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What Are the Benefits of Hosting a Virtual Recruiting Event?

Gary Chambers on February 24, 2022

If you want to attract top talent to your organization and keep it, you can’t go wrong with a recruiting event. These events are also a great way to brand your organization and announce it to the world.

Most recruiting events were physical. Then came the pandemic, and most events went virtual for the obvious reason that people wanted to avoid exposure to COVID-19 as much as possible. This prompted employers to allow people to work remotely. Well, this concept was soon extended to recruiting events.

There are many reasons why you should host recruiting events. For one thing, you can make your workforce much more diverse through these events. It has been observed that minority students who attend lower-cost universities are much more likely to attend virtual recruiting events. You can attract the top employees to your company during virtual recruiting events provided you do the following:

Teach Attendees About Professional Development

School’s out because of COVID-19. This means that students have much more free time on their hands. They’re using this free time to learn new and valuable skills or to brush up on skills that they already knew. A professional development session will attract lots of students because these students want to learn how to think, behave, and dress like a professional.

If you are stumped as to what you should include in this type of session, take a few minutes to think about the professional skills that your organization wants and needs. Be sure to make these the foundation of your session. You are always free to add on other professional skills as needed or desired.

You have many options when hosting professional development events. They can take place in the form of online training, masterclasses, or webinars. It doesn’t matter what form of event you host; it won’t be successful if you don’t make it interesting and engaging. Also, make sure that your event adds value for your participants. Be sure to subtly explain why the attendees should be working at your organization and only at your organization.

Include Diversity and Inclusion Panels and Presentations

Students, naturally, want to work at organizations that actually promote diversity and inclusion and don’t just provide lip service. You’re going to have to do much more than include a line that says, “We support diversity and inclusion policies on your website. You’re going to have to prove it, and diversity and inclusion panels and/or presentations are a great way to do this.

This will show potential candidates that you’re serious about diversity and inclusion in your organization. You can always take pointers for these types of panels and presentations from various employee resource groups (ERGs) near you. Company leaders and current employees are also great resources to tap into for these ideas.

Freestyle Question And Answer Sessions Are Necessary

Freestyle in this context means that the students are allowed to ask any and all questions they want. You should have a member of your executive team present to answer these questions.

Many social media and social platforms like Quora and Reddit have found these sessions to be quite useful in terms of internal communications and external marketing. Freestyle question and answer sessions put students’ minds at ease because it tells them what working at your organization is really like.

Freestyle question and answer sessions are the most successful when they focus on a particular topic. You should have a list of frequently asked questions that you can turn to in order to keep the conversation going.

Virtual Information Sessions

You always want to be building employer brand awareness. After all, you never know when you’ll need to hire employees next in the unpredictable world that the pandemic has created. This can be accomplished through a virtual information session.

You can have employees tell students all about working conditions and the corporate culture at your organization. Students love these sessions because they can ‘be themselves’ while learning all about an organization that they want to work for. Your sessions will be the most successful if you have different high-profile employees working in different break-out rooms. You can cover more topics and give the attendees more individualized attention.

Host fireside chats

Do you remember the intimate nature of those conversations by a campfire? Well, fireside chats revolve around the same concept. In these chats, employees talk honestly with students about a specific pre-selected topic.

These informal chat sessions allow you to let the students see your employees as real kind and compassionate humans. The trick is to ensure that these chats center around a specific and relevant topic.

To learn more about the benefits of hosting your own virtual hiring events or career fairs, contact the team at Premier Virtual for a free demo.

Make the Right Impression at Virtual Career Fairs

Sergio on February 1, 2022

Do you want that dream job? You’re taking a step in the right direction if you’ve decided to look for that job at a career fair. That said, attending a career fair is only the first step, and a baby step at that, in your quest to find the perfect job for you! You’re in luck if you’ve been a stellar student. Employers look for people like you when they go to career fairs. Now, you’re practically guaranteed to find your dream job if you do these 10 things.

Make sure that your profile is up-to-date – You’re wasting your time if you have an older professional profile when you attend a career fair.

Make sure that the basic information is accurate and updated. These include your graduation date, school year, major, GPA, and work authorization.
Be sure to pick only those job types, locations, and roles that you like and that suit you.
This gives recruiters a heads-up regarding the jobs and internships that will be the best for you.
Make sure that your courses, skills, and previous work experience are in your handshake profile.

Be aware of the types of employers who are attending – the virtual fairs details page will indicate this to you. Be sure to familiarize yourself with each employer by going to their handshake page. Remember that other student reviews are valuable sources of information regarding the true working conditions and nature of employers. Signing up for early sessions with these employers will guarantee you an interview spot.

Know all about the attending employers – go to the companies’ websites to learn as much as you possibly can about the employers. Don’t end your research there though. Research online to find out what other neutral sources have to say about the employers. Believe it or not, this is invaluable information that you can use to think of questions you want to ask and the subjects that you want to discuss in the interview sessions.

Have a few points for discussion ready – employers also want to know more about the students who they meet at career fairs. Prepare a brief ‘elevator pitch’ about yourself. This will include your background, education, career goals, be sure to spend plenty of time practicing before you start to talk to employers.

On the big day

Dress for the position that you want – dress up. Wear business formal clothes. Remember that you only get one chance to impress the employers and that begins with what you wear. You may not be meeting them in person, but your appearances do make a powerful first impression regarding the type of employee that you’ll make once hired. You’ll even feel better about yourself and have more self-confidence if you dress up.
Make sure to attend your virtual career fair in a place that’s quiet and has a neutral background – Employers dislike distractions. Make sure to maximize your chances of being hired by minimizing distractions as much as possible.

Tips during your virtual session

Show up on time – time is money in the business world. Recruiters are very busy. They’ll appreciate it if you show up to your virtual session on time. It will show them that you respect them, their time, the employers that they work for.

Maintain eye contact and be an active listener – be sure to smile and nod at least occasionally. Maintaining eye contact is necessary. It shows the recruiter that you care about him or her and what he or she has to say. It also shows the recruiter that you respect him or her. Recruiters look for these characteristics in employees when they are hiring. Since distractions can take your attention away, be sure to keep them to a minimum when you are attending the virtual session.
Ask questions – have a list of prepared questions that you can ask the recruiter. Have several questions on the list. This will help guard against the employer answering any questions that may be on your list. Keep a pen and pieces of paper by you. It will help you jot down any new questions that may emerge during the session.

The next day

Apply to as many open jobs and internships as possible – doing so will help keep the momentum that you created between yourself and the employers (during the virtual career fair) going. Check profiles regularly for updates on jobs and internships.

To learn more about Premier Virtual and the solutions we offer such as virtual career fairs, visit https://premiervirtual.com/ or call 561-717-9717.

Attract Qualified Job Candidates with Virtual Interview Days

Sergio on October 5, 2021

Many employers continue to struggle to attract and hire qualified candidates.

There are many different issues at play, but one thing is certain; a bad hire can cost a company an average of 240,000! – based on a study by Link Humans that was shared by SHRM.org

The astronomical costs are a result of many different factors. Here is what the SHRM report cited:

Calculating the Cost of a Bad Hire

The cost of recruiting, hiring, and onboarding a new employee can be as much as $240,000, according to Jörgen Sundberg, CEO of Link Humans, an employer branding agency in London. There are extra costs incurred when that person turns out to be a poor fit, not the least of which may involve finding a replacement. Brandon Hall Group, a human capital research, and analyst firm based in Delray Beach, Fla., identified several variables that go into calculating the cost to replace a bad hire. They include:

Recruitment advertising fees and staff time.
Relocation and training fees for replacement hires.
The negative impact on team performance.
The disruption to incomplete projects.
Lost customers.
Outplacement services.
Weakened employer brand.
Litigation fees.

While this number may surprise you if you own a company or are responsible for hiring, you know that any bad hire is a drain on your budget and often can have consequences on morale for the entire organization.

To compound the problem, a tight labor market often forces recruiters to make hasty hiring decisions. A warm seat is better than an empty seat is the mentality, and you hope to be able to train up the new hire into a good fit.

Another study by CareerBuilder points out that hiring managers can be so desperate to hire, they overlook glaring issues and offer the job anyway. It’s not always the candidate’s fault or the candidate trying to cheat on the application; it is often a poorly trained recruiter not asking all the right questions in a rush.

So, how do hiring managers attract more qualified candidates?

Expanding the talent pool leads to more resumes and the likelihood of interviewing more qualified candidates. When you have a larger selection, there’s a much better chance that you will find the best candidate for the position.

The traditional route of posting an opening on job boards and in-person job fairs seems to deliver the same job seekers. Companies finding success have begun to incorporate virtual hiring events and have introduced “Virtual Interview Days”, to the hiring strategy.

These virtual interview days have been a game-changer. They have revealed the pent-up frustration of qualified job candidates that apply for jobs and never hear back from the employer. All of them agree it’s better to get a ‘no’ than a no-answer. This frustration has reduced the number of job-seekers willing to send applications to job openings they believe they’ll never hear back. Instead, they seek the more secure referral or networking route, where they know they’ll be heard and will also hear back.

That’s precisely why Virtual Interview Days are so powerful. Candidates that apply realize they will at least get an opportunity to chat with the recruiter. On the Premier Virtual hiring event platform, If that chat goes well, the recruiter can invite the candidate into a video interview. This pre-screening process gives the recruiter an excellent opportunity to see if the candidate is a good match and if a formal interview needs to be scheduled. Of course, if the fit is right, the recruiter can make a job offer on the spot so that the candidate does not go back into the search and potentially lose the candidate to another job offer.

Dana Morrison, the Teacher Recruitment Manager at the East Baton Rouge Parish School System, has experienced virtual interview days’ most significant success. After just one week, they made five new hires and are very happy with the people they are attracting. The strategy has proven so successful; they are running a virtual interview day every Tuesday in October from 1 pm-3 pm. Candidates can now plan around those days and times, get their profiles ready, and recruiters can meet them virtually.

Premier Virtual, a future-focused hiring event platform, recognized this potential and offers this ‘virtual hiring room’ as a stand-alone option for innovative companies that prefer this option to career fairs or hiring events. By incorporating the link of a Virtual Interview Day to your job posting, not only do you receive the resumes of interested candidates, you get to chat with them and see them during the virtual interview day. Plus, the virtual hiring room is open 24/7, so candidates can stop in anytime, learn more about the company, and submit their resumes anytime for the recruiter to follow up.

It’s what Premier virtual has said all along, ‘Hiring Happens Here’.

If you are interested in learning more about your own 24/7 virtual hiring room or how you can host a virtual interview day, please schedule a free demo at www.PremierVirtual.com.

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Benefits of Virtual Career Days

Sergio on August 13, 2021

Virtual career days and online job fairs have emerged as the most efficient and effective ways for employers to recruit. Mainly because job seekers who attend do not only learn more about your company, but they also have an opportunity to meet your hiring managers and interact during the event.

Scheduling a weekly Virtual Career Day is a great way for your company to open your doors and meet qualified candidates without the limitations of an in-person event. It also gives you more flexibility, since you don’t have to schedule it around a job fair or hiring event. By offering this access, both employed and unemployed job seekers have an opportunity to learn more about your company and meet your hiring managers.

A great strategy is to promote a weekly Virtual Career Day at a set time, say every Wednesday from 12-2 PM. This is a great time since many people can log in during their lunch hour if they are currently employed but looking for a better opportunity.

One big difference to physical career fairs is the advantage of reaching the highly coveted, employed job seekers. These people are usually highly qualified experts still employed at another company but open for attractive job offers. They do not attend physical career fairs but will participate virtually or online to gather information through more anonymous ways.

The biggest advantage is being able to view the candidate’s resume, enter a live chat, and if your hiring manager feels there’s a good fit, move right into a pre-screening video interview. Also, students and young professionals strongly prefer online channels to find a job.

To date, our platform has been leveraged mostly to host career fairs and hiring events with multiple employers. That remains a great option for many employers who gain to benefit from the exposure. However, those job seekers are also meeting with your potential competitors and applying for the same jobs at other companies.

By promoting a link to your Virtual Career Day along with your job listings on whatever job board you post them, you’ll be attracting talent directly to your organization for an opportunity to pre-screen them one-on-one. Let’s face it, anyone can look good, or bad on a resume, and many times a recruiter or hiring manager may never see the resume of someone who could have been a good fit.

Virtual Career Days offer that unique opportunity to chat and meet the candidate, if even for a few brief minutes to see if there is a fit and move forward in the application process. Hiring managers love the ability to choose who they want to enter a video interview with, and can often find a diamond in the rough, that could have been easily overlooked by basing a decision solely on a resume.

Jayson Waller, the CEO of SolarHOME has hired over 700 employees during the pandemic. In a recent podcast interview, he mentioned a few pointers that have helped make their recruiting efforts so successful.

One is to hire based on character and ambition more than on skills and experience. Save for a few positions like accounting and recruiting, the company is much more willing to hire a person that has the right attitude and desire to learn, than to hire an experienced installer, that has high demands and may come with bad habits from previous employers.

By offering a weekly Virtual Career Day, less qualified job seekers know they can meet with the hiring manager and ask questions that reduce the intimidation of sending an ‘unqualified’ resume for a job opening. And as we already mentioned, the highly qualified job seeker is much more apt to attend virtually and initiate the job application process as well.

See how you can add a Virtual Career Day option to your job listings and make it easy for candidates to meet your recruiters without either person having to leave their desk.

Click here to schedule your free demo today.

Expand your Talent Pool with Virtual Career Fairs

Sergio on June 2, 2021

Let’s face it; everyone wants to hire a Rockstar employee eager to learn, show initiative, and is a team player. Unfortunately, many employers feel that they can attract top talent simply because of their brand or reputation, but the tide has turned.

There is a severe labor shortage as I write this post in June of 2021. It’s not just the hi-tech or MBA positions either. We’re talking truckers, welders, restaurant workers, hospitality…you name it, and most likely, there is a challenge to find qualified workers.

There is a myriad of reasons and some that include the COVID crisis. Many of the workers at or near retirement age figured this was the right time to make that decision. There has also been a migration of jobs since people had the time to retool and retrain.

Overall, while much has changed, one thing still holds, it’s different to find top talent, which is why adding virtual career fairs on online job fairs makes so much sense.

To put your job opening in front of the right candidate’s talent, acquisition teams need to do more than outreach. Essentially, if you don’t give job seekers a more efficient way to engage with your company, you’ll only reach the candidate pool with the time to spend on the job search. Offering in-person only job fairs typically attracts the unemployed but does not offer the ‘unhappily employed’ flexibility to make the same effort.

Adding a virtual job fair means that anyone, anywhere, can log in and participate. Jobseekers can quickly scan jobs that match their criteria, chat with a recruiter, and enter into a video interview if there is a good match.

Think of all the time and energy it takes to do all of that in person. It’s often enough reason for a qualified candidate not to attend and send in their resume, which, no matter how qualified, can be quickly passed over or never even reach the hiring manager’s desk.

The same holds for the hiring managers in your company. Recruiters work hard to attract the best candidates for the position, but they often have to make a less than optimal hiring decision because of demands placed on that opening.

Virtual job fairs tend to increase attendance rates by 30% to 50%, and they have a registration to an attendance rate of over 70%. For example, we powered a state-wide career fair in Virginia with 350 employers, and 15,000 job candidates attend! Those are numbers that are impossible to achieve in person.

Another great tactic is to use the virtual platform to host other events that can engage potential candidates, such as a Tech-Talk or Virtual Mastermind that features a keynote speaker or a group of panelists with a Q&A format. During your event, you can have several sponsors host virtual booths to offer more information on their companies and invite a recruiter to be available and answer any potential work-related questions.

These events are part of your recruitment marketing strategy and go beyond the traditional social media posts and email or text messages. Now you can use those platforms to invite candidates to something of value, regardless of whether they are currently in the job market or considering your company for a potential career change.

These types of events create a great opportunity to partner strategically with local career coaches or resume writing services. These partners will gladly participate for free to have a chance to speak in front of potential prospects. In return, you’ll be building value with the community and positioning yourself as a category expert.

Using a virtual career platform in this capacity will also likely get you some attention from the local media. Use it to your advantage by inviting them to y our event. Offer them a free booth to promote any openings they might have. This goodwill will often result in mutual support and a mention of the event on the local news! Job creation is always a newsworthy topic.

It all leads to a broader talent pool, which means your recruiters have better choices. The goal of hiring the best candidate for every position is achievable when you attract the best talent. The best part is that many of these tactics do not require an increase in your budget. For example, the Premier Virtual platform lets you host unlimited events per license, per location. The more you use it, the more you save, and the greater your ROI.

If you have not done so already or are using a virtual platform and are considering alternatives, please contact us for your free, no-obligation demo.

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561-717-9717

What Are the Benefits of Hosting a Virtual Recruiting Event?

Make the Right Impression at Virtual Career Fairs

Attract Qualified Job Candidates with Virtual Interview Days

Benefits of Virtual Career Days

Expand your Talent Pool with Virtual Career Fairs

Why PV

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