COVID-19 has completely changed the way we live our lives. It has forced us to find rely more on technology and utilize digital tools such as Business Texting Services to expedite communication. We have been forced to be flexible to the alternative ways of doing things and more creative ways of getting things done.
One of the most notable changes people–those involved in recruitment in particular–had to go through has to do with the hiring process. With social distancing measures being undertaken everywhere, businesses and chambers of commerce could no longer hold hiring events or career fairs. Well..not in person.
The solution? Virtual career fairs.
Benefits of Virtual Career Fairs
For job seekers, virtual career fairs can be a highly convenient way to look for work. It does not require you to wake up at the crack of dawn or wait in long lines for a chance to get an interview. For businesses, here are the biggest benefits of going virtual when seeking new hires:
Cost-effective and Efficient
Holding an online event typically does not cost as much as running an actual hiring event in a physical venue. But just like an event in a physical venue, you can also run an online hiring event over several days, so you will have access to a good number of candidates.
A virtual event also allows you to set specific filters and criteria so you will not have to sift through countless applications; the most relevant ones will be given to you. This means the resumes of all the best candidates, based on your specified requirements, will be at your fingertips within seconds.
High Attendance and Diverse Applications
When you host a career fair at a physical venue, the applicants you are likely to get are limited to those who live within the vicinity. With a virtual fair, however, you are likely to get applicants even from the other side of the world. Having a diverse set of applicants gives you the advantage of being able to choose from candidates with varying backgrounds and skills sets. This means you will have a much better chance of finding the perfect person for the job in extraordinarily little time.
Communicating with various potential candidates from different parts of the country or world is best managed by using a business texting service that can archive and mange multiple conversations simultaneously.
Opportunity to Build a Candidate Base
When you’re looking through resumes of people from a wide array of backgrounds, you just might find a few who may not be right for the position you’re currently looking to fill, but who would be a perfect addition to your team at some point. Hosting a virtual career fair gives you a chance to create a database of well-rounded candidates whom you could contact at any time in the future, should you have a job, which you feel would be the perfect fit for them.
Hosting Your Very Own Virtual Career Fair
So, now that you know why virtual career fairs are an excellent idea, how exactly do you go about hosting one? Here are some guidelines…
Choose the right platform
No matter how simple or elaborate your career fair is, you will have to make sure you use the right platform. There are numerous one’s for you to choose from, and the most basic of these is perhaps Zoom. This platform allows for interactive sessions and smaller groups. If you are looking for a more advanced platform, you would likely prefer high-end options like Brazen, which offers features such as pre-screening, chat scheduling, and video presentations.
Once you have chosen the most fitting career fair platform, you can send an invitation link using your business texting services. You can then manage attendance by referencing responses on the admin panel.
Map out your budget
The number of attendees you expect and the kind of features you want in a platform are perhaps the biggest factors that would determine the budget for your career fair. You may have to shell out anywhere from $8,000 to $80,000, but your total expenses would most definitely be just a fraction of what you would spend on a physical hiring event.
Customize your virtual booth
Get creative with how you present your virtual booth to potential partners and attendees. Choose the format and the information you want to display very carefully. Think about how you would present a physical booth and try to translate that into the online version. If you don’t have any design experience, don’t fret. Many online platforms have templates you can choose from, both for your welcome area and for the individual booths.
Promote your event
The whole point of hosting a virtual career fair is to open job opportunities to as many qualified candidates as possible. How can you do that if you do not tell people about the event well in advance? And what is the best way to let people know about stuff these days? Social media. Put out announcements on the most popular social media platforms if you want to draw attention to your event.
Monitor the event
Make sure you set the platform’s features such that it will keep a record of how many people registered for the event, how many actually attended, how many candidates got interviews, how many actually got hired, and other pertinent details. These details will determine how much of a success your event was.
Follow up
Bear in mind that your work is not done when the career fair ends. Remember that you now have a pool of talent, and you can start scouring this pool for candidates who may be perfect for specific positions that need to be filled. At the very least, you could send the best candidates a “Thank you for attending” email to show that they have caught your attention and deliver the promise of future contact if you do find the right job for them.
They say storm clouds always have a silver lining, and one of the silver linings of the COVID-19 storm is that it can bring out our creativity. So, start letting those creative juices flow and plan your virtual career fair now.
To learn more about implementing business texting services to enhance your recruiting methods, feel free to visit our blog for the latest articles on the benefits of business texting services. Please try out our SMS platform for free and if you have any questions or need training, we are here to help you. Just contact us and the Text My Main Number team will be here to walk you through the process.
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