How to Plan and Execute an In-Person Recruitment Event
In-person recruitment events are a great way to connect with many potential candidates and ensure your talent pipeline is well served.
However, planning a recruitment event is more complex than it may seem initially. There’s much to consider, including where it’ll be held, what activities you’ll run, and how you’ll market your event.
Here’s everything you need to know about planning and executing an in-person recruitment event.
Planning an in-person recruitment event
How you plan an in-person recruitment event will depend on your company’s size and hiring needs. That said, you should follow several general guidelines, which can be adapted based on your organization’s individual needs.
Set goals and objectives.
Before looking at venues and setting dates, you must determine your goals for an in-person recruitment event. Your objectives will help inform the event’s location, target audience, and budget.
When it comes to setting goals, you should consider the following:
- Who are your target candidate personas?
- Will the event be solely for your company, or will you partner with others?
- Where will you have the event? At your office or an off-site location?
Setting goals will help you to begin a successful recruitment process, which is essential for hiring suitable candidates.
An overwhelming majority rate the hiring process experience as essential to them, so if you wish to attract the best candidates, you must provide a great experience from the off.
Scout a location.
Once you’ve set your goals for the event, you can start looking for locations that will support your needs. Venues can be booked up a long time in advance, especially in large cities, so you must book a venue well in advance.
There are a variety of locations that you can use to host in-person recruitment events. Hotel conference rooms and convention centers can provide large spaces to accommodate many attendees.
If you’re a smaller business, venues such as bars, restaurants, or even outdoor spaces can all be cost-effective options for venues. It would be best to consider factors such as hiring cost, maximum capacity, and accessibility when selecting a location.
Establish a budget and timeline.
Now that you’ve set your goals and booked a suitable venue, it’s time to develop a project timeline for your event. It would help if you created a checklist of what must be arranged before the event and determined who’s responsible for completing it.
It’s also essential to decide on a budget for the event. Hiring a venue may take much of this, but other costs you can consider, such as decorations, promotional materials, and engaging guest speakers.
Tools such as enterprise resource planning software can help you to establish your budget and stick to your timeline, assisting you in managing your day-to-day operations and providing you with the insights you need to make cost-effective decisions.
It would help if you also considered how you’re going to document your event. Hiring a photographer or videographer can provide evidence of a successful event that you can use to promote future events and repurpose into content such as blog posts or webinars.
Develop a marketing plan.
Planning an in-person recruitment event is only worthwhile if people know about it. You’ll need to carefully plan how you will market your event to ensure that you attract quality candidates.
Start by looking at your mailing lists to find candidates who have indicated that they want to hear about upcoming recruitment events, have attended previous occasions, and are suitable for the roles you’re trying to fill.
Targeting your marketing at these candidates will mean focusing on the most promising potential attendees. Remember, quality is more important than quantity when it comes to attendees of in-person recruitment events.
You can use other channels, such as your company newsletter or social media, to publicize your event.
It’s important to start marketing well before your event so that you have plenty of time to get the word out and get a clearer picture of who’s likely to attend.
Manage staffing and logistics.
Use your RSVP count and historical data from past events to predict how many attendees you’ll likely have and decide whether or not you’ll be allowing walk-ins on the day.
You can hire staff to help run the event or use volunteers from your company. It is good that you have one team member for every ten attendees.
You’ll also need to print any other promotional materials you’ll be handing out at the event, such as recruitment travel brochures. If you’re providing food and drink at your event, make sure you’ve ordered enough for the expected number of attendees.
Executing an in-person recruitment event
If you’ve planned your in-person recruitment event well, you shouldn’t have too much to worry about on the big day. Here are a few best practices for executing a recruitment event to ensure success.
Know your talking points and benefits.
Ensure the event staff knows the key talking points you want your attendees to go away with. Focus as much as possible on the unique selling points of your company as a place of work and build your activities around them.
Ensure that your staff has an excellent working knowledge of the software and processes you use so that they can share this information with attendees and explain why it makes your company a great place to work.
Host engaging activities
Activities will often stick in your attendees’ minds after they’ve left. Lively talks, interactive games, and even activities like scavenger hunts can all help your event stand out and make a lasting impression on your attendees.
Follow up with attendees.
Although the event will have to end, your relationship with your attendees shouldn’t. Ensure you reach out with a message thanking them for their attendance and asking them for feedback on the event. You can use this feedback to improve future events.
To encourage applicants to apply for specific roles, you could include links in these thank-you emails that connect them with your recruitment systems, streamlining the process for all parties and encouraging attendees to apply for available positions.
In summary
Hosting a successful in-person recruitment event requires precision planning. You need to consider budget, location, marketing, and staffing. Most importantly of all, you need to make sure you’re inviting the right attendees.
Focus your event on what makes your company a uniquely attractive workplace, and ensure your activities will get these points across. When it’s all over, gather as much feedback as possible to see what worked and what didn’t.
Then you’ll be ready to start planning again for the next one!
About the Author / Ana Almeida
