Increase attendance with these virtual event email templates.
To reach a wide candidate pool and raise your profile, you need virtual recruiting events in your hiring strategy. What better way to showcase your company culture?
But perhaps you’ve never hosted a virtual event. You don’t know what types of recruitment events translate well to a digital setting and are a bit lost in knowing where to start with virtual event planning. Either that or you’re just ready to seriously up your virtual event game.
From virtual recruitment ideas to a complete guide for planning, hosting, and analyzing a great virtual event, this blog will give you the tools to upgrade your recruitment strategy and find top talent.
Access these 6 email templates to drive attendance to your virtual events.
A virtual recruiting event is an occasion for employers and recruiters to promote job roles and meet candidates online. These events can include industry-specific talks, networking, and interviews. They’re similar to marketing or sales events but with the goal of attracting potential candidates instead of new customers.
A virtual hiring event can work in different ways depending on your objectives. Usually, one or a group of people will lead the event and present information about the company and vacancies to an audience. The goal is to engage potential candidates, showcase your company culture, and nurture talent through the hiring process.
Access these 6 email templates to drive attendance to your virtual events.
Virtual recruitment events can be anything that leads you to connect with potential employees, strengthen your employer’s brand, and close future positions. Here are four ideas for online hiring events:
Sometimes, companies get invited to high education careers fairs for college students. You can also host internal job fairs and networking events to present candidates with multiple job opportunities within your company. The idea is that each organization or department has a booth where applicants can network and find out more about the roles available.
If you’re using Livestorm as your online event platform, you can mimic in-person recruiting events by:
A virtual info session is an opportunity for candidates to ask questions and get to know the culture of an organization. Info sessions may have up to 50 audience members. These usually allow potential candidates to talk face-to-face to current employees and ask questions.
If you’re setting up an info session as part of your talent acquisition strategy, here’s how to do it:
A virtual interview allows employers to meet face-to-face with candidates and assess their suitability for a role. Employers can choose to host individual or group interviews using an online meeting platform. Online interviews usually follow a structured question format and involve a single interviewer or a panel.
Hosting virtual interviews with Livestorm is quite easy as your potential employees can join the call through a browser. To do so:
A webinar is a live virtual event where a speaker or panel shares expert knowledge on a specific topic. Live webinars can attract hundreds of audience members, who typically keep their cameras and mics switched off throughout the event but can interact via chat boxes, virtual Q&As, and polls.
Webinars allow organizations to showcase their subject matter expertise and demonstrate their values. To host one
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Event recruiting can raise the profile of your organization, benefit your reputation as an employer, and help you reach a wider pool of candidates. By choosing online recruiting events over in-person ones, you will:
The devil is in the details. So, if you can plan ahead and anticipate potential scenarios, you’ll be able to host a successful event. You need to pay attention to the platform that you choose, your event format, and speakers, list all potential questions, and plan for engagement. Here’s how to do it:
This guide will help you think through the different steps you need to take to host a successful virtual hiring event. Tailor these steps to the format and type of your recruiting initiative.
The very first step is to define which type of event you’ll host. This will unpack a list of questions regarding event length, potential speakers, presentation format, and audience.
You could choose one of the four types we mentioned before:
1 - Career fair
2 - Panel interview
3 - Webinars
4 - Info sessions
The format is tightly linked to the type but refers to the way you set up your platform. For example, if you choose a careers fair, the formatting can’t be a speaker sharing a generic presentation. Rather, you need to break people into groups and get one or two speakers per space to pitch a specific role or department.
Once you know the type of event you’re hosting, you can book potential speakers. You should look for people who embody your company’s values and culture and are high performers. Here’s a quick guide to help you define how many presenters you need:
Once you have confirmation of your speakers, set up a date and time that works for them. If possible, run a short, informal survey with your potential attendees to pick a day that suits them and your speakers.
Then, create an event and a registration page. If you’re using Livestorm, you can customize your embedded registration form to ask personalized questions. You can also brand your event room and registration page to fit your company’s style.
When you’re marketing a virtual event, you need to answer the following questions:
Use these questions to come up with a marketing strategy and capture your target audience's attention. Remember that you need a powerful social media event promotion strategy to reach your audience – and host successful events.
To set up your virtual recruiting event you need to do more than just create an invite and share it with your network. You also need to think about the agenda and design a presentation. Follow these steps to achieve a successful event setup:
5 - Set recurring events and use Calendly
6 - Come up with an event agenda
7 - Create a presentation
Use Calendly to create recurring events and offer your audience various date and time options to participate. If you’re using Livestorm, you can set recurring events and create a registration page with multiple slots for your candidates to choose from. You can also link your events to Calendly, so attendees can choose the best option right from the app.
It’s virtual event best practice to keep the session on time. A simple way to achieve that is by having a clear agenda with time estimates. Your agenda is a list of all the main concepts and activities you’ll cover in the event. Here’s how your careers fair agenda could look:
Your virtual recruiting event presentation should be fully branded. It should also include a company video that demonstrates the values and culture. Use PowerPoint or Visme to create an engaging slide deck that tells your company’s story. Avoid long blocks of text and multiple font styles and colors as that can distract your audience.
On the day of the event, you have to make sure everyone is able to participate and ask questions and is directed to take clear action. Here’s how to host a memorable event:
8 - Record the event
9 - Make it engaging
10 - Share files
11 - Answer questions
12 - Add a CTA button
You’ll always benefit from recording your event. Here’s how:
Your recruiting event should show your company as a great place to work while capturing resumes. Be careful when choosing your speakers and be sure they can run an engaging, educational, and entertaining presentation.
We’ve got tons of ideas for fun virtual events, but the most important one is to have interactive features, such as:
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Sign up for freeYou’re probably going to have a mixed audience. Some may be really interested in your company and know exactly which role they want to apply to. But, others might have no idea what your company does and if they’ll like it. For the latter, make sure you have plenty of additional resources for them to digest in their own time.
If you’re using Livestorm, you can create a knowledge base in Google Drive and share the link on the screen using an in-app CTA button. Or, you can share documents directly using the Handouts integration.
It’s really important that you leave time in your agenda to answer questions. You want to capture all the misconceptions or doubts your potential hires have about your company – and answer them.
Be prepared to answer questions about internal hