What Is a Recruitment Event and How to Host One?

Hiring for open positions need not be a chore. Posting an online job description and attracting the right candidates on social media or even sending them invites to apply are both great ideas and there is no denying they work. But where a recruitment event really shines is how it can make recruitment an enjoyable activity for you and the candidates who walk in.

A recruitment event is a recruitment marketing strategy where an employer brings candidates together to host meaningful events that allow the candidates to gain insight into what the company does and enables them to show how they can add value to the company as employees. Looking for recruitment event ideas and how to plan your next recruitment event? We are here to help!

What Is the Importance of a Recruitment Event?

A recruitment event is important as it creates a space where meaningful interactions can take place; both recruiter and candidate can not only interact but also learn, exchange ideas and discuss work in a very congenial environment. A recruitment event also helps improve the brand reputation and highlights what the company does. A recruitment event held by a company is to employees what an exhibition is for customers. Where the marketing and sales teams go to a Big 5 Exhibition, recruiters flock to popular job fairs such as Amazon Jobs Day and other virtual recruitment and career fairs held by top companies.

Recruitment Event Ideas to Improve Talent Attraction

Your company can host a recruitment event too if you have the right recruitment event ideas. Before we tell you how to plan a recruitment event, let us look at popular recruitment event ideas. We will also see how these recruitment event ideas or types of recruitment events help improve talent attraction.

1. Career Fairs

A large fair where several employers meet prospective employees, and candidates get to pick a suitable employer and vice versa. This is great for employer branding as you are meeting a lot of candidates at a single venue. Maximizing recall depends not just on the offers made, but also on the communication, collaterals and the branding.

2. Competitions

This includes fun contests or more serious but seriously fun hackathons too! This is held by a single employer and gets the attention of candidates from various domains and gives you, as an employer, the power to pick the best of the best.

3. Networking Events

When individuals meet in a relaxed setting and discuss their careers and what the future holds for them and what skills will help them achieve this, you as the organizer can watch over the discussions and invite people to speak about their learnings. Such events also help you find great candidates.

4. Lunch and Learn Sessions

These slightly more casual and free sessions can help you meet brilliant and inquisitive minds over lunch and mentor them to do better in their careers. In the process, you could also shortlist a few potential employees who might add value to your company and who can be trained easily after onboarding.

5. Online events

A webinar or another form of online discussion can also be a great way to meet people and talk to some great minds, understand their queries and even analyze how best they fit into your industry.

3 Big Steps to Plan a Recruitment Event

The recruitment event planning is categorized into three major steps, that of planning, execution and management, the first two being pre-event and the last on the day of the event. This is in chronological order of how to manage a recruitment event and follows a timeline.

1. Planning

1. Begin with your needs. Ascertain if you really need a recruitment drive now and what you hope to achieve through it. Be clear also about how many people you want to recruit and at what skill levels.
2. Jot down what kind of recruitment event you will be having. Before you can come up with recruitment event ideas, decide the kind of recruitment event you will be organizing. Is it a networking event or is it a job fair? Each type of recruiting event will need to be planned in its own way. A networking event will need you to send out customized invites to experts in the domains while a job fair will have you send more generic mails to candidates.
3. Then decide when you want to have the recruitment event. Ensure that there are no conflicts in your calendar on the day of the event.Decide how many hours of the day you would want to devote to the event and assign someone senior and a few other juniors or volunteers to manage the event.
4. Decide on a ticketing and registration system. Anticipate how many candidates will be registering for the event. How do you want to invite candidates to register? Do you want to use a specific software to achieve this, or will you be doing this manually? Jot down some recruitment event ideas around how you will make this happen.
5. Let your people know the event is going to happen. Invite the management and other stakeholders as well as your employees to contribute to the event in the best way they can. Remember asking for help makes you stronger! Send them to everyone at your company, encouraging employees to invite people in their networks!
6. Decide promotion and publicity techniques. If you want to attract the right candidates, you need to decide how you will be posting on social media. Will you be hiring an influencer? Who will be the main speakers at the event, if any? What are the fun activities you have planned for the candidates? How many workshops will be there that illustrate what your company does? What crew and how many people will be managing the photography and recordings? These are some of the questions you need to answer in this step.
7. Calculate the total cost and decide feasibility. How much will the event cost? This includes all printed matter, stands and tables, any other decorations at the venue and other infrastructure such as speakers, tablets etc. Then decide if it is still feasible to hold the recruitment event. If not, you would need to remove some arrangements from the list and recalculate. Reiterate till you arrive at a cost within the budget assigned for your recruitment event. Discuss this cost with the management and decide if some concessions can be made.

