Career fairs provide prime opportunities to make personal connections and recruit hourly talent through thorough preparation, strategic promotion, impactful engagement, swift follow-up, and reflective analysis. Follow these steps to optimize your strategy.
Choose the Right Events
Choosing the right fairs is crucial for maximizing your recruiting investment. Thoroughly research upcoming events and evaluate criteria like location, school size and degrees conferred, past employer participation levels, average student attendance, industries targeted, and types of candidates attracted.
Compare events in a spreadsheet to quantify how each aligns with your hiring needs regarding target candidate demographics, required qualifications, geographic distribution, and expected volumes.
Whenever possible, prioritize large recurring annual fairs where you can strengthen brand awareness and relationships over time. According to recruiting experts, focusing on 2-3 annual fairs drives stronger results than spreading efforts across many events. For niche roles, identify focused fairs specifically targeting your required degrees, skills, and industries.
Design an Eye-Catching Booth
Your booth deserves ample consideration, as it delivers a vital first impression. Visually align banners, signage colors, displays, layout, lighting, furnishings, and decor to your company’s brand style guide for instant recognition.
Show vibrant images of your culture, hourly employees at work, facilities, and job highlights to capture attention. Create an open, navigable layout allowing natural conversation flow. Avoid physical barriers like large counters that hinder movement and accessibility. Provide brochures, flyers, giveaways, decor, and devices like tablets to attract and engage visitors.
Develop your booth strategy based on the target audience – bold colors and large displays work well for general fairs, while a more understated, consultative approach may suit niche events. Have a consistent, professional look across events but infuse your brand’s personality. Train staff on maintaining an organized, eye-catching booth and projecting an approachable, attentive demeanor.
Send Your Most Capable Recruiters
Carefully select and prepare the recruiters working your booth for maximum impact. Look for recruiters who shine at initiating conversations with strangers and representing your culture authentically. Identify sociable, outgoing personalities who express genuine enthusiasm and interest in learning about applicants’ skills, aspirations, and experiences.
Thoroughly train recruiters on company talking points, anticipated applicant questions, and establishing quick rapport. Conduct role-plays and simulations to polish conversational and engagement skills. Share tips for breaking the ice smoothly, transitioning conversations naturally, and closing gracefully.
Ensure recruiters stay fully up-to-date on company developments, current open positions across locations, key differentiators, and relevant news stories to hold meaningful discussions. According to hiring experts, compelling booth conversations rely on preparation, active listening, and making personal connections.
Equip Recruiters to Engage Visitors
Provide your team with ample materials and resources to enable engaging booth conversations. Supply concise job descriptions, FAQ sheets, and company one-pagers recruiters can easily share with interested applicants. Prepare pamphlets, flyers, and brochures that highlight your employer’s brand, culture, values, and open positions.
Have a plentiful stack of business cards readily available for follow-up contact. Arrange a computer or tablet, allowing visitors to conveniently browse interactive pages on careers, benefits, and current openings. Develop consistent main talking points and benefit statements for recruiters to emphasize when describing your organization and opportunities.
Clearly outline the next steps so applicants know what to expect post-fair. Train recruiters on questioning techniques to identify applicant motivations, qualifications, availability, and overall fit. Gather visitor contact information early in conversations to fuel prompt follow-up. Supply useful branded giveaways like pens, notebooks, or tote bags to spread awareness beyond the event.
Follow Up Swiftly with Top Prospects
Following up swiftly with top prospects after the fair is crucial for capitalizing on positive impressions. Ideally, send individualized emails within 24 hours thanking prospects for visiting your booth and attaching the full position description you discussed to spur continued interest. For promising candidates with whom you really connected, consider accelerating the hiring process through expedited assessments or interviews shortly after the fair. Extend offers within days while you remain top of mind to stand out from other employers.
Follow up multiple times through both email and phone to reinforce your interest and convey professionalism. Send handwritten thank-you notes or small branded gifts to stay connected with talent. Customize your outreach approach and cadence based on prospects’ stated interests, qualifications, availability, and overall fit. Develop a strategic approach for identifying priority candidates and engaging them across multiple channels leading up to and following up after events.
Analyze Metrics for Refinement
Pay close attention to metrics after career fairs for insights to continually refine your strategy. Track where participating applicants heard about the fair to identify optimal channels for future promotional efforts. Document booth traffic, recruiter conversations held, prospect interests, business cards collected, and applicant hires by school to guide your outreach strategy. Compute your rate of offers extended versus actual hires made.
Calculate your cost per hire based on fair fees, travel expenditures, booth supplies, giveaways, and staffing. Consider time investments for preparation and event participation as well. Compare all metrics across events to determine which delivers the highest ROI and aligns closest with your target candidate profile. Re-evaluate your portfolio of target career fairs annually based on performance data while incorporating recruiter feedback on their experiences.
By following these steps for thorough preparation, strategic promotion, impactful engagement, swift follow-up, and reflective analysis, you can maximize your brand’s presence and hourly recruiting results at career fairs. Chattr provides additional solutions like automated communications to further streamline post-fair hiring.
