What Are Virtual Job Fairs and Why Are They Important?

What Are Virtual Job Fairs and Why Are They Important?

f you’re an employee recruiter, you’re probably familiar with the term “online job fairs” or more specifically, “virtual job fairs.”  2021 was an extremely challenging year for these individuals where the job market was concerned, especially since the pandemic ruled out the traditional recruitment process indefinitely.  With the inconsistencies of the US economy, job recruiters were pushed over the technological tipping point and compelled to use digital technologies for recruiting purposes.

What Exactly is a Virtual Job Fair?

In the simplest of terms, virtual job fairs are similar to webinars (web seminars) wherein job seekers and job recruiters meet virtually (online) in chat rooms, teleconferences, or webcasts to exchange information about employment opportunities.  Furthermore, a virtual job fair is comprised of several virtual elements that replace in-person events.  These include virtual:

  • conference halls
  • employer booths
  • information desks
  • lobbies
  • meeting rooms
  • networking lounges

Once logged in, a participant can enter any one of the above areas, interact with a variety of employers and other attendees using different communication tools. It helps them explore the available employment options while companies can look at potential candidates online. This has been extremely useful, especially during the pandemic, where in-person meetings and interviews were not possible.

The Importance of Virtual Job Fairs

In addition to complying with safety and health guidelines, virtual job fairs offer 3 key advantages and benefits to recruiters that range from cost-effectiveness to increased accessibility.  These advantages and benefits include:

  • Cost-effectiveness and better time management – in-person recruitment fairs are very costly due to the need for accommodations, logistics, technical assistance, and more.  Additionally, organizing and setting up in-person recruitment fairs can be extremely time-consuming, depending on the size of the event.
  • Greater reach – due to their unlimited capacity, virtual job fairs can attract up to 10 times more traffic and can operate on a 24/7 basis to accommodate all time zones.  This global reach is a key selling point for job recruiters.
  • Improved analytics – analytics is reshaping the business environment and enables better decision-making.  The same is true with virtual job fairs.  Furthermore, hosting virtual job fairs provides recruiters with tons of data that can be utilized in recruitment marketing campaign strategies.

As a result, virtual job fairs have become extremely popular and are now included in many HR processes on a global scale.  Businesses and corporations that never imagined the need for virtual job fairs before are now reaping the benefits of them.  Are you interested in hosting a virtual job fair? Call Premier Virtual at (561) 717-9717 or send us a message by clicking here.

What Are the Benefits of Hosting a Virtual Recruiting Event?

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.

Build A Corporate Culture Using Virtual Event Platforms

People were beginning to work remotely even before the pandemic, but COVID-19 accelerated this trend. The latest research shows that employees who want a completely virtual or hybrid work environment tend to make for better employees. Global Workplace Analytics did some recent studies. According to its findings, 43% of workers who were forced to work at home during the pandemic want to continue with this.

Remote working is never going away as it benefits companies because it allows them to access more talent in a global workplace.

How To Turn Work from Home Challenges into Opportunities

Working from home is not without its issues though. There are challenges present both for employers and employees. Companies that want to give their employees the work-from-home option must make sure that employees have the right technology and uninterrupted space to work in.

Parents with small children may face many interruptions and overachievers may spread themselves too thin in terms of workload versus time available to do it in. Also, with video conferencing. Both employers and employees must learn new etiquette and skills in terms of interpersonal communication, soft skills, and emotional intelligence.

Supervision issues emerge in a remote workplace. Employers are forced to devise new and creative ways to reward good and productive employees. They also have to deal with HR issues much differently.

If companies want to do remote working successfully, they have to make sure that the managers are good listeners in a virtual work environment. They also have to ensure that their managerial practices are in sync with remote working and the remote office. Managers have to strengthen their relationships with remote workers to ensure that they create a bridge for better and stronger communication in the future.

Companies can seek help from a virtual events company for pointers and help, such as:

Make A Virtual Event Platform Work For You

Companies can build a great reputation and attract more employees if they build a great and reputable work environment and a working virtual venue platform. This type of infrastructure can make an already good physical workplace great.

Employers rely on great software programs such as virtual venue software programs. These give employers they need to create a successful virtual workplace and culture. This is important because it allows employees and employers to interact with each other as many times, as they want in any virtual environment.

