Top 5 Tips for Effective Job Fair Recruitment

A job fair allows recruiters and employers access to numerous job seekers at a single place. The kind of candidate outreach it provides is something that you cannot otherwise have even after spending huge sums of money on targeted recruitment activities. Job fairs are the best place to meet with candidates in person (so many candidates), promote your career and job openings, as well as introduce your firm to the different professionals in the recruitment business.

But is the job fair worth the time, money, effort and resources spent on that one activity? The question is, are job fair recruitments the right business move you should make? Well, it depends on the type of job fairs you attend and the kind of candidates or job seekers who attend them. Let us look at five must-know tips before you venture into job fair recruitment.

1. Attend the right job fairs

The first and foremost aspect of job fair recruitment is that you should attend the job fairs that can bring in the right kind of candidates. For instance, if you want to hire experienced professionals for your open job positions, then there is no point participating in campus hiring drives or job fairs for freshers and entry-level candidates. Such participation will be a complete waste of your precious resources.

Therefore, seek a job fair, which attracts management professionals and experienced professional candidates. This would be the right place to hire the right talent for your job. Similarly, if you want to recruit veterans, fresh graduates, engineers or medical professionals, then look to attend the right job fairs for each specific category of hires. Do not just blindly participate in every job fair that is announced in your vicinity.

The effectiveness of your recruitment drive will depend on the kind of job fairs you visit for recruitment. Hence, plan and participate in the right job fairs.

2. Identify your talent segment

Every employer and recruiter should continually analyse their return on investment (ROI) from all the sources of hiring, including the job fair. This step begins with identifying your main talent segment or your target audience. Then, you must devise effective methods of attracting each talent segment. If job fairs are where your talent segment can be reached and it provides a higher ROI, you must precisely define the kind of events and fairs you will attend to get access to that pool.

This will help you plan and segregate your resources for each job fair recruitment strategy to meet and hire candidates for all your open job positions. Identifying your talent segment will also help you create an effective marketing strategy to woo your target audience into your company.

3. Prepare for the job fair

If you have identified a job fair that would pull the kind of job seekers you wish to hire, you should then plan and prepare extensively to make this event a successful recruitment drive for the company.

Identify the audience, single out your potential targets, size your team accordingly so that you can meet and interact with the most job seekers. Do as much research as possible about the job fair before you plan to attend the event. Find out the type of candidates who would attend the event, the total count of candidates who may have registered for the event.

There are many events where the exhibitor count is more than the count of candidates or visitors. Such events are a complete waste of resources for the company.

Also, when you are attending a job fair that attracts top-quality candidates, bring in the decision-makers to make spot hiring or engagement decisions.

4. Energetic and knowledgeable staff

If job fair recruitment forms an essential aspect of your annual recruiting goals, then make sure to involve your most motivated and energetic staff at the job fair. Passionate and energetic employees will speak highly about the job opportunities within the company and attract the right kind of good candidates wishing to work for the company. Passionate and energetic employees will improve your ROIs at job fairs.

Recruitment is a challenging task that requires an in-depth understanding of the organization structure and its operations. Further, job fairs require a lot of enthusiasm and interpersonal skills to interact with a large number of candidates at the job fair.

Therefore, make sure that the staff you have assigned to attend the fair knows the company well and has good interpersonal skills. The energy and enthusiasm of your employees will attract new employees into the organization. This will help you gain the maximum out of a job fair recruitment drive.

5. Define your space

Make the maximum out of the space that has been provided to you, even if it is a small space with just a table and chair. Advertise your brand to the fullest. Make sure the visitors know about your presence. Give pamphlets to the visitors who enter the event to let them learn about your brand and your location in the job fair. This will build brand awareness and bring in more candidate inquiries to your stall.

Also, run a special campaign or incentivize those who visit your stall. This way you would be able to build curiosity towards your company and attract suitable candidates to your stall.

You should not be constricted with the small space. Your small stall should not stop you from creating a splash at the job event. You could use portable banners and standees to advertise your presence. The objective should be to create awareness and attract as many candidates as possible towards your stall.

Pros and cons of hiring at a job fair

Pros

1. A better platform to secure quality leads

An industry-specific job fair event allows you the best chance to reach out to a huge number of qualified and suitable job seekers. Also, you will be able to attract more qualified and interested candidates.

An industry-specific job fair, allows you to recruit top-quality experienced candidates for your senior job positions. Not just that, you will be able to get in touch with a diverse pool of job seekers at one place. This will help you create an effective candidate pool, which can be tapped into effectively in your future recruitment endeavours.

Job fairs give you the platform to directly connect with so many candidates, giving you the opportunity to speak up about your brand and spread your brand identity among the job seekers.

Moreover, most candidates visiting job fairs are actively seeking employment opportunities. This will not just create a relevant pool of prospects but also let you make the spot offer to the most suitable candidates.

2. Exposure to the recruitment market

Attending the job fair will give you exposure to the recruitment market. You will come to know what your competition does to attract and hire more candidates at the job fair. You will come to know about the best marketing and advertising techniques for the job fair. Plus, you will learn about the perks and packages being offered to new hires at the fair.

It will give you exposure to the best and the effective hiring practises employed by other companies. The more targeted job fairs you attend, more and more employment seekers will come to know about your company, improving your brand awareness in the job market. This, in turn, helps to attract the best talent towards your company.

Cons

1. Cost

Yes, planning and attending a job fair event eat into a big chunk of the monetary resources. The expenses begin with booking your spot at the event, followed by spending money on all the paraphernalia for the activity. Then comes your marketing, advertising and brand promotions to reach out and attract the most candidates to your stall. Also, you need to pay your staff money to come and attend the event, including their lodging and travel expenses. And not to mention the disruption in your business operations, as everyone’s focus shifts to the job fair.

If the job fair can attract most numbers of top quality candidates, you will be able to get a better return on your investment. However, if the candidates at the job fair do not match up to your job requirements, it will turn out to be a costly exposition.

2. Time

Planning for a job fair event will eat into a lot of your time. Job fairs are a full day activity, which will use up most of your time during the day, leaving you with very little time to focus on your existing business activities. This may affect your commitments and your delivery deadlines. So, ensure that you plan your deadlines and commitments while planning for the job fair event.

Job fair recruitment is a highly subjective hiring practice. It is an effective recruitment tool for some companies, while for others it may not be that effective a recruitment platform.

Job fairs especially help those companies who are looking to hire fresh and fresh college graduates for their entry-level positions, as these are the type of candidates flocking such events the most in search of employment. While those who are looking for skilled and specialized talent should focus on targeted job fairs aimed at attracting their targeted talent segment. This will give them higher returns on their investment.