WorkSource Montgomery is proud to partner with employers throughout the region on a regular basis and to co-host job recruitment events with them at our job centers, community sites or their place of business. If you would like more information about how we can help your business or organization find the right talent through a co-hosted recruitment event, contact our Business Solutions team at business_solutions@worksourcemontgomery.com.
Along the way, we’ve learned some valuable lessons about what works best to ensure the success of a recruitment event? Here are 10 tips:
- Plan early. Make sure you have enough lead time to firm up all of the planning details so that your event will be well-run, well-publicized and, above all, well-attended, so that you will have access to a broad pool of prospective talent.
- Prepare well. Make a check-list of everything you will need and put together an event plan, including a timeline for when things need to get done, who is responsible, and who will not only staff the event, but be responsible for set-up, breakdown and other logistics.
- Be creative. Think about ways to ensure that your event can be more exciting and engaging. Make sure that it conveys what a great organization the prospective employee will be joining and what a great place to work it is.
- Get the word out. Start with a good list or database of prospects and reach out directly to them to ensure you will have a certain core of attendees and, hopefully, those with the right qualifications. Then use whatever outreach tools you have available: email, social media, web calendars, printed flyers, etc. Reach out to your audience early… and often.
- Liven it up. Do you have an engaging speaker who can highlight dynamic trends in your industry? Are there any interesting, work-related activities you can incorporate into the event or ways you can demonstrate what differentiates your business from the rest? Provide incentive or gift prizes for those who engage with everyone at the event, if there are multiple stations or exhibit areas involved.
- Staff appropriately. It almost sounds ridiculous to point this out, when it comes to a recruitment event, but in some cases, employers have fallen short of having the right people on hand to staff or manage their events. Those representing your organization at the event should be personable, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and true “brand ambassadors” who know your business inside and out.
- Capture feedback. Be sure to survey your attendees. How did they find out about the event? What did they find most useful or engaging about the experience? What could be done to improve future events?
- Follow-up promptly. Reach back out as quickly as possible after the event to all who participated, whether they are prospective employees, vendors or partners. Thank them for their participation and be sure to let them know about next steps, if they are interested applicants.
- Measure your success. You may want to have a number of metrics to evaluate the success of your event. How many people participated? How positive was the feedback from participants and partners? But perhaps most importantly, as one of our business specialists noted: “True success is best measured by the number of persons who actually get hired.”
- Debrief ASAP. Make sure you bring your team back together after an event to review what went well and what needs improvement. Take in the feedback and make adjustments accordingly as you plan for even greater success in your next event!