students say they’d be more likely to apply to a job if they receive a message from an employer.

This is easy to do in Handshake Talent Engagement Suite, where you can use Segments to target qualified audiences and Campaigns and messaging to get the attention of top talent.

With Handshake Campaigns, you can:

Personalize your messages with dynamic variables

Highlight relevant career interests specific to candidates

Include clear calls to action to encourage engagement

Deliver your messages at the best time for maximum impact

Being the first one to reach out with a genuine and personalized message emphasizes to early talent that you treat the recruitment and hiring process like a mutually-beneficial relationship—not a cold and impersonal transaction.

3. Build out your Handshake Brand Page

If your company catches students’ attention on Handshake, they’ll check out your Handshake Brand Page. Make it the most accurate representation of your employer brand by:

Sharing your existing profile with interns to ask for and implement their feedback

Asking interns to write reviews and testimonials to feature on your profile

Featuring employees early talent can directly connect with

Adding images and video to your gallery to bring your company to life

Highlighting featured posts to share up-to-date information about your company

As you refresh your Brand Page, use your company values as your North Star to ensure your profile aligns with your larger vision. And remember to triple-check for inclusive language throughout all of your content.

4. Forge strong relationships

Gen Z wants authenticity over a polished corporate image. Allowing them to connect with people outside of the hiring team is a great way to exceed that expectation and engage top talent. This helps you build a more authentic brand and give early talent the insider insights about what it’s really like to work for your company.

Career fairs and events are one key channel for relationship building, and a springboard for students to start building their professional networks. But your cross-functional team can also use Handshake to message students, post on the feed, and serve as Advocates.

Campus recruiters are in a unique role to influence moments that matter on a student’s college to career journey

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), low numbers of applicants and stiff competition from other employers are the top two recruitment difficulties facing companies today.

Fortunately, powerful recruitment marketing can address both of those challenges. When you recruit like a marketer, you can tell talent at all stages of career discovery a compelling story about what makes your employer a place they’d want to work.

Transformative early career moments happen beyond the job board. 

Find out how you can harness Handshake to build your brand during the most formative period of career discovery. Talk to us.

The college recruiter’s role is changing

Handshake is working to democratize opportunity by democratizing information. Some of the biggest barriers to opportunity are because of a student’s access to advice and insights on how to navigate the professional world, or lack thereof.

To help bridge the information gap for all students, we recently launched Student Reviews. Reviews allow students to learn from the job and internship experiences of other students across the Handshake network, equipping all students with an informed career exploration and job search process. Handshake is uniquely positioned to help foster a learning environment across our community of  students and young alumni from more than  schools of every size, type and location.

Student Reviews also provide more opportunities for employers to engage students and further promote their brand.

Here are three best practices to help you turn the feedback loop into a critical recruiting tool that will fill your pipeline with informed and engaged candidates:

1. Respond to Student Reviews

Student Reviews on Handshake give you the opportunity to communicate directly with your former interns on their experiences. Positive or negative, you are now invited to join the conversation and share your side too. When responding, we recommend keeping the following tips in mind:

Engage: While companies aren't obligated to respond to a review, we encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to engage with students. Responding can showcase how your company takes feedback seriously and values it from all levels.

Be empathetic: Authenticity and empathy are key for today’s students. If a review includes constructive feedback, acknowledge the reviewer’s comments and provide additional information on ways the company is addressing those issues.

Offer follow-Up: Reviews are a starting point for a broader conversation that can take place one-on-one. To gain further insight about a student’s experience, you can offer a follow up to take the conversation offline.

Say thank you!: Our goal is to provide a supportive and open community that encourages balanced feedback, but we know it can feel daunting for a student to press submit with their name attached. Dropping a quick note just to say “thanks!” can go a long way for a student.

2. Activate your interns as brand ambassadors

Positive reviews are your most valuable recruiting asset. With the majority of job seekers reading up to seven reviews before forming an opinion about a company (Source: Glassdoor U.S. Site Survey), it’s crucial that:

You have reviews

They are either positive or constructively addressed (see best practice #1)

So where to begin?

Leverage the resources you already have: current and former interns! Students with actual experience at your company are your best advocates, as they give future interns an authentic look into the company from peers.

When students start submitting Reviews again in August 2018, make sure you are in a position to take full advantage of this valuable feature. Follow these tips to drive more Handshake Student Reviews:

3. Use Student Reviews as a roadmap for future intern programming

Feedback is incredibly valuable — and the fuel for positive change. Taking the time to hear back from interns authentically will help you build a strong employer brand and give your organization a competitive advantage for the upcoming recruiting season.

Handshake Student Reviews illustrate extremely thoughtful, balanced, and constructive feedback. Such high quality, nuanced reviews written by students from all schools, majors, and backgrounds, provide your organization with a holistic view into personal experience and brand perception.

Make your past interns feel heard while improving the experience for future interns:

Reach out to thoughtful, constructive reviewers and request a 30 minute interview to dig deeper into their intern experience and concerns

Invite past interns to “planning workshops” as you build out your next intern program, including them in the process

Pair past interns with new hires as “advisors” to give them a chance to mentor a younger student as well as assist with on-boarding pains

Student Reviews are essential to building a strong employer brand and engaging with past, present, and future interns. Leverage them most effectively by trying out these best practices!

Leverage student reviews on Handshake to augment your employer brand