Ways You Can Improve Your Remote Working Culture

Celebrate milestones

Remote employees work without social contact or opportunities for social interaction with others. That’s why celebrating certain accomplishments like work anniversaries, onboarding new employees, and landing a new client virtually is vital.

You can do this in the form of virtual parties that employees can participate in from their homes. You can mail goodies like cakes, candies, and cards to make the events more personalized, impactful, and meaningful.

Build virtual teams

The pandemic made team building a vital part of any organization’s work culture. This is especially true for organizations with virtual work environments. That’s why these organizations need to hold regular team-building meetings. Employees can participate in fun activities like yoga, online scavenger hunts, and bingo, to name a few.

These will make remote employees feel more valued. They will also enjoy working at your company. They can also be rewarded with paid time off or gift certificates to famous restaurants for their participation.

Have a buddy system

Create opportunities for people to interact with and befriend other remote or hybrid employees. You can also create a buddy system where employees check up on each other by phone call, text, email, and more.

Hold virtual happy hours 

The happy hour has always been the favorite after-work gathering for employees. It can have the same effect when taken virtually. But fun at the office after hours doesn’t have to end there. Employees can also enjoy themselves at lunch groups and other outings.

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.

 

 

Tips For Event Hosts On Engaging Your Virtual Audience

There’s no getting around the fact that you need to create an engaging environment, especially if you’re hosting a virtual hiring event or job fair. Job candidates will be more engaged with the right content to access, and your employers will have a more successful event. There are certain things you can do to create this type of environment.

Have Interactive Events

You need to interact with your guests if you want your event to be successful. It doesn’t matter which type of event it is. You can do this by:

  • Have live polls and feedback – you can allow attendees to give live feedback regarding the overall nature and success of your virtual events. Do this in the form of live polls and feedback sessions.
  • Attend the live Q&A sessions that your presenters host – the questions and answers to them will give you valuable feedback as to what you can be doing better in the future. The Q& A session should revolve around a pre-defined topic. Be sure to inform attendees ahead of time for better results.
  • Host interactive discussion panels – make your events more engaging by allowing attendees to interact with each other in virtual discussion panels. Make sure that they’re separate from the panels that your presenters hold. It may not be a bad idea to ask the attendees the topics they want to discuss and make them the focus of your discussion panels.

Be Sure To Recreate The Hallway Track

Hallways in real events make for some interesting conversations. Make sure that your virtual events have these as well. You’ll be sure to create an interesting virtual event that everyone will want to participate in if you do this. Hosts need to make sure to offer informal networking opportunities as well.

Informal networking: Make sure that employees have the chance to connect with each other informally during your events. It can lead to great opportunities and conversations. You can do this by scheduling various breaks throughout your event.

Live chat and social forums: Continual communication will ‘break the ice and make strangers feel like comrades. Make sure to build these opportunities into your events.

Share Engaging Content

You need to deliver high-quality and engaging content if you want your events to be of any use. Doing the following makes this possible:

  • Pre-event content offers – engage your audience and encourage them to listen to your information even before you host the event. This will guarantee that you will have a greater turnout and interaction during your actual event. You can do this through interactive and engaging marketing emails and social media posts.
  • Use downloadable resources – make sure that you have downloadable content. Seeing something in writing will make what you’re discussing even more powerful and impactful.
  • Have an always-on environment – have a perpetual event. You’ll find that it will engage more interaction and lead to greater attendee turnout in the future.

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.

Make the Right Impression at Virtual Career Fairs

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.

Tech Tuesday: Top-10 Recruiting Trends in 2022!

Hiring Trends for 2022

While some recruiters have faced hiring freezes and work has slowed significantly, many are busier than ever as the economy rebounds, and unemployment hits a new record low.  We have not seen unemployment records this low since 1969.  While the data might not be 100% accurate, it reports a jobless rate of 4.2% in November 2021.  At the same time, there are 11 million job openings and Americans quitting their jobs at near-record rates, so what gives in 2022?  Here are the top 10 recruitment trends you should consider as you put together your 2022 hiring strategy plan.

