8 Tips for Making Your Virtual Job Fair A Success If epidemics have taught us anything, it is important that we be creative and think outside the box. It really applies to everything we do now: from family gatherings to family zoom calls to live streaming concerts in person attending concerts watching games with fans
watching games with digital fans watching meals in crowded restaurants Out to eat and socially away from others; And more. Everything we used to do has changed in one way or another. The same thing applies to businesses. Traditional strategies that have worked in the past need to be redesigned. Job fairs are part of this mix.
Whether you are accustomed to attending job fairs or holding your own, they now need to be practically reorganized. So how can staff companies turn a traditional job fair into a virtual one, but still take advantage of it for money? Here are 8 tips to make your virtual job fair a success.
1. Promise it.
Before you start planning your virtual job fair, avoid the practice that it won't be as good as the event itself. Virtual job fairs can be just as effective (perhaps even better) as long as you have the right resources and are fully committed to it. Don't shy away from investing in resources as it is a virtual event. Commit to getting the resources needed to make the event a success.
2. Find the right platform.
To choose the right platform, first decide on your job fair goals and format. Do you plan to keep it simple and hold one session at a time or do you plan to have a breakout room? Do you want to use a standard webinar platform or do you want to use a platform that allows networking, booth time, ability to hold multiple sessions at a time, etc.? All of these factors will depend on the virtual platform used for your festival.
If a webinar platform is used, such as GoToWebinar®, you can hold one session at a time and allow candidates to participate in the sessions they are interested in participating in. Each of the clients participating in the job fair can hold a session and talk about their company, the positions they want to fill and are ideal candidates for those positions. At the end of each session, candidates may be given time to ask questions. This format is less intimate, but it allows customers to get their company to candidates and allows candidates to find out about your customers. If the purpose of the job fair is to be informative, then this format can work well.
If you want to hold a job fair that is more interactive and allows candidates to talk to customers, you may want to do a different format. Some webinar platforms, such as Zoom, allow breakout sessions. You can still have sessions with all attendees, but you can also add a breakout room. Each of your clients can have their own breakout room that allows candidates to go to the rooms they are interested in. Depending on how many candidates choose a given breakout room, it may not be one in a conversation, but it still allows for a deeper conversation and a bigger one for each. Holds sessions.
If you want to go up and down, there are even fancier platforms that allow for more and more! Recently, I used a platform that had a virtual booth, a networking time, and sessions for all attendees. This is a great option if you want to invest a little more in your virtual fair. Each client can have their own virtual booth designed with their company's branding. Candidates can then enter their booth and have one-on-one conversations with clients. The platform I used also had an "Register Interest" button in each booth. Therefore, if a candidate is interested in job opportunities with the client, they can select a button and say that they are interested in learning more. Clients can still give presentations during session time, but they will also get the bonus of having a virtual booth for candidates to visit. There are many platforms that offer similar features if this is something you would be interested in doing.
Overall, there is no universal right or wrong platform to use for a job fair, but finding the right platform that meets your goals is paramount.
3. Organize a strong program.
After finalizing the format, the program and agenda should be put together. Which clients would you invite? Will every client get a chance to give a presentation? Will there be an important offer? Will there be workshop sessions for candidates throughout the event? Will there be a pleasant hour / networking session at the end? It is important to have a strong and attractive program. Finally, you are trying to make it an event that people will want to attend! So how do you do that?
One factor to consider is if you are going to hold a job fair for all the industries in which you have staff or if you will have a separate job fair for each industry. If your staffing firm works with different industries, it may be most helpful to hold separate job fairs for each industry. The more specific and exclusive the job fair, the more attractive it will be for industry candidates and clients to attend.
Next, it's time to decide which client to invite. Unless you are a small staffing firm, chances are you won't be able to invite all the customers to attend. See which clients have the most job orders to recruit, invite your key clients, invite clients you know they would like to participate, and invite clients with whom candidates can speak. Interested You might also consider asking potential customers to attend. If you have some "hot" prospects with whom you want to do business, invite them to the job fair! Maybe they want to meet their favorite candidate and do business together.
In addition to setting the right set of customers to participate, the agenda is also important. Will it be primarily a client / candidate conversation or will other programs be included throughout the fair? Starting the job fair with a stimulating keynote speaker and / or holding workshop sessions during the event can be ways to further motivate candidates. The higher the price paid to the candidates, the more likely they are to participate. Clients can also sponsor some of these additional sessions. This will give them extra exposure and they will appreciate his sponsorship offer. It's a win, a win!
4. Promote and market the event for success.
Once clients line up and the agenda is put together, marketing the event to candidates is the next important step. Not only do you want to have a lot of candidates in attendance, but you also want to have qualified people who are interested in recruiting customers.
Before you start marketing, think about the graphics that will be used to promote the event in your marketing channels. If your staffing firm does not have an in-house designer, consider outsourcing these graphics to a professional graphic designer. The right marketing graphics, can go a long way. If the graphics look boring or amateurish, it won't attract the right audience, or maybe it won't attract anyone! If your marketing graphics look professional and convey the message that it is a "must" job fair, you will be able to attract your candidates to your event.
Once the graphics are designed, marketing can begin! Use your ATS to create a list of candidates to invite and create an email campaign. Send a few emails to this distribution list leading to the event. The more promotions they see for it, the more likely they are to sign up. Texting is also a great way to follow candidates after the initial email. This includes a personal contact that candidates will not receive in a regular marketing email. If your ATS has texting integration, you can easily send bulk text messages to your candidates and personalize the first name. You can also follow up with a simple text email. Simple text emails look like they came from someone more than a regular marketing email. Simple text emails are another great way to follow up and send private messages in bulk.
Also mix social marketing with your email and text messaging promotions. To make sure your followers see your organic posts, try to increase them. According to a Hootsuite study, only 5.5 posts of Facebook ® pages are viewed by their page followers. If you pay to promote your organic posts, you will reach a much wider audience.
Also consider running ads on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Job Board to reach new candidates with whom you are not already working. Running paid ads will cost a bit more, however, this is a good option if you want to reach your audience to new candidates.
5. Submit your resume in advance.
While guiding the event, submit the resumes of the candidates who will be in attendance and send it to the participating clients. This is a great way for customers to know the candidates who will be participating. They may also note that if there are specific candidates, they are interested in talking.
6. Make it fun.
Job fairs don't have to be all that serious, make it fun! Everyone feels a little "faded" these days, unable to do the things we are used to. That's why it's important to adopt new ways of doing things and have fun with it. What if you had a raffle? All candidates who register and participate in the event are automatically entered into a raffle drawing to win a prize. Clients may want to give raffle prizes to candidates who visit their booth. Or what about social media competition? If they post on social media and use JobFair hashtags, they will enter a raffle drawing to win a prize! A social media contest helps your staffing firm gain additional exposure from your candidates. Everyone loves prizes. This can be a simple and easy way for candidates to participate and have fun.
At the end of the job fair, end up with some fun if you really want to go out in a hurry! I've seen virtual concerts, magic shows, trivia, family feeds and more. These are all fun ways to end the day on a high note.
7. Make it free.
As long as it is impossible to make the job financially fair, make it free for customers and candidates. The cost of attending a job fair will automatically take people away. A free event, however, will do no harm in participating and will attract more customers and candidates to participate.
8. Follow up after the event.
Everyone will be excited after the event, however, success does not end there! Connecting candidates and clients after the event for the interview is ultimately the next goal after the job fair.
Personally, follow up with customers later. Ask them out well if they are no longer absorbed in the connection. Ask them out well if they are no longer absorbed in the connection. Also, follow up with candidates. Send a survey and ask them to select the positions / companies they are interested in learning more about. This information can then be sent back to the client. It is possible that some candidates do not get a chance to talk to customers, but they are interested in their position. If breakout sessions are not planned during the job fair, sending follow-up surveys to candidates will be even more important, as clients will not have this during a conversation.
Follow-up after the event is essential to get the most out of the job fair. Job Fair aims to connect customers and candidates. The next step is to take the relationships that were formed during the event and turn them into job offers.
A new wave of staff.
The Virtual Job Fair plan is definitely personally different. There are many things to think about and consider, however, virtual fairs can be just as effective personally as long as you are fully committed and invested in it. The most important part is knowing what you want to get out of the virtual fair and formatting it to meet your goals. Virtual job fairs are a "new wave" of staff and are here to stay. So, how do you recreate a job fair?
