3 Things to Consider About Virtual Career Fairs
Kristine Le
May 3, 2021 11:56:08 PM
If you’re looking to adopt Virtual Career Fairs into your talent acquisition strategy, you may have a lot of questions — especially if you’re new to the recruiting software space. It’s important to break down your company’s needs and hiring goals to ensure that you’re getting the most out of Virtual Career Fairs.
Let’s take a look at some components to consider before adopting Virtual Career Fairs for your business.
1. What are the pros and cons of Virtual Career Fairs?
While the benefits definitely outweigh the negatives, your team should still consider both pros and cons of using Virtual Career Fairs in your recruiting strategy.
Pros of Virtual Career Fairs
A. It’s efficient — in every way
Virtual Career Fairs provide what a traditional career fair would, but from any location and any device. Recruiters and candidates can easily connect without the expense of travel, time, and other costs that add up over time. With the right recruiting software, your team can help candidates jumpstart the job application, screening, scheduling, and even interviewing process — saving you a lot of time. It’s that straightforward!
B. It gives your company a competitive advantage
Not all companies are leveraging Virtual Career Fairs to their advantage, despite how beneficial they may be. By choosing to implement these digital career fairs, your company will be ahead of the game in every way. Job seekers are always going to appreciate a more flexible and convenient way of finding and applying to job opportunities, so they’ll have a great first impression of your company’s modern take on career fairs.
C. It’s the only way during unprecedented times
COVID-19 posed many challenges for the recruiting industry. Recruiters and candidates weren’t able to meet face-to-face due to social distancing regulations, so they turned to Virtual Career Fairs to help keep their businesses afloat.
Virtual Career Fairs provided millions of teams with the resources they needed to hire during the pandemic. The technology behind these digital career fairs was able to help businesses of all sizes hire and fill roles efficiently while staying safe.
While Virtual Career Fairs still serve as a very crucial recruiting tool without the effects of a health crisis, it’s important to keep in mind that they are the only way during difficult times. Having Virtual Career Fairs as a part of your backup plan can be extremely helpful during unanticipated events in life.
Cons of Virtual Career Fairs
A. It’s not the same as meeting in-person
Face-to-face interactions are unreplicable. A big part of getting to know a candidate entails seeing them in person and observing their eye contact and body language. This is a perk that in-person events offer.
A tip to mitigate this is to leverage video calls during your Virtual Career Fairs. It may not recreate the real-life experience, but it definitely can help recruiters and candidates stay connected. All you need is a functioning webcam, a stable internet connection, and a smile!
B. Non-tech users could feel uncomfortable
While it’s safe to assume that most of society is well-adapted to technology, there is still a minority that is unfamiliar with how Virtual Career Fairs work. For this reason, these potential candidates may feel intimidated or discouraged from participating.
To help with this, you can be mindful of how you promote your virtual career event. It’s good to highlight the fact that your company has implemented a simple and easy sign-up, application, and hiring process.
You can also add in a walkthrough guide of how candidates can navigate your career fair or a brief FAQ or troubleshooting guide that they can refer to for help. Always remember to include your support team’s contact information, just in case there are any urgent issues that could possibly interfere with the event.
C. Finding the right Virtual Career Fairs platform can be hard
Depending on your business’s needs, finding a Virtual Career Fairs platform can be daunting. There are a lot of different recruiting software companies on the market that may over-provide or under-provide, resulting in higher or lower costs respectively. It’s important to decide on the most important, non-negotiable aspects of a Virtual Career Fairs platform — then do your research to find the best fit.
2.What are the best Virtual Event platforms?
When selecting a recruiting software for your team, it’s important to do your research and decide on which platform best fits your hiring needs. Below are the top 3 Virtual Career Fairs platforms that you can consider:
XOR
XOR currently offers the leading virtual career fair platform and software. They offer both an out-of-the-box solution and more complex events, which can be launched with the help of their customer support team.
Their platform gives employers and virtual career fair organizers the ability to create their own career fair map so it’s easy for job seekers to navigate and find the right booth. Employers can also build their own branded registration pages to showcase their branding and company culture.
Candidates can easily input their contact information and resume and sign-up within just a couple of minutes. Once they’re registered, they can start their job search and apply to any open positions with just a couple of clicks.
Employers can pre-screen attendees to ensure they’re speaking with qualified candidates, and then engage visiting job seekers over live chat and video chat. Furthermore, they can set up text message reminders to ensure job seekers are prepared for their upcoming virtual hiring event.
After the virtual event, hiring managers can easily follow up with candidates via text and inform them of their final hiring decisions — or ask for feedback or additional information.
You can request a demo of XOR’s Virtual Career Fair platforms here.
Brazen
Brazen’s virtual event platform offers a basic option where employers can host chat rooms with candidates. However, the mobile experience can be inconvenient; if you minimize your Brazen window during a chat to access other apps or functions on your phone, you will have to log back into your account. It can also be costly, as Brazen charges for the addition of new features.
Paradox
Paradox has built a virtual recruiting platform that allows companies to build hiring events and promote their job openings. Their chatbot, Olivia, will take registrations, remind attendees about the upcoming event, and help coordinate while the event is running. Olivia will also conduct pre-screens, and answer candidate questions while they wait to talk to a recruiter. They are still working on branching out to more ATS, so they may not be able to integrate with your current ATS.
3. How much do Virtual Career Fairs cost?
Virtual Career Fair Platforms can either be priced based on the number of virtual job fairs you want to host or on using an annual subscription. Factors typically involved in pricing include:
1) How many employers will be exhibiting?
2) How many users from each employer will be participating?
3) How many attendees are expected?
The best way to find out how much it would cost you to host a virtual career fair is to request pricing. You can request a quote for virtual career fairs here.
Tags: Virtual Recruiting, Virtual Career Fair