  1. It’s a Labor Driven Market – The bottom line is that candidates now hold all of the power. There are more available jobs than candidates, and that crunch becomes even more significant when you drill down further to high-skill jobs.  Candidates are no longer jumping to that first open position or offer, but they are willing to jump much faster if they get a better offer or more flexibility with remote work.
  1. Improve the Quality of the Candidate Pool – Over 52% of recruiters polled said that improving the quality of hires is their most important goal in 2022. Achieving this goal is a slight shift from simply increasing the number of applicants in the talent pipeline to increasing the quality of that talent.  Typically, the better the talent, the better the fit, which leads to higher retention rates.  The goal is a better hire, with a higher likelihood of staying and producing at the new job over the long term.
  1. Balancing Talent Acquisition Technology with Traditional Methods– Amidst changes in the HR space and the disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 Pandemic, technology has given birth to a new breed of recruiters. These technology-empowered headhunters are pro-active, savvy, and highly strategic in hunting down the right talent for the job.

Nowadays, recruiters use social media posts, web-based job boards, and online job portals to tout their company’s culture. However, some traditional recruiting methods continue to be effective today, such as referrals and job fairs. Yes, we’re now in an age where AI, augmented reality, and ATS machine learning rule. But finding the right balance between digital and traditional channels is key to accomplishing recruitment priorities such as improving quality of hire (52%) and time-to-hire (23%)  (HRD America, 2020, 2021).  Virtual hiring event platforms like www.PremierVirtual.com have dramatically improved candidate and recruiter experiences at virtual hiring events, resulting in better results in both of these metrics.

  1. Increased Outreach Through Social Media and Employee Referral Programs – Many companies have recognized that the opportunity to find the right candidate outside of the company is becoming more complex. Hiring for soft skills and training for hard skills means you can grow more people within your organization.  This strategy is being promoted in company social media networks and reinforced in their internal referral programs, making growth within the company take priority.
  1. Compete on Non-Traditional Benefits. There are too many jobs and not enough qualified candidates.  The competition for small business owners with giants like Facebook and Amazon only makes it more difficult.  Amazon alone was hiring a record-shattering 2,800 employees per day at the start of 2020, and that has only continued in 2021.  These large corporations immediately take top candidates, leaving smaller companies to pick from an even smaller pool.  You can’t compete on name and prestige, so you have to compete on flexibility and the ability to engage with employees on a more personal, one on one level.  Being smaller might mean employees have more responsibility and decision-making.  Make it clear from day 1, that performance is valued and there is a clear path to grow.  Foster opportunities for employees to provide ideas and give feedback.  Offer remote work and hire remotely whenever possible.  Today’s job seeker is looking for more than money.  They want to have a purpose at their job and understand their worth.  Smaller companies that focus on this will be able to provide that culture that will attract more candidates.
  1. Remote Recruiting will Continue to Grow – We see virtual hiring events platforms, like award-winning Premier Virtual, continue to be a vital asset in every company. This technology is not just for the large it becomes a way for smaller companies to compete for top-rated talent.  The trend to remote hiring, video interview, and virtual job fairs continues to grow.  61% of recruiters believe it will be the default interview and pre-screening mode moving forward.

While some platforms position themselves as ‘Virtual Hiring Event’ platforms, very few deliver on the key features recruiters are looking for.  Premier Virtual continues to stand out by providing hi-tech that is easy to use.  They continue to win awards at G2 and Capterra for their ease of use.  The platform accomplishes this in many ways, including its setup wizard, one-on-one chat and video interview technology, and easy-to-download post-event reports.  We also see companies using the Premier Virtual platform to host ‘Virtual Career Days’ and ‘Open Houses’ to meet and greet potential new hires without the pressure of scheduling interviews or hiring on the spot. It’s a great way to get your company in front of employed candidates who keep their options open and want to see what you have to offer without committing to an interview upfront.

  1. Attract, Hire and Retain! – Write these 3 pillars down (yes again!) and make a checklist under each one.  There should be a strategy in place so that each pillar of recruiting is sufficiently supported.  As we already mentioned, the workforce has always wanted a quality of life balance. Still, it has never been a better time than now to deliver! Your competitive advantage to attract more candidates can easily be to offer remote work where your competitor does not and offer health benefits that include mental health.  Times are complex, and the Pandemic has raised stress levels to new heights.  These two benefits in combination can be the difference between hiring or not.  Yes, wages and health benefits are always an essential part of hiring, but remote work and mental health continue to be the top reasons candidates state their decision to accept an offer or not.  The 48 hours after a hire is made are probably the most crucial.  Don’t let your new hire sit for hours in an empty cubicle.  Have a full-blown onboarding plan, throw a new hire party, give them the royal treatment and let everyone know about it after all isn’t this what you worked so hard for and invested so much in?
  1. AI is your Friend! There is no stopping tech, and the more you can embrace it and leverage it, the better you will be.  Ultimately nothing replaces a hiring manager’s understanding of the job at hand and their ability to spot talent beyond the resume but getting that right candidate in front of you is increasingly becoming the role of your tech tools.

