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Running a recruitment event takes coordination and patience. It could be useful to enlist the services of talent acquisition services *cough, cough* - like us, to take the stress out of things - allowing you and your HR team to steer the direction without getting caught up in the day-to-day operational tasks of running the event.
If you are going to go it alone, we have the following tips:
Give yourself enough time, but not too much. When trying to attract new candidates to your event it can feel scary to give yourselves a short window to get the numbers you’d like. BUT, if you give yourself too long you may find you have a high number of drop-offs.. Candidates who are in the market for a job, may have accepted an offer by the time your event comes along. We recommend advertising 2-4 weeks prior to the event. Of course, your planning and prep time frame will be much longer - depending on the focus of your event.
Another timely-tip. Consider the time of year you’re holding your event. Avoid school holidays and peak summer holiday dates. Consider also competing external events that could take up the spotlight. Even things like festivals and expos could impact attendance uptake.
Have processes in place. You’ll be surprised with how many registrations you might receive. Not all, of course - will be relevant. Have a team or process in place to go through all the registrations and sift through who will proceed to the event - and which comms they are to receive.
Host it yourselves. It can be exciting to go off-site but most candidates, if they’re interested in working for you, will appreciate seeing where they will work if that is an option.. Help them visualise themselves in your team by having the event at one of your facilities. It saves on event costs too.
Lead with feeling. Career moves are personal things. People by nature are emotive - consider the feeling you want prospective candidates to leave with. A poorly planned event could leave talent walking away with the impression your business is chaotic. A warm, welcoming and engaging approach will suit most candidates.
Respond. Don’t ruin the great impression you made by ‘ghosting’ your attendees following the event. Follow up with an email thanking them for attending - and offer them the opportunity to take their application further if necessary. Candidate experience is incredibly important so it’s wise to consider how the journey connects both online and offline.
Reflect. If you did the event well, you’ll likely want to do another sometime in the future. Take stock of what worked, what didn’t and how you can improve the performance of the event for next time.
As you’ll know, Optamor (that’s us) is a talent solutions business. Recruitment events are one of many solutions we deliver to our customers. If you’re interested in running a recruitment event and would like our help - get in touch.