2. Execution

You have now secured the interests of people in your company, and everybody knows what recruitment event and when the event is going to happen too. But you need to figure out a few more details before you can host the recruitment event. Despite having the best recruitment ideas, what you need to succeed in hosting anon or virtual recruitment event is proper execution.

1. Pick the venue and theme and confirm the date, the time and duration. For instance, in case you have planned a late-night party for sales folks from different companies, make sure it does not align with any festivals in the area and that the location you have picked is convenient to get to and commute back at night. Also remember to provide directions to reach the location by any mode of transport that the professionals want to use.
2. Send out invites. The invites can be sent out both internally and externally. Employees within the company can be encouraged to invite their friends and former colleagues for the event. External invites can be sent to industry experts and speakers and candidates who you think would be great for the job.
3. Calculate the final number of attendees. How many would be attending the event based on registrations received, and what is the distribution like based on gender, seniority and expertise levels?
4. Plan promotions and giveaways. Decide how you will be promoting your brand and where at the venue. Assign people to manage promotions and volunteers to distribute pamphlets or brochures advertising your services. Plan giveaways of printed T-shirts or mugs which carry your brand logo and tagline for easy recall.
5. Create graphics and boards for signage. Depending on what theme you have picked, decide what would be the appropriate visual designs, starting with fonts and colors, the right shades and sizing, and other graphical elements. Who will be the stakeholders who keep track of the signage and other visual elements?
6. Hire and manage event staff. Decide on who will be the event staff; will they be people from the company, would you hire them short-term, or would they be volunteers? Assign people for every job, managing food and beverages, handing out promotions and giveaways, guiding people at the venue etc.

3. Management

On the day, management of the event is easier said than done. Unfortunately, there is a lot of people and infrastructure management to be done at the recruitment event. The following highlights the need for an expert recruitment event planning company. Some of the things you must do are:

1. Make sure the event staff is ready for the event. Any last-minute abandonments can cost you a lot, especially if they are key personnel. Make sure you have arranged either employees from the company or other volunteers to serve as a backup.
2. Check the equipment at the event. This includes water dispensers, microphones and speakers, lighting and fans etc. to ensure that they are all in working condition. Fix them within three hours of the event, if required.
3. Make sure there is adequate food and sufficient drinks. Make sure no one goes hungry and always have designated points for water, so they stay hydrated. This will only improve the reputation of your brand and show that you care.
4. Ensure proper sanitation before the event begins. There should be toilets for both men and women at the venue and the desks and chairs and other upholstery must be very clean. The volunteers and other event staff must be able to guide people to the nearest toilets and exits.
5. Check the attendees at the event. Ensure that the attendees have already reserved their seats at the event. Any last-minute registrations can be accepted through a manual pen and paper registration system at the event.
6. Follow up after the event. Keep in touch with the candidates who had arrived at the recruitment event, irrespective of whether they were selected or not. This helps maintain a good rapport and even highlights the great work culture you have in place.

How Alp Can Be Your Recruitment Event Partner?

If there is anything that the sample timeline mentioned above taught us, it is that recruitment events can be very difficult to manage. Who would you call on to manage such an arduous task? Alp Consulting, with over a decade of experience managing recruitment events, is up to the task and should be your first choice. Talk to us today to find out how we can help.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do you do at a virtual recruitment event?

At a virtual recruitment event, the process of attracting and selecting candidates happens online or virtually. The event itself will be held online and will generally be managed by an HR company that will act as a recruitment partner.

How do you run a successful recruitment open day?

To start the recruitment on a high note, you need to make sure your registration system is on track, you have selected the best venue, and that the duration and timings of the event are perfect for the attendees. You must promote the event as widely as possible both within and outside your company.

How do I host a virtual recruiting event?

The information in the sections above would be of great help when you plan and host an event. The best way to host a virtual recruitment event is by availing the services of an HR services company, who have a good reputation not just in recruiting and staffing but have the resources and knowledge on how to conduct a recruitment event and how best to capitalize on that by bringing the best candidates on board.

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