Companies promote recruitment via livestreaming in China

Livestreaming shows for recruitment, one of the most popular online recruitment methods lately, is in the ascendant on Chinese short-video sharing platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou.

An interview instructor (left) and a live streamer give tips on job interviews during a livestreaming show held at a studio in Qianjiang district, southwest China’s Chongqing municipality, Feb. 27, 2021. (People’s Daily Online/Yang Min)

Instead of selling commodities, many live streamers on these platforms are promoting jobs. Some vloggers on the country’s popular video sharing platform Bilibili now post videos to show viewers the work environment of companies. Such novel methods of recruitment as well as online job fairs have gradually dominated online job hunting and recruitment in China, helping more job seekers chase their dreams.

Meanwhile, more and more job hunters in China are willing to try new ways to seek employment.

Niu Yanbin, a 48-year-old woman in China, saw a livestreaming show offering job information by chance and found a satisfying job for herself in the end.

“At first I just wanted to help my friend get a job. But then I found that quite a lot of the jobs were suitable for people of my age. So my friend and I both sent resumes,” Niu said. The middle-aged applicant later became a worker on an intelligent equipment production line of a factory.

“I used to earn 3,000 yuan ($450) a month at most in my hometown, but now my salary has doubled. Thanks to the livestreaming show that provided the job information, I could find such a lovely job,” Niu said.

Liu Chao is one of the first live streamers to promote job opportunities via livestreaming. “While other live streamers promote goods, we promote positions to help job hunters find ideal jobs more conveniently,” said Liu.

A recruiter with a company (left) briefs job seekers on the company’s basic information, recruitment requirements and salary and compensation system during a livestreaming show held in Nantong city, east China’s Jiangsu province, Feb. 10, 2022. (People’s Daily Online/Xu Congjun)

Liu posted his first short video for recruitment information on Kuaishou in April 2020. Now he runs a labor service company and has over 700,000 followers on the platform. His videos can help about 200 to 300 people find jobs every month, according to Liu.

Since March, a precision manufacturing company based in Changzhou, east China’s Jiangsu province, has cooperated with Liu for online recruitment, which has become a major means of recruiting workers for the company.

The company’s production lines normally require 700 to 800 workers, and often face labor shortages during the peak production season, according to Xu Kun, a human resources manager at the company.

“In the past, we always use the traditional recruitment methods, including participating in offline job fairs and putting up recruitment posters at the gate of our factory, which turned out to be not productive,” Xu said, adding that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, recruiting migrant workers becomes more difficult.

“After we carried out cooperation with Liu, his team would take photos and make videos of our factory and show our work environment via livestreaming. In addition to clearly telling viewers our requirements, Liu also explains in detail local anti-epidemic policies so that job hunters from other regions can know whether they are allowed to enter Changzhou and what they are supposed to do to protect themselves from the virus after arriving the city, which makes recruitment so much easier for us,” Xu said, adding that the recent 100 openings released by the company have been basically filled in a very short time.

As this year’s graduation season approaches, many universities and government departments have actively provided services to facilitate online job applications for graduates.

In mid-April, Wuhan University of Technology arranged five independent video conferencing rooms at its Nanhu Library, which are provided for graduates for free, according to an administrator of the university. The rooms are not only equipped with computers and dual cameras, but have fill lights, tripods, microphones and other devices.

A staff member with a talent resources market in Qinhuangdao city, north China’s Hebei province, provides information about jobs for viewers during a livestreaming show, April 19, 2022. (People’s Daily Online/Cao Jianxiong)

“More than 90 percent of these video conferencing rooms are booked each day. They have been used by over 200 graduates since they were opened,” said a staff member at the library.

China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security carried out special events for the employment of graduates in large- and medium-sized cities from March 14 to May 20. Employers and human resources service agencies from various fields were encouraged to take part in the events, which included online job fairs targeting certain industries, regions and types of talents, recruitment-related livestreaming shows and online recruitment talks.

Online recruitment, among other new methods of recruitment, can effectively meet the employment needs of different groups of people. It reduces job-hunting costs, increases opportunities and improves the efficiency of matching job openings to job seekers, and at the same time provides good publicity for companies to improve their images, bearing great significance for matching supply with demand on the job market and stabilizing employment.