Organisations considering their New Year recruitment strategy can maximise on careers fairs and similar events to recruit talented people from a diverse pool of candidates.
Careers events bring together a diverse pool of candidates actively seeking employment. They offer tremendously valuable opportunities for employers to connect with prospective employees, showcase their brand, build a talent pipeline, and foster positive relationships with school leavers and other young people under 30 in their local community and beyond.
This simple checklist can help employers make the most of careers fairs.
1. Define your objectives
Long before you set up your stand at a careers fair, you should be thinking about what your organisation wants to achieve from the event.
Set out 3-5 clear objectives for the day. These goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Here are a few examples of SMART goals for careers fairs:
- We would like to speak to 100 attendees about our graduate job programme
- We would like to get 50 email addresses from attendees interested in learning more about our opportunities
- We would like to take 25 CVs from qualified candidates who would like to be considered for our summer internship
- We would like to boost our social media engagement by 25% on the day of the event.
Aim to ensure that your company representatives have the information and training they need to achieve your defined objectives.
2. Create cohesive branding and marketing collateral
Careers fairs are busy events, with numerous employers competing for attendees’ attention. Your brand will benefit in increased engagement and awareness if you aim to design an attractive and informative booth or stand, and prepare and print your promotional materials in advance.
An eye-catching stand and effective marketing materials can showcase your brand to prospective candidates. Get started on your materials in plenty of time and aim for a cohesive look and feel. If you have a dedicated marketing person or team in your organisation, loop them in at the earliest stage.
Consider investing in visually appealing banners, brochures, and business cards that convey your organisation’s culture and values. Engaging multimedia presentations, such as video and audio content, can also help to increase engagement and draw attendees in.
You can also consider interactive elements and activities. Games, prize draws, competitions, demonstrations, and have-a-go opportunities can all help to make your organisation make a positive memorable impact.
3. Network, network, network
Once you arrive at the careers fair or event, networking should be the name of the game. There might be anywhere from a few dozen to a few thousand attendees, and every one of them could be the amazing new talent your company needs.
Choose your most outgoing and people-focused employees to represent the company, and encourage them to speak to as many people as they can. They should be prepared to exchange business cards, take CVs or contact details, ask about candidates’ career goals, and share insights about your company, its culture, and any job openings. Building these personal connections can make your organisation significantly more attractive to prospective candidates.
4. Leverage technology and social media
Used properly, technology can greatly enhance your presence at career fairs, help to make your stand more attractive to attendees, and help you to reach your goals.
Here are a few ideas for consideration:
- Use tablets or laptops for interactive presentations, virtual tours, or “meet the team” videos for those who can’t be there in person
- Create QR codes that lead to an application form, newsletter sign-up page, or relevant informational resource
- Live-tweet your day or post updates on LinkedIn using the event’s official hashtags
- Have a “selfie board” and ask attendees to post pictures to their Instagram feeds, tagging your organisation, to be entered into a prize draw
5. Collect and analyse data
It is likely that you will be taking in a lot of information during the event, and it’s worth considering how best to record relevant data. Useful data might include CVs, contact information, notes from conversations, agreements made about follow-ups, and more.
How you collect this data will depend on your goals and the resources you have available to you. If you brief your representatives thoroughly beforehand, they’ll have a clear understanding of what data they are expected to collect and how. Afterwards, you can use this data to analyse how you performed at the event, whether you met your goals, and what you could improve upon next time.
Take into account GDPR best practice and candidate confidentiality when recording and storing data. If you are going to use collated personal details to reach out to attendees post-event, you need to clarify that in your messaging.
6. Follow up to build relationships
Post-event, aim to follow up promptly with potential candidates. Each attendee may have spoken to dozens of organisations during the event. Making a focused effort to be prompt with follow-ups will help your organisation stand out.
Send personalised emails to prospective candidates expressing gratitude for their interest, providing additional information about the company or specific job opportunities, and ensuring they know how to reach out with any further questions. At this stage, you might invite them to apply for a role or ask them in for an informational interview.
7. Post-event reflection: Evaluate and learn
Once you have finished the event and completed any follow-up communications, it’s time to evaluate how things went, what worked well, and what you might do differently next time.
A SWOT analysis can help here: identify the strengths and weaknesses your organisation displayed at the event, any opportunities that it has created, and any threats to your future success at such events.
Ask your team members who attended for feedback. You can also ask attendees for feedback if they have given prior permission for you to do so. What drew them to your brand’s presence at the event? Was the stand engaging and your representatives friendly? What could you do better next time?
Careers events offer a unique opportunity to attract and recruit candidates ready to take their next career steps. Post-event reflection can assist your organisation in refining your strategies for future events to ensure your continued success.