AI is best for job candidate matching, candidate screening, and recommendation for job descriptions.  Now Smart ATS is increasingly being used to get suitable candidates in front of the recruiters.  The caveat is that these systems can also kick out plenty of qualified candidates, which is why hosting virtual job fairs is so essential.  Adding virtual to the AI means your company will continue to offer access to candidates that might not have reached your desk if you only used an ATS system.

  1. The Rise of Recruitment Marketing. With top graduates quickly getting gobbled up by the largest corporations, keeping your brand’ top of mind’ with passive job seekers is critical.  These employed job seekers casually look around, waiting for the right opportunity to come their way.  Using platforms like Premier Virtual to host and ‘Open House’ or ‘Career Day’ is a great way to offer this audience an opportunity to get to know you on a casual basis.  Customize your lobby with a booth for your Sales Department, Marketing Department, IT Department, etc., and give visitors an opportunity to get to know the culture and who they might be working with.  Provide them an opportunity to sign up for a ‘Company Culture’ newsletter that keeps you in touch with them, highlighting all of the great things your company offers and is accomplishing throughout the year.  You can build your relationship with this potential candidate until they decide it’s time to take the next step, and you’ll be their first option.  Make sure to share these experiences on social media, newsletters, and your website.  Share your culture as much as you can, and you will build genuine interest in your workplace.
  1. Retention, Retention, Retention. In the past, if an employee left, there might be another 100 ready to apply, but that is no longer the case.  While you should always do everything in your power to retain and cultivate the talent you have, you can no longer get away by ‘winging’ it.  If you don’t have fundamental procedures to engage and empower your people, it will likely result in higher turnover, and those losses take much longer to fill.  Your best bet is a phenomenal employee retention program, invest in your people, and the benefits will include lower turnover, higher referrals, and increased productivity – but you already knew that!!!

If you have other trends to share or are interested in integrating a virtual hiring event platform into your recruiting strategy, please contact us for a free demo.

Is your ATS System Blocking Qualified Candidates?

A recent Harvard Business report revealed that ATS, which is an applicant tracking system, is responsible for blocking or disqualifying many qualified applicants. 

This system, which ranks relevant keywords, skills, degrees, credentials, responsibilities and other qualities that indicate to a hiring manager or recruiter that the applicant is qualified for the position has been deemed impersonal, and quite frankly unfair to applicants who don’t know how to use such keywords. 

The online virtual job and career fair platform Premier Virtual has an innovative solution to this complex problem. 

Virtual hiring rooms. That’s right. The future-focused technology company has positioned itself as a go-to company to help employers create virtual hiring rooms to make job hunting more personal and fair. 

Now, hiring managers can meet candidates in a virtual hiring room. Think of it as a 24/7 office that can be linked to your company’s job listings. This allows company recruiters to schedule an ‘open-house on set days and times where candidates can meet and chat.  If there is a fit, the recruiter can enter into a pre-screening interview, and then decide if the candidate should be scheduled for a more formal interview. 

This tool has proven to reduce time to hire from an average of 30 days to just over 7 days.  

What’s included in a virtual hiring room? Here’s what you can expect:

  • Fully Customizable Hiring Room
  • Live Reporting During Events
  • Video Interviews
  • Candidate Matching Based on Experience
  • Registration Setup Wizard
  • Ability to Host Webinar
  • Built-in Text and Email Reminders
  • API to Integrate with Current ATS Systems
  • Candidate “Journey” with Ability to Rank Companies and Track Their Progress in the Event
  • Organization ability to tag candidates before an event to show interest and schedule interview

Premier Virtual is the no. 1 virtual career fair platform in the industry, with nearly 200 Workforce Development Boards choosing the company for online career and hiring events. 

Don’t let the ATS systems choose your candidates for you, take back control of the hiring process with your own virtual hiring room.

Host Virtual Hiring Events With Premier Virtual

Premier Virtual fosters innovation and strives to provide solutions to complex virtual problems. Through building relationships based on integrity, trust, honesty, transparency and teamwork, the tech-forward company always gets the job done.

If your company would like to host a virtual hiring event, contact Premier Virtual today. 

Attract Qualified Job Candidates with Virtual Interview Days

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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Premier Virtual Powers Record-Breaking Virtual Job Fair!

From August 16th through August 20th, the State of Massachusetts held a state-wide virtual hiring event that broke all previous records!

  • 1,679 Employers 
  • 17,323 Attendees
  • 46,709 Job Postings
  • 1.3M Booth Views

Our goal at Premier Virtual is to make it as efficient as possible for employers to connect with qualified job candidates, and this is a great example of how our platform does that.  These numbers could never have been achieved in an in-person event, and quite frankly, the larger the turnout of an in-person event, the more difficult it is to manage effectively.

Employers and attendees reported how easy the platform was to use, and how they made quality connections, and job offers were made on the spot!

Learn how your school, company, or organization can do the same by scheduling a free demo today.

Virtual Career Fairs Have Changed The Staffing Industry

It is sage and common advice for job seekers, new graduates, professionals, and the like to be encouraged to go to a job or career fair. Attending these kinds of events connects employers with a large number of prospective employees, and vice versa. Job seekers can interact with peers, and connect with potential employers, companies get their brand out there and are more recognizable to the workforce, networking happens, many good things come out of these events on both sides. That being said, the job recruitment and seeking landscape has changed significantly in recent years, and companies are taking many of these kinds of career fair events online. 

No one knows more about the way the staffing industry and job recruitment environment have evolved than the team at Premier Virtual. After almost a decade of managing in-person events, co-founder and CEO Steven Edwards jumped into offering virtual events in 2018, as he saw the demand and market change. In early 2020 Premier developed their own innovative software platform for companies to host events, quickly becoming one of the top-used planforms in the nation when the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses to go virtual. Premier Virtual is the number one virtual career fair platform in the workforce development industry. 

Edwards explains that he started to see the shortcomings in the in-person job fair market, employers were missing out on connecting with qualified candidates due to long lines, and candidates walking away. Candidates were finding themselves frustrated as well. Edwards describes it as a process of walking into a crowded room, then waiting in line to hand over a resume and saying “Hire me?”, and then walking away always dissatisfied and doing it all again. The process was not efficient, so Edwards set out to create a space for both employers and job seekers to have a better experience.

The Benefits Are Clear

  • Cost-effective
  • Far-reaching, not limited by the geography of the size of the venue
  • More efficient, save time to travel and set-up
  • Fantastic lead generators
  • Increase brand recognition
  • Easily accessible for everyone
  • Make instant connections with targeted, highly qualified candidates
  • Reduce Time to Hire from 30 Days to an average of 7 days
  • Increase the quality of your bench
  • Attract candidates from all levels of experience, not just entry-level

Traditional job fairs tend to offer introductory and lower-level jobs, whereas on the online platform companies can hold executive-level career and hiring events, recruiting the top qualified candidates from all over the world. The system that Premier Virtual created goes far above and beyond, offering companies the ability to create a custom career recruitment system, as well as employing a one-of-a-kind flat licensing rate system allowing companies to hold multiple cost-effective events. Premier Virtual supported thousands of companies connecting with and employing individuals, even in the hardest of hit places and times over the last two years. The platform has powered 2,500 events to date, connecting 25,000 employers to 250,000 job seekers, and has earned industry-leading ratings on review sites like Capterra and G2. Edwards prides himself on the dedication of his team, and how they have truly impacted and changed lives across the world. 

Born and raised in small-town Wisconsin, Edwards is a veteran, serving in the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army, as well as in the Florida National Guard. Edwards is always working to think outside of the box to see how he can make the industry better, and help people daily in a way that benefits their lives. He, along with business partner Gary Edwards lead a diverse, innovative team, motivated to drive advancements in the industry. “We are a ‘Future-Focused’ company, and we are every day innovating and making improvements. Our goal is to create a stand-alone platform that can provide all the solutions human resource executives need, in one place.” 

Connect with Edwards and the Premier Virtual team on social media and through the company website, https://premiervirtual.com

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