A Guide to Virtual Recruitment Events: What They Are and How to Approach Them
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In today's rapidly evolving job market, hybrid recruiting has emerged as the new norm. Blending the best of both worlds – traditional in-person interactions and cutting-edge virtual technologies – hybrid recruiting offers a dynamic and flexible approach that resonates with modern job seekers and employers alike. This innovative strategy allows companies to cast a wider net, tapping into a diverse pool of talent regardless of geographical boundaries, while candidates can engage in the recruitment process from the comfort of their own spaces. As the lines between physical and virtual recruitment blur, embracing the era of hybrid recruiting is essential for staying competitive in this new era of workforce dynamics.
Whether you're a seasoned professional or just embarking on your career journey, understanding the ins and outs of virtual recruitment events can significantly boost your chances of landing that coveted position.
Perhaps the most well-known type of virtual recruitment event is a virtual career fair, but there are many other types of events that provide opportunities for prospective candidates. Here are the basics of how each type of recruitment event works, what students think about them, and how to make yours stand out.
Virtual Career Fairs
Typically, virtual career fairs are held by universities, trade organizations, employment agencies, local governments, and more in order to connect prospective interns and entry-level employees with recruiters. Individual companies can also host virtual job fairs, especially when recruiting for a large number of positions. Virtual career fairs can assist in your recruiting by removing geographic barriers, but also by focusing on a more specific industry or type of job (such as “tech startups in New York” or “public service jobs”).
To make the most of a virtual career fair, ensure that candidates have the opportunity to upload resumes, chat one-on-one with recruiters, and learn more about the company. You might also consider offering interviews on the spot through one-on-one videoconferencing. An all-in-one recruiting events software like RippleMatch can help you communicate with candidates before, during, and after virtual career fairs to help you turn RSVPs into hires.
Virtual Info Sessions
Suppose you aren’t quite in the recruitment stage where you’re ready to accept resumes or conduct interviews. Another good option to promote awareness of your company among your target audience is through a virtual info session. By holding a virtual info session, you can increase engagement and specifically target who you want when application time comes.
Virtual info sessions are a way to introduce prospective candidates to many different aspects of your business. RippleMatch research has found that college students enjoy attending info sessions to conduct low-stakes research about a company, rather than worry about networking or making a strong first impression on a recruiter. As part of your info session, you might consider hosting panel discussions or a Q&A with current employees from across the organization in different fields such as sales, marketing, HR, and research & development.
Similar to virtual career fairs, attendees for virtual info sessions should also have the ability for messaging and live chats with recruiters – this could be a functionality that is enabled at the end, or throughout the info session if it’s a Q&A format. If the chat function is there for the entire event, make sure someone from your team is monitoring it to answer questions in real time. Info sessions are designed to be highly engaging and an opportunity for face-to-face, two-way communication between recruiters and prospective candidates.
Webinars
Webinars are similar to virtual info sessions, but webinars are more likely to feature recruiters or company employees sharing information in a lecture or presentation format for most of the time. For diversity recruiting, you could hold a webinar about your company’s initiatives for supporting Hispanic/Latinx employees, or provide information about how you uplift women as they progress through their careers. Webinars should always offer viewers the chance to ask questions through a chat function, though answering questions will likely not be as much of a focus as they would be in info sessions.
The benefit of webinars is that they can be hosted in real time, but they can also be recorded and listed on your company’s careers web page. For webinars and virtual info sessions, companies might consider videoconferencing programs such as Zoom or GoToMeeting.
Professional Development Virtual Events
Professional development is a high priority for college students in choosing an employer. If your company previously hosted in-person professional development events like coffee chats, mock interviews, and one-on-one resume reviews, consider adapting these to a virtual environment, too.
In addition to one-on-one or small group events, you may also decide to host a webinar about a professional development topic. For example, USAjobs holds multiple webinars a year about topics related to finding and applying for federal jobs. You could even run webinars that are specific to COVID-19 or virtual recruitment, such as “How to Fill a Gap in Your Resume If Your Internship Was Canceled,” “How to Ace a Virtual Technical Interview,” or “How to Start Your Career Remotely.”
Promoting Your Virtual Event and Building the Attendee List
As with any recruitment event, a virtual career fair, info session, or webinar will only be successful if you promote it. The good news is that students are already expecting recruitment events to be virtual this year, and many of them are already interested in attending.
The biggest difference between virtual events promotion and in-person events is the scale – but you can still build your audience through similar tactics you would use to ensure attendance at an in-person event. Connect with campus career centers and list your events on their student-facing job platform or newsletter; partner with relevant student organizations and ask them to send it out to their members; source high-potential candidates on LinkedIn and invite them to attend your virtual event. You can also post a registration link on your website, social media channels, and email marketing for prospective candidates who have opted in to receive information about jobs at your company. Software like RippleMatch can help you promote your event to a diverse and active candidate network, and help you analyze which channels are bringing in the most attendees.
When it comes to your messaging, personalization will be more important than ever. RippleMatch research shows that the top-performing events on our platform are those that specific and engaging event titles.
Remember, Virtual Events Are an Opportunity to Broaden and Diversify Your Talent Pipeline
With virtual events, you have the chance to connect with students from hundreds of schools rather than a dozen. Not only will you increase brand awareness among today’s college students, but by removing physical barriers, you can greatly expand your reach of talented entry-level candidates. Virtual recruitment events are particularly helpful for forming a pipeline of candidates who are socioeconomically, geographically, and racially/ethnically diverse. Overall, with virtual events, you won’t be missing out on talented prospective candidates outside of your target schools – and you may discover even more strategies to incorporate into your recruitment going forward.
Find out how RippleMatch can help you move beyond generic events software and spreadsheets through our Events Management Platform. All aspects of our platform are optimized specifically for campus recruiting teams. Through one platform, you can drive event attendance by inviting candidates across the RippleMatch talent network of 1600+ college campuses, analyze ROI, and invest in a personalized candidate experience through automated event reminders, check-ins, and follow ups. Learn more here.
