A candidate rendezvous in virtual space

One might think that the number of virtual career fairs and online recruitment events is increasing in direct proportion to the viral load. Certainly, the current contact restrictions are a plausible explanation, but virtual recruitment is not purely Covid-19-related. Even if key industry events were forced to move into virtual space last year, modern companies have been organizing digital ‘meet & greet’ sessions with applicants through their own web-based career events for some time.

More visitors reduced costs – the benefits of virtual recruitment events

For good reasons: for example, a virtual career fair presence saves costs and resources compared to its real counterpart – with no expensive materials, annoying set-up and dismantling, no travel, and no pointless giveaways. At the same time, the number of visitors increases because at a digital fair anyone can drop by whenever they have time – on the couch at home, in the train, or during a lunch break. This is particularly interesting for those currently employed who are having initial thoughts about changing jobs but, for the time being, would like to find out about things discretely. In addition, new recruiting formats also have an impact on the employer brand. Employers can collect bonus points by inviting people to a virtual exhibition stand, especially among millennials who understand their digital handicraft.

Collect details - and then?

There is yet another reason that should not be forgotten: digital events provide the HR department with a wealth of data that can be analyzed in real-time. This not only allows a quick analysis as to the success of the event itself but also means valuable input for the company’s own talent relationship management. However, this is only the case if the virtual activity – whether it be participating in a larger career fair or your company’s own online career day – is not seen as an isolated occurrence, even when organized by an external provider. What use is all the effort if participants are not identified as potential candidates, applicants do not receive timely feedback and the event itself is not reflected in the company’s own recruitment content or in the way it approaches talent leads?

Manage virtual events with the help of a recruitment platform

Therefore, integrate your virtual recruitment events, digital exhibition stand, or similar as important touchpoints in your own candidate experience concept. Recruitment platforms such as Talentry can support event management. They offer useful interfaces through which the virtual events can be easily integrated into your own CRM:

✅ Create a landing page and forms for the event

From event registration to the final keynote address – invite interesting talent leads to your company by offering easy registration options during the event. For example, a separate landing page giving candidates more insights into the company, where they can register for the talent pool or apply for an interesting position directly is ideal for this. To ensure a coherent candidate experience, create suitable forms based on topics from the virtual event. Consider the expectations and goals of the talent lead wishing to get in touch with you, and take this into account when designing the forms.

✅ Organize event contacts in talent pools

A key benefit of a virtual event is growth for your talent pool. With the help of a central database such as Talentry TRP, valuable talent leads from the online event are not lost, but automatically saved. Not only are contact details recorded, but also, for example, which skills the candidate has or for which jobs they are interested in. In this way, different pools can be organized according to your specifications and contacts can be approached individually at a later stage by linking them to your email account.

✅ Store data in a GDPR-compliant manner

Data protection is also an important issue for virtual events. Use your recruitment platform to obtain consent for data processing automatically at the time of contacting the candidate. Ideally, the consent status of the candidate is then visible to you and everyone else via the recruitment platform.

✅ Long-term contact management and targeted campaigns

Use the specific information you have gleaned about candidates participating in a virtual recruitment event to complement the profiles in the talent pool. Keynotes, presentations, downloads, or discussion forums: the various event formats used can provide information about individual career interests, training aspirations, professional skills, and personal strengths. With an intelligent filter and search function, you can contact the right people in your talent pool individually with targeted campaigns about future events, jobs, or other topics. This way your virtual recruitment activities will not just be a short intermezzo. You build long-term relationships that keep you in people’s minds as an employer until perhaps the right job opportunity arises for both sides.