Why is everyone talking about… 'WorkTok' trends

If you haven’t been in the loop of ‘WorkTok’, or the working trends that younger employees discuss on TikTok, you may want to start. As HR Magazine reminds us, Gen Z will comprise 30% of our workforce by the end of this decade. And they’re being honest about what they encounter in work on social media platforms like TikTok. It’s estimated that around 40% of the UK’s 23 million users are aged between 18 and 24.

Younger workers are using ‘WorkTok’ to express dissatisfaction with their jobs by using hashtags such as #ActYourWage, #BareMinimumMondays, #RageApplying and #JobShiftShock. For example, #ActYourWage has 665 million views on TikTok, encouraging employees to refrain from taking on additional hours and work that they are not compensated for. These trends are having a very real consequence on employee engagement and call into question issues of burnout, compensation and more. 

Concepts like these have indicated a shift away from the pure disengagement of ’quiet quitting’ to a more nuanced discussion around compensation versus expectations: “Until [ActYourWage emerged], the word 'quitting' indicated that it was something terrible. People were giving up rather than staying loyal etc”, says Seb York, People Partner (HRBP) at Cardiff Community Housing Association.

It’s not however just a numbers game, says Seb: “As long as the fair wage is an absolute minimum, there might still be a difference between what high or acceptable performance means to managers and employees.” He explains: “Clear expectations, open communication, support and trust are what we need to ensure that people are not 'quiet quitting' where there is no need for that.”

Ultimately, negative ‘WorkTok’ trends like these come from your employees feeling a lack of trust and appreciation. To target that, we’d suggest going back to your foundations with the following actions to rebuild that:

• Build a fair pay structure: Use compensation management to ensure that you are rewarding employees in a justifiable and fair manner. Conduct regular salary reviews and address pay inequities, particularly with those early in their careers.

• Open communication up: Think about using your company-wide meetings or anonymous surveys to check in with employees on how they feel about their wages and benefits and what might be leading to disengagement from them.

• Manage your employer brand: Try to build a strong social media presence so you can shape the narrative on your company culture and keep an eye on mentions of your company so they can be addressed directly and professionally.

• Assess your work-life balance: Could the likes of #ActYourWage have more to do with unaddressed longer hours? Take an honest look at your approach to meeting and communication times, deadlines to reply and potential unrealistic expectations. 

• This week in HR: Unpaid overtime

• This week in HR: Energy check-ins

• This week in HR: The cost of quiet quitting

That's all for this week's edition of Personio Pulse: This Week in HR. Check back next week as we continue to dissect the latest trends impacting the ways we work. 

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