Thinking of hosting a virtual career fest for job seekers to help them explore further growth opportunities? You are at the right place at the right time. Virtual career fairs may be relatively new but they sure do give head hunters a chance to network with, and interview potential candidates to fill in the required positions at their organizations. Some HR professionals may find it difficult to navigate or prepare for online career fairs but once you know the ins and outs of virtual environments, they offer quite a positive experience for both the organizers and the attendees.
Undoubtedly transitioning from in-person events to the virtual world brings its own challenges but at the same time, it enables potential candidates to interact with hiring managers one-on-one in real-time far from the madding crowd. This individual focus consequently gives companies an advantage in hiring and supports them in finding only the right talent. Look at the bigger picture here, now once you have found the perfect fit you don’t need to invest in candidates’ due diligence processes over and over again. Hence, resources are saved.
Having said that, virtual career fests are a great way to familiarize potential talent with your company. This is especially crucial for start-ups and companies who are in the early stages of growth. Large enterprises can also better improve their employer brand visibility by offering compelling job opportunities and positive event experiences.
Benefits of organizing a virtual career fest
Social distancing aside, the benefits of virtual career fairs are twofold. After learning about the merits of online career fairs, you may want to stick around well beyond this pandemic. Don’t just take our word for it.
Reach
Virtual career fairs are not defined by geographical boundaries; which makes it easier for HR professionals to connect with top talent from anywhere in the world. Additionally, potential employees can join in either from their favorite coffee shop, the comfort of their homes, or even while having a spa day. No kidding.
Cost-saving
Virtual career fairs are exceptionally cost-effective. No question there. Just think of all the extra expenses you can save: venue, refreshments, tangible marketing materials, travel, and whatnot when hosting a virtual event.
Time-efficient
Planning a physical event takes time. You may need to book the venue way in advance to secure your slot. Whereas virtual events are easier to organize. All you have to do is decide your theme, plan out your schedule, pick up a virtual career fair hosting platform, invite your attendees, set up a landing page, get registrations and you are ready to roll. Planning a virtual event, on average, usually takes about six weeks. Imagine what your team can do with all that extra time!
Networking
In physical events, networking is all over the place. Whereas in virtual career fests HR personnel can maintain their focus without being overwhelmed by the crowd and similarly candidates can network with one employer at a time.
Analytics
You can easily measure your ROI and turnaround rate through real-time analytics. Moreover, key stakeholders can collect valuable attendee information for impactful and targeted recruitment campaigns.
Personalization
Nowadays personalization is more important than ever for building brand loyalty. Therefore, you can create personalized content that speaks with the candidates directly. You can share varying downloadable content such as company-culture videos, CEO interviews, candidate-centric FAQs et al. to attract their attention.
Tips to shake up your virtual career fest
Moving forward, in this blog I will share some tips to shake up your next virtual career fest and to get through the entire process effortlessly. Learn how to plan, and engage your audience using a virtual platform for improving your chances of finding the right fit.
Event marketing before the big day
Pre-planning and promoting your virtual career fest is as important as in-person events. However, they both demand varying marketing strategies to ensure ultimate success and experience. Therefore it is very important to learn how to promote your event for maximum online buzz.
Create an attention-grabbing event landing page. Use your brand guidelines to make it stand out. Generate interest and entice candidates to register by including engaging visuals, and videos. Moreover, email marketing and teasers can always create hype for your event. Use social media for regularly posting buzz-worthy content and event updates. Last but not the least, you can always request your sponsors and/or partners to spread the word.
3D platform over 2D, any day
New graduates love career fests. There are two common reasons. One; for securing career growth opportunities and the second being, networking. They’re all about building long-lasting relationships with employers from the fortune 500 simply to learn and succeed. Similarly, in-person events make things happen. But with stay home policies, how will you ensure that your virtual career fest offers the same experience or even better? By pushing past the traditional 2D platforms and implementing 3D interfaces, lobbies, and booths that imitate real-life events with 3D avatars.
You want your online career fair to succeed? The trick is to offer an immersive experience with colorful details, interactive booth ideas, and high responsiveness. Speaking of which vFairs is a leading virtual career fest hosting platform known for providing maximum results and engagement. Among other things, vFairs’ customizable 3D booths promote brand identity and culture. Employers can seamlessly design their booths to showcase their offerings in order to engage talented job seekers.
Go for on-the-spot hiring
Now, this may seem like an impossible job but by integrating the right set of tools you can achieve that hassle-free. So it’s important to make sure to choose the virtual career fair hosting platform that lets you integrate third-party tools for instant CV collection. Gone are the days of managing piles of resumes, slow shortlisting processes, and manual data entry.
Companies can double their recruitment efficiency with on-the-spot CV collection and interviewing through video calls. With vFairs, HR professionals can effortlessly display available vacancies directly through their booths. They can collect, and skim through resumes for highlighted expertise by using smart search filters, interview candidates in real-time using video chat functionality, and find the best match in real-time.
Spread awareness through webinars
You want potential candidates to apply to your organization? Give them a good reason why they should. This is where webinars can always come in handy. Through webinars, you can familiarize yourself with your audience, and build trust by talking about the company culture, diversity, and inclusivity. Apart from perks and benefits, you can tell them all about your cafeteria menu, free coffee, and that foosball table. The best part is through webinars you can reach a chunk of job seekers at the same time, apart from promoting your company you can also engage the attendees with live Q&A sessions which encourages two way communication.
Always follow up
Now, this may be the most important tip. After the event has concluded make sure that you follow up with the interested candidates for rewarding career opportunities. Because sometimes new graduates can get confused about their career choices, you as HR professionals can always help and counsel them into finding the right direction.
