What’s trending?
Workfluencers are influencers who share work-related content on social media platforms such as LinkedIn and TikTok. With the shift to remote work, many employees do not have the opportunity to discuss work with co-workers, as they would at the watercooler in an office environment. This type of content has shown to really resonate with a significant number of people. Workfluencer Cece Xie has already amassed a following of 416,000 on TikTok. She shares jokes and career tips for junior lawyers as well as personal work experiences. The workfluencer trend marks a shift to vulnerable and authentic posts about employees’ day-to-day work lives. Some are going as far as highlighting controversial issues such as pay transparency.
Why is it important?
For Gen Zers, this is a new avenue in which to express workplace highs and lows in an environment where watercooler conversations are hard to come by. This type of content shows the behind-the-scenes environment of a particular company, and could be helpful for those considering working there. These kinds of blogs are also helping followers discover new careers. The hashtag #CareerTok has over 64 million views. This career and job-related community allows advice to be shared, opening up further avenues for HR departments to widen their search. Some people sharing their workplace details online are turning this into lucrative side hustles. Many young people are finding that their regular salary is not enough and need side hustles to make ends meet.
What can businesses do about it?
Employees can get fired if they contravene the rules of the organisations they work for. So companies should develop guidelines about what employees can share publicly in a social media policy document. Some companies are embracing these partnerships, seeing career influencers as a way to get people engaged. Linkedin announced that an internal team was being built to recruit and support creators. Said Linkedin influencer Justin Welsh about the Linkedin team, “We get constant communication from them encouraging us to share workplace, personal, candid, open stories”. Walmart, H&M, Amazon, Huawei, Dunkin’, Zappos, Dell and Samsung are nurturing successful employee influencer programmes. Hearing what these workfluencers have to say humanises a brand and can help companies retain high-profile talent and recruit new employees.
By Faeeza Khan
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Image credit: Christina@wocintechchat.com
