C
areer experts say that 80% of hiring will be done remotely going forward. And we say that this is not an anomaly during this COVID hit time, but will hold true for the foreseeable future.
Virtual career and internship fairs are an excellent way to hire top global talent. Without worrying about setting up physical meetings, the recruitment process can be casual, affordable and quick.
It makes it easy to sift through a massive number of resumes in no time. You can create an effective process to find the right talent. The efficiency of virtual recruitment fairs is high because you can pre-qualify registrants and you can also easily measure engagement.
It also becomes more accessible for the candidates to attend a digital fair, even if you are living on the North Pole. The virtual interview process is much more immersive and interactive than a traditional career fair, where everyone is fighting for each other’s time.
Source of Recruitment
Efficiency
Immersive brand engagement
Social media integration
Ease-of-access
Global Reach
Time & Cost
Virtual Fair/ Expo
High
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Low
College Fair/ Campus Placements
Medium
Yes
No
Yes
No
Low
Job Portals
Low
No
No
No
No
High
Company’s Career Page
Low
No
Yes
No
No
Low
Social Networking Channels
Medium
No
Yes
No
Yes
High for paid
Placement Agencies
Medium
No
No
No
No
High
The above factors make virtual career expos a winner and an inclusive event. They are cheaper, easier to attend/host from the convenience of your home and yield better results.
Since virtual job and internship fairs are the way to go for universities let’s check out the process you can follow to host a massively successful virtual fair and break free from the limitations of traditional events.
1. Choose the right platform
The platform that you choose is going to be the backbone of your virtual internship/ recruitment fair. The tech platform is not just synonymous with the venue in a traditional setup but has a lot more to offer and help wow the audience and participating companies. It should encourage networking, provide a secure experience, reflect employer branding and make recruiting easier.
Here are a few essential features that you should look for:
- Custom branded landing page that attracts job-seekers and provides information about the expo, exhibitor details and registration.
- Robust security for user data and meeting privacy
- HD quality audio/ video experience
- Ease-of-use and all modern browser compatibility
- Networking lounge
- Group and personal chat options
- Ability to scale to a large number of attendees, on-the-go
- Unparalleled customer support and training
Airmeet provides all these above features for free in every plan and more. Airmeet enables us to create a virtual fair with just some basic information, and its intuitive design makes it simple for everyone to use.
2. Build a strategy
Meticulously draft a complete strategy that aligns with the goals of the event and measure success.
- Event goals – Set SMART goals to drive recruitment and attract companies and sponsors.
- Define KPIs – Event KPIs like registrations, attendee engagement, number of recruitments will make your event measurable.
- Event budget- To determine the resources available and to achieve those targets, create a rough event budget. It will also help you plan the available funds for marketing and other cost factors.
- Date – Plan well in advance and at the best date possible to attract massive registration and attendance.
- Content – Plan for the supporting content required in all formats document, image and videos.
3. Invite allies
Once you have decided on the event goals, you will be able to define the scope and size of the event. It includes the number of companies that you need to invite as well as the sponsors. Find the best companies that match your student’s qualification and set the right expectations in terms of overall event experience.
As a part of your career fair, you can also invite some speakers to give a keynote speech.
4. Create custom booths
Virtual event platforms allow you to create an individual booth or table for each recruiting company. Students can visit the booth of the company they find favourable, and have a one-on-one conversation with recruiters of the company via video conferencing.
You can customise the number of seats available at each booth, its name and more, to optimise branding.
Florida International University hosted a “University Resource fair” as a part of their convocation week for new students, using Airmeet. And here’s how Hazel Hooker, Program Director, Center for Student Engagement, FIU, explained her experience:
“Airmeet’s ‘Social Lounge’ was our large event ballroom, and the virtual table setting replicated the physical event experience. We just needed to customise it to suit our needs. The department representatives had to just join in the meeting, take a seat at the virtual tables and talk to the students via live video-conferencing enabled on each table. As simple as that. We got very positive feedback from all the departments about how wonderful the experience was.”
Read: FIU case study
5. Play recorded content
As a part of the booth customisation, companies can also play pre-recorded or on-demand content like “day in the life”, corporate video or employee testimonials. These are great to engage the audience at the table and provide sneak peek into the company culture.
Share information like the number of openings, About Us, Job role and responsibility and more, in the form of documents and online links with the attendees via chat.
“Virtual career and internship fairs are an excellent way to hire top global talent. Without worrying about setting up physical meetings, the recruitment process can be casual, affordable and quick.”
“Virtual career and internship fairs are an excellent way to hire top global talent. Without worrying about setting up physical meetings, the recruitment process can be casual, affordable and quick.”
6. Promotions
It’s time to market your event. As a university, you can market the fair on your social media channels, notice boards, email newsletters, website and even leverage influencer marketing. An integrated marketing campaign approach is the best way to maximise reach.
7. Launch time
Before the big day, host some practice sessions to familiarise everyone with the tool and process. Airmeet’s super friendly team is always reachable and provides support throughout the event. You can also leverage help from Airmeet during the event, as one technical assistant from our team is still present until the competition of your event.
On the big day, ask everyone from the university team to join a few minutes earlier to set up.
8. Analyse performance
Post the event, analyse event KPIs. Utilise the data available to measure performance. For instance, the number registrations vs the number of attendees, number of students who attended each booth and students who got invited for the next round of interview, will give you an insight into event success. It will allow you to analyse the most popular companies that you should invite for your subsequent events.
Virtual recruitment and internship exhibitions are a great way to reach global companies efficiently. They create immersive interactions and impressive brand building that solves the big recruitment challenge for both universities and companies.
