How to Plan for a Hybrid Campus Recruiting Season This Fall
For years, campus recruiting looked essentially the same every fall. You’d fill out your schedule with a full slate of on-campus, in-person career fairs and recruitment events, relying heavily on specific schools to fill positions. But in 2020, everything changed. Companies were forced to recruit almost entirely virtually, learning how to navigate everything from events to interviews on Zoom. This year, with students returning to campus nationwide, in-person events are popping up on the schedule once again. But the campus recruitment landscape has been changed forever.
Gone are the days of recruiting from a small selection of core schools. The advent of virtual recruiting has shown organizations it’s possible to recruit great, diverse talent from all over the country with ease. But that doesn’t mean in-person events are going away entirely. The future is hybrid recruiting—a balance of virtual and in-person recruitment efforts.
So how do you plan for a hybrid recruiting season, especially with so much still uncertain? Here are some tips.
Carefully Plan Out Your Recruitment Needs
Although there’s certainly more clarity this fall than in 2020, the landscape continues to transform. Universities and campus organizations are still solidifying their own plans for the season and events continue to be added to the calendar. How do you prepare for this type of uncertain environment? By ensuring that you clearly understand your own needs going into the season.
It’s critical in a changing environment to plan ahead so you’re able to adapt when necessary. Take stock of which roles you have available, and which are the highest priority. Do a deep dive into your analytics to identify any representation gaps that you need to fill. This will ensure you’re not scrambling at the end of hiring season to find top candidates. Identify roles you had difficulty filling in the past and come up with a plan on how to fill them this year.
When you clearly understand your needs and pain points, it will be much easier to plan which universities to visit, which career fairs to attend, and how many virtual events you should host yourself this fall. By conducting a full needs analysis ahead of the season, you’ll be able to pivot and add or remove activities as needed.
Identify Areas Where You’ve Been Most Successful in the Past
Roles aren’t the only thing that need planning ahead of recruitment season. With travel returning, it’s important to identify the events and activities that have been most successful for you in the past. Make sure to include both in-person and virtual events on your list. Be honest. If you attended a specific career fair for years and rarely found candidates at the event, this is your opportunity to remove it from your schedule. With so many virtual opportunities available to you, there’s no need to attend costly, ineffective events simply out of habit anymore.
If there are specific universities or programs that have produced many hires for you in the past, add them to your schedule for this year. Intentionally choose the events and visits that are most likely to give you results, and remove the rest from your calendar, guilt-free. Fill those spots with virtual events and activities that proved effective over the last year, instead.
Schedule Out Your Events—Both Virtual and In-Person
Once you’ve identified which events have been most effective for you, fill out your schedule accordingly. Add a mix of both in-person and virtual events to ensure you’re reaching the best candidates, including those who attend colleges outside of your traditional circuit. According to RippleMatch research, students from underrepresented groups are more likely to attend virtual recruitment events, so they can be a great way to reach students you may have had difficulty recruiting in the past.
Don’t forget to leave some spots for experimenting. Hybrid recruiting is new for everyone, so there are likely to be new events and opportunities for you to test out, including events that get added to the calendar at the last minute. Virtual events have also gotten more sophisticated over the last year, so don’t be afraid to try something that may have failed at the beginning of the pandemic. If you’ve figured out a way to add more interaction or make an event more engaging this time around, you may find it’s an impactful addition to your calendar. Check out our list of 25 virtual recruitment event ideas if you’re interested in expanding your virtual offerings this year but aren’t sure where to start.
Leverage Technology to Fill Additional Needs
Events aren’t the only way to find great candidates. Leverage technology to source candidates and fill additional recruitment needs that aren’t met by career fairs and interview days alone. Platforms like LinkedIn are a great way to find talent, but can be time consuming.
RippleMatch, on the other hand, uses AI to automatically source candidates that are a good fit for specific roles. The platform’s robust talent network includes over one million students from more than 1,300 colleges across the United States. Candidate profiles feature over 300 data points, including facts like the student’s major and work authorization, along with self-reported data on demographics, career interests, values, location preferences, and more. This information is then used to automatically match candidates for roles that fit both their background and interests, making it easy for recruiting teams to fill positions.
By utilizing technology to source candidates, you can find great talent from all over the country, instead of limiting your search to specific schools or areas. This naturally leads to a more diverse pipeline and increases your chances of finding the perfect match for your positions.
Be Ready For Anything
If there’s one thing the last year has taught us, it’s that in order to succeed, we have to be ready for anything. As plans change with every campus that reopens and every event that gets added to the calendar, adaptability is the key for success. And in order to be adaptable, you need to plan properly, have a clear idea of your goals and challenges, and be ready to implement your contingency plans if need be. With careful planning and an open mindset, you’re sure to succeed in the new hybrid recruiting environment.
