How to host a virtual recruiting event that actually engages candidates and employees
This past year, many employers have moved to a digital-first environment and large-scale events have been put on pause indefinitely. While we all love and miss in-person events, there are a lot of benefits to hosting a virtual event, such as:
Expanding your audience and reach. Live events are limited by venue space and geography, but by hosting your event online, anyone with an internet connection can participate.
Saving money. This is a win-win for both organizations and attendees, as you don’t have to worry about venue fees, travel, and accommodations.
Improving your diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Data from RippleMatch shows that students from underrepresented groups are more likely to attend a virtual recruiting event!
So, while there is a long list of benefits associated with hosting virtual events, they can also pose a real challenge because people are exhausted by the sheer number of virtual event invites coming their way. Zoom fatigue is real and people are missing face-to-face interactions.
So, if you want to see tangible results from your recruiting events, you have to rethink how you create and deliver virtual recruiting events. We need to think about these events as experiences and focus on ways to make them an engaging touchpoint that communicates your employer brand. To get you started, here are three tips to think about when planning any upcoming virtual recruiting events:
Focus on quality, not quantity
Because so many people are feeling burnt out being online all the time, the number of branded digital events will have to scale back. Even though it feels like we should have more time on our hands these days, many people don’t. Remember, many folks are working from home, while also acting as a homeschool teacher, and/or a caretaker. That means you need to reduce the volume and up the quality of your recruiting events.
With the cost savings associated with hosting a virtual event, you may also have more budget to play around with things like landing your dream guest speaker or investing in immersive technologies (more on this later!).
Think about what’s going to bring the most value to your audience, and how you can deliver this in a way that fits into their busy schedule. Maybe it’s a four-part master class that’s delivered for one hour each month or a lunchtime ask me anything (AMA) session series with your leadership team.
Provide multiple opportunities for engagement
Engagement is at the heart of successful in-person events. Whether it’s an office open house, a campus career fair, or a themed social event at your office — rarely does an in-person event have attendees only sit and listen for hours on end — and your virtual events should be no different!
While virtual events may be a little trickier to navigate, there are still many opportunities for engagement. There are a growing number of event technologies that you can leverage so that you can incorporate engaging elements like live polling, trivia, and Q&A sessions.
Leverage tons of mobile apps that have networking and messaging features so that attendees can virtually interact with one another and arrange one-on-one virtual meetups.
And don’t forget the power of smartphones! There are tons of mobile apps that have networking and messaging features so that attendees can virtually interact with one another and arrange one-on-one virtual meetups. You can take this a step further by using your registration form to collect data that can be used to connect attendees who share similar interests.
Another simple (and free) option is to use social media! You can encourage attendees to share photos or respond to content using a customized event hashtag. That way, your attendees can feel as if they were part of an actual community watching together.
Look for opportunities to make your virtual events feel like real-time, real-space experiences
Because people are missing live interactions, you’ll also need to find ways to incorporate real-time and real-space elements.
Even prior to the pandemic, immersive, virtual events were already on the rise, and we expect to see that trend continue. According to Gartner, 60% of companies who have pivoted to virtual events will also need to incorporate real-time/real-space experiences into their virtual events by 2023.
You’ll have to get creative in order to redesign these experiences to blend physical and digital elements, as well as real-time and real-space elements, to satisfy your audience’s demands. Tactile, sensory, and shared moments are all highly important to creating memorable virtual events that motivate talent to take action. This can be achieved by using augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) tech. Augmented reality adds digital elements to the physical world (think Snapchat lenses or Pokémon Go) while virtual reality is a completely immersive experience that shuts out the physical world (think devices such as the Oculus Rift or Google Cardboard).
You can incorporate these technologies into your recruitment events in various ways like creating “day in the life” content, giving virtual office tours, or gamifying some of the tasks a candidate might do if they actually joined your organization.
Trying to elicit emotion is a great way to create a sense of connection during your event. Our team member, Natasha shares a story about emotional experience she had during a virtual Peloton ride.
Another approach that can be effective here is to try to elicit emotion to create a sense of connection during a virtual recruiting event. Candidates and employees will remember if you can create experiences during your events that make them feel inspired, excited, happy, or any other strong emotion.
Our team member, Natasha, recently had an emotional experience during a virtual event that is a great example of this:
I recently bought a Peloton, and during a Beyoncé-themed ride, the song “I Was Here” started playing, and the instructor, Tunde Oyeneyin, began a monologue in which she shared that her dad has passed away in 2012 and how that song was a major part of her healing process. I didn’t think it was possible to shed tears during a virtual workout, but I did.
While this might not be the appropriate approach for your event, you can definitely find other ways to connect on a deeper level with your audience that is authentic to your brand. Because at the end of the day, your attendees are not going to remember everything they heard, but they will remember how you made them feel.
We hope this article gives you ideas for how to elevate your virtual events to better engage candidates and employees in today’s distributed work environment. The sky is the limit here and we can’t wait to see what you come up with!
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About The Employer Brand Shop
The Employer Brand Shop is a boutique recruitment marketing and employer brand agency located in Kitchener, Canada. Our team helps organizations around the world attract and engage talent using creative marketing strategies.