The Future of Social Media Screening for a Gen Z Workforce

In 2024, Gen Z employees are set to outnumber Baby Boomers, while millennials are on track to make up half of the global workforce. Over the next 5 years, 75% of the workforce will be made up of digital natives, with Gen Z workers accounting for about 30% of the U.S. workforce. Unlike previous generations, millennials and Gen Z have grown up with technology at the core of their daily lives. In fact, technology is changing so much of our world that 90% of all the world’s data was created just within the last two years. There are billions of pieces of content being created on social media each and every day, and this shift requires a new approach to understanding young candidates, with social media screening as a key solution.

A key difference between these digital natives and previous generations is their use of social media. As social media has evolved, so has social media screening. With the rise of video content, screening video has become more important than ever.

What’s Changed About Social Media Usage?

Social media is a daily habit for users across the globe. In fact, recent data suggests the average social media user spends just under 2.5 hours each day on social media platforms. In 2014, Pew Research reported that 24% of adults used Instagram, a platform that is based on visual content, while 58% of adults used Facebook, a platform that allows for text-based content in addition to images and videos.

Just four years later, 35% of adults used Instagram and 68% of adults used Facebook. The latest update in this study shows that, in 2023, 47% of adults report using Instagram and the number of Facebook users has remained constant at 68%. While Facebook usage continues to remain high across demographics, video based platforms are rising in the ranks. In fact, in 2020 TikTok, another social media platform rooted in visual content, had about 700 million active users. In 2024, that number is expected to surpass 1.8 billion monthly active users. This is explosive growth in video based platform adoption and video content creation.

Video has rapidly become a dominant form of content on social media platforms, significantly influencing how people consume information and interact online. The rise of platforms like TikTok and features like Instagram’s Reels, where more than 200 billion Reels are viewed daily, have popularized short-form video content. These quick, engaging clips are easy to consume and share, leading to widespread adoption by users of all demographics, but this is especially true for millennials and Gen Z, who account for 36.2% of TikTok users, making them the largest audience on the app.

As mentioned, these younger generations grew up with social media, whereas older generations adopted social media as it was introduced and tend to prefer earlier platforms. So, it’s not very surprising to learn that data from 2023 reports 69% of 50-64 year olds use Facebook whereas 24% of users from the same age group use TikTok.

Conversely, 67% of 18-19 year olds use Facebook but 62% of users from this age group also use TikTok. Younger generations are adopting and actively using multiple platforms at the same rate but they do have their preferences. From a young age, Gen Z has had plenty of social media options available at their fingertips (literally). But, the platforms that get the most engagement are those that are heavily reliant on video content, like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube.

The point is, social media usage is heavily shifting toward video-based content, especially among Gen Z users. And frankly, with 50 million Gen Zers expected to enter the workforce in the coming years, businesses need to adjust to cater to a generation of digital natives that are making their own mark, especially in relation to their adaptability to technology and their preferences towards video content and video content based platforms

Candidate Screening is Changing

While DVDs are still available today, they’re rarely used with people favoring on demand video content. Similarly, catching up with long distance friends and family was primarily done through phone calls or email, or even hand written letters. These methods are of course still very relevant however, social media is now the most prominent (and convenient) location for these interactions to occur. The same is true for traditional methods of candidate screening that didn’t take into account an applicant’s online presence.

With the exponential growth of social media in recent years, there’s a lot more information publicly available about candidates. So, screening candidates using traditional methods based on their resume or prior work experience isn’t cutting it anymore. 

Online behavior can have a great impact on workplace culture, so much so that employers are liable for online interactions that happen between employees, even if those conversations  weren’t happening in the office or even during work hours. Understanding how your employees behave online is no longer a nice to have it's a have to have. It should come as little surprise that social media can greatly impact workplace relationships, so employers need to ensure candidates are capable of maintaining a positive work environment on and offline. 

That said, resumes and interviews aren’t enough to ensure that candidates will add value to workplace cultures. They might be one indicator of whether or not a candidate is capable of completing the day to day tasks of the job, but there’s more to learn.

Soft skills and personality can be a game changer when it comes to effective communication and productivity. And with how much social media has evolved into video-based platforms and how quickly digital natives are expected to take over the workforce, screening needs to evolve as well in order to gain a holistic view of candidates. Ultimately, screening a candidates online footprint including video content is a must. 

What Social Media Screening can Reveal About Candidates

With social media usage being a constant in our daily lives, it’s not very surprising to learn that it’s also being incorporated into candidate screening practices outside of the social recruiting platforms that have been around for decades. Social media-based platforms not only allow employers to connect with potential candidates by promoting job openings, but social media screening platforms can now also offer hiring teams valuable insights into a candidate's character, behavior, and overall suitability for a job role. 

These behavioral intelligence insights span across identifying signs of misconduct as well as uncover information about how a candidate might fit in with the team and perform if hired. The way we communicate says a lot about our personalities, and our personalities can impact what skills and competencies we excel at. With this in mind, online content and social media posts can be used to evaluate behaviors. In other words, online screening can now be used to conduct psychometric evaluations by analyzing online content without requiring any action taken by the candidate. And, research from Virginia Tech University is proving that these advanced technologies can do so through video, as well. 

Ultimately, social media screening can provide a more comprehensive view of a candidate beyond what’s presented in their resume and during interviews. By examining their online behavior, communication style, and interactions, employers can gain valuable insights into how well-suited a candidate is for a role, potential red flags, and overall alignment with the company’s culture and values.

And, as video platforms continue to gain momentum, more and more users, especially Gen Z users, are spending their time creating and consuming video content. So, when it comes to screening candidates for personality traits and workplace competencies, hiring teams need to conduct their screenings on the platforms which are gaining momentum among the incoming generation of workers. 

How to Conduct Social Media Screening for a Gen Z Workforce

The future of social media content is video. Without addressing video content, hiring teams are missing out on important information that could sway hiring decisions. The reality is that Gen Z and millennial employees are unlike the generations before them. They’re used to sharing their lives online, meaning their digital footprint is a good representation of who they are. 

TikTok and Instagram Reels are two of the most highly used video content platforms. In fact, adults are spending more than 30 minutes each day on Instagram, so there’s plenty of content to sift through when it comes to evaluating candidates through social media screening. 

So, when it comes to screening this generation of workers in particular, the screening process needs to shift to be able to meet Gen Z users where they are – and that’s on video based platforms. 

Fortunately, Fama is here with the latest technology in social media screening to address the vast amounts of online content continuously being created. Fama Plus takes social media screening a step further than prior versions of our technology to take video content into account with our new premium sources. By screening video content like those on TikTok and Instagram Reels, hiring teams are better equipped with the data they need to make informed decisions based on the actions that candidates have taken online. And, this process takes manual screening out of the equation, saving talent acquisition teams 30 hours of time that would otherwise be spent evaluating one TikTok and one Instagram profile alone. 

With Fama in your tech stack, you can compliantly screen all kinds of online content to get an accurate picture of your candidates. To upgrade your candidate screening processes, reach out to the Fama team today to book a demo of our products!