A recruitment event is an effective way to find new talent. However, it can also easily go wrong and produce none of your desired results. To ensure your hiring event succeeds, here’s how you should plan recruitment events from start to finish.
Type of Recruiting Events
For starters, knowing your hiring needs is crucial in choosing the best kind of recruitment event to host. Here are three types of hiring events depending on your needs:
1. Organize a “Welcome Day”
Hosting a welcome day, also called an open house, is often considered a very warm welcome to potential hires. The goal of this event is to create a relaxed environment and give prospective employees meaningful insights.
It’s a perfect avenue for networking and Q&A between your team and candidates. Letting your candidates meet your team and see your company culture first-hand gives them a clear picture of what to expect from you.
2. Engage in an On-Site Career Fair
If you need to hire candidates quickly and en masse, consider holding job fairs. An on-site job fair is where a company announces various job opportunities and accepts applications on-site.
If you’re going this route, make sure that you have effectively communicated what candidates should bring and inform them of your hiring process. This ensures the event’s steady progress and that everyone can participate.
3. Opt for a Creative Event
Aside from the two traditional hiring events mentioned above, there are a lot of fresh strategies you can consider if you’re looking to stand out. Some examples are:
- Free gym session followed by a meet-and-greet
- “Bring a Friend” event for your existing staff
- Public speaking engagement with an esteemed speaker in your industry
- A cocktail hour networking event
- Your very own product sampling and feedback session
- Virtual event or digital job fair through an interactive career page
Read More: 4 Creative Content Ideas to Make Your Recruitment Agency Stand Out
Recruitment Event Planning Method
Now, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of planning your next hiring event! Whatever type of event you want to host, these tips will surely help you execute a successful event that will bring in top professionals.
Step 1: Plan Ahead
Last-minute planning is one surefire way to fail when planning events. While recruitment events are usually informal settings to meet new people, they still require some formality to achieve your objectives.
Before you start planning, take some time to think about why you’re holding an event in the first place.
Are you aiming for volume? Quality? Diverse attendees? Without defined goals, it would be hard to measure whether or not your event was a success.
Read More: 4 Ways to Elevate Your Staffing Firm’s Presence at Job Fairs
Step 2: Create Engaging Activities
There are countless recruitment event ideas you can choose from. We have already mentioned a few, but what works for us may not work for you. Consider your audiences: in this case, your job candidates.
What kind of entertainment would they appreciate? What information would they be most interested in? Do you need a proper program, or would a very informal one suffice? Here are a few things you can incorporate in your next hiring event:
- Interactive workshops that highlight the responsibilities of the roles.
- A question-and-answer panel that shares experiences, culture, and growth opportunities.
- Interactive booths like quizzes, mini-challenges, or VR-ready platforms.
- Gamified assessments for coding challenges or problem-solving games.
- Relaxation corners that allow candidates to converse with peers and recruiters comfortably.
Step 3: Create a Timeline and Set a Budget
When planning your event, set a timeline with target dates. This will help you avoid any major missteps or complications down the road. It will also give you something to track as you proceed. Set out everything that needs to happen between now and when your event takes place, including who needs what by when.
As you do so, work out your budget as well. How much can you spend on each element of your hiring event? Figure out everything you need and where to get funding ahead of time. This ensures you have the right resources to proceed and are not overly spending money, balancing an engaging and successful hiring event.
Step 4: Choose the Right Venue
What happens at a recruitment event will depend heavily on your venue selection. A hotel in the city might make it more accessible to your attendees. However, an intimate and secluded location up in the mountains overlooking nature and the city might be preferable if you want a memorable event.
This is where you have to weigh accessibility and ambiance. Balancing the two could be a simple compromise. However, remember that you want to attract and retain new people in your organization. So, choose the location that best suits your company, culture, event theme, and open roles.
Step 5: Let People in Your Company Know
Don’t forget to tell your employees and key stakeholders in your company about the event. By tapping into your own team, you can get insights and other contributions to make your event a success.
It’s also a good idea to send out calendar invites and promote your event internally. Remember, your best advocates will always be your internal employees. Encouraging them to invite people in their networks will help get more people interested in your event.
Step 6: Figure Out the Logistics
Come up with a checklist of everything that needs to be done. Making sure everything runs smoothly on the day relies heavily on how you plan your event’s logistics. Here are some items that should be on your checklist:
Venue and Theme
Book your venue ahead of time to make sure that it’s available on your chosen event date. Pick a venue and theme that is appropriate for your target candidates.
Event Date and Time
Find the time that will work best for your candidates. Would the majority of your target audience attend on weekends? How about after hours? Also, don’t make your event too long or too short.
Check-In, Giveaways, and Branding
Place your check-in tables strategically to help your candidate settle in nicely. Figure out the look and feel you want your event to have. Make sure that you have signage and key materials with your brand on them. Have everything ready—from greeting guests the moment they arrive to what you want them to take when they leave.
Event Staff
Delegate tasks to your team. You can assign them as ushers, runners, or marshalls. Get them ready by telling them when to arrive, what to wear, and their specific tasks and stations.
Social Strategy
Make sure to properly document your event to reach even those in the talent pool who weren’t able to attend. You can take videos or photographs that you can showcase online. Come up with an event hashtag and live-tweet the event.
Contact Information
Find an effective way of collecting your attendees’ contact information. You can have them check in through attendance sheets, QR Codes, or other online methods. It’s also helpful to give out your speaker’s contact information, such as an Instagram handle or LinkedIn page.
Step 7: Get People to Attend
Make sure your event is on your target candidate’s radar. Get people excited about it and let them know what you’re looking for in your prospective employees. Here are tips on how to get a full crowd:
Promote your event on all relevant platforms.
Post it on social media! Create graphics that catch the eyes of your target candidates on sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. People are already on these networks, so you might as well use them for good!
Send out emails.
Email invites to your employee pipeline and database. Make sure that your message clearly identifies what and who you’re looking for.
Partner with local companies.
Hiring events will need refreshments, food, entertainment, and more. Ask your partners and suppliers to help market the event.
Use a registration tool.
Gather registrations online and send reminders as the day of the event nears. This is an effective way to spark excitement in your attendees.
Follow up.
It’s best practice to follow up with the people who attended your event, whether you hired them or not. Keeping them in your database and building a relationship with them will help you get readily available leads for future positions.
Things to Remember
Before hosting a recruitment event, remember to focus on making sure everyone feels welcome and leaves with a positive sense of your culture and employer brand.
Keep in mind that most attendees won’t notice if something goes wrong, so do not stress over the little things.
Lastly, don’t miss out on enjoying your very own event! Breathe, mingle, and network with top professionals there. Even if you don’t end up hiring each of your attendees, giving yourself and everyone a good time can pay talent acquisition dividends in the future.
Read More: Mark Your Calendars: Staffing Events and Conferences to Attend in 2024
DO YOU NEED HELP PLANNING YOUR NEXT RECRUITMENT EVENT? LET’S TALK!
We would be more than happy to help you out! We at Allied Insight understand the importance of standing out in today’s competitive recruitment landscape. Whether you need assistance with branding, digital marketing, or sales enablement – we’ve got you covered!
Let top professionals see and know you as Allied Insight delivers strategic recruitment marketing solutions for your staffing agency. Contact us today!
