Want to attract top talent? Of course you do!
By now, you’ve probably tried everything — worked to tailor a smooth onboarding process, made the job application easy, offered great incentives — and yet something is missing. Perhaps it’s still tough to measure a culture fit without going through too many interviews, and you end up burning time, energy, and resources trying to find talent that also shares your company values and mission. Ineffective hiring can lead to increased recruiting costs, so business leaders are now rethinking their methodology, and recruitment events are an inventive approach that’s currently gaining traction.
If you’re not meeting candidates where they are, you could be missing out on the best of the best, not just for the role, but for your company.
Why bother with a recruiting event?
1. Flexibility
Recruiting events can be done in various formats — offline, online, or both. You could set up job fairs, networking events, casual mixers, workshops, webinars, and even onsite open-house events. Instead of a plain old form application, this allows you to spice up the process and add some personality to the otherwise tedious initiative. Plus, offering different formats of events helps from an accessibility standpoint, allowing even more people to attend!
2. Great networking platform
Two birds, one stone! (Hint: the stone is recruitment events). You not only get to meet your potential hires, but also have the chance to make a positive impression on other professionals, experts, and perhaps even future leaders, who will remember you for your innovative approach. Who knows, you may even find people to keep in mind for future job vacancies. One recruitment event could lead to hiring for multiple roles in the future at different time frames. Now, that’s foresight!
3. Establish company values
What better way to introduce yourself than hosting a party? You’ll want your future employees to get the culture memo from day zero. Recruitment events allow for a lot of flexibility in how you host, and that leaves a huge window of opportunity to add personality and exhibit your unique work culture. It’s this directness and transparency that most candidates aren’t offered when we recruit via the same form-and-mail approach. The added bonus of gaining insights on how a company works helps the candidate ascertain if they are the right fit for you, thus saving everyone’s time and energy.
4. Meet the candidate in a more relaxed setup
This might be the primary challenge that recruitment events address. You most often meet candidates via their resumes and cover letters, and when you get to the interview stage, candidates have likely rehearsed and practiced their answers on several other interviews. Where’s the real person behind the resumes and the script? Unique interview questions will get you most of the way there, but if you want to meet people; you have to break the norm. A meet-and-greet, or a fun hackathon for a recruitment event helps the candidate get out of their formal interview self and act like who they are outside of the script, which helps you see the person you’ll be working with. Not everyone’s talent shines on paper alone, either! Recruitment events help you scout for talent that might perform the best in a real-world scenario or networking event.
5. Build community
If done right, a recruitment event can do more than finding the right person — it can find you tons of the right people who resonate with your ethos and vision. Events where brands break the formal fourth wall to meet an interested jobseeker could make for the origins of an exciting journey together. These events can go a long way in creating an ever-lasting favorable impression for your brand and employer in the minds of the people who attend. And as they say, first impressions are lasting impressions, and there’s no replacing hands-on experience. Recruitment events can help people get a feel of what it’s like to be in the same room as your business.
6. Learn!
Change has become such a constant in our lives that just about everyone is in a position to learn something new. Recruitment events help you make a giant leap in your learning curve, not just as an employer but also as a market force. You’ll get insight on potential hires and what they look for in a company while applying, what benefits they are seeking, what kind of remuneration, representation, the list goes on! Not just that, but how do they feel about your business and products? Not just as a potential employee, but also as consumers.
Alright, we’ve given you six good reasons to start adding recruitment events to your calendar. But, wait, isn’t your calendar already pretty packed? And you can’t just wish these events into existence, they take a lot of planning!
Organizing recruiting events
We can help you get started with a couple of things you’ll need to get your recruitment event(s) up and running:
Event 101:
Let’s start with the basics first. You’ve decided to set up an event, so you’ll need to ask a few questions at the start. Number one: do we do this online or offline?
Pro tip: Virtual job fairs allow for more people to connect and they can also be recorded and done from the comfort of your own space.
Next: When do you plan on doing this? How many attendees are you expecting, and how many do we want to attend? How about the venue? For virtual events, this typically means a hosting platform, and these range from simple solutions your company might already use to bespoke software solutions that have a bunch of additional features.
Once you have figured out the when, where, and how, you’ll want to move to the "what". Any documents or materials you want distributed need to be prepared. There may be an introduction deck to prepare, and you’ll want to finalize the speakers and stakeholders from your company and determine the format of the session — aka, interactive activities, Q&As, etc.
Promotions:
Promotions for a recruitment event look different from your typical marketing campaigns, and you should on rolling them out in phases. Start executing the marketing collateral around the event out at least two-three weeks prior to the event. Needless to say, the promotional material needs to be ready long before launch. You can leverage social media, email marketing, digital banners, local and physical advertisement, and even internal communications to get more traffic. As the date nears, your marketing messaging needs to go from inviting to reminding and eventually following up with those who have RSVP’d.
Check and double-check:
Events have a lot of stuff to follow up on and stay on top of, from the attendees who have signed up to the hosts of the event, guest speakers (if any), venue arrangements, and if those Zoom links are working for everyone. For a smooth event, everything has to fall into place, and this means being prepared with a backup plan and being ready to troubleshoot if need be!
Now, this may sound overwhelming at the onset. Putting out a recruitment event from scratch and making sure it hits the mark smoothly can mean a lot of little things that have to be done perfectly, and we know that not every recruiting team has the bandwidth to run events at the frequency or scale they’d like to. Maybe this would be your first event and you’d like some guidance on how to get rolling. Maybe this is your 20th event and you’d like to ensure the events are accessible and attract diverse talent. So, if you need help, PowerToFlyhas got you covered!
Professionally-run recruitment events
Our virtual job fairs provide an online space for professionals across the globe to come together and find their match, creating opportunities that might not otherwise exist. Our events are not just about filling positions, but also about fostering connections and creating space for a long-term relationship with talent.
Over the last decade of our establishment, we have created a thriving community of highly qualified and interested talent on our platform. We strive to continuously offer the most innovative and up-to-date technical infrastructure, tools, and techniques to our community. Our virtual job fairs have had over 60,000 people register, with 84% of the participants at mid-level seniority.
And, as a business dedicated to furthering DEIB, our talent pool is wide and diverse. We ensure our recruitment events allow businesses to meet voices from all strata of society. We see a high turnaround of female (72%), black (31%), and Asian (25%) talents.
Come, join us, and connect with the person, not just the candidate!Head right here for PowerToFly recruitment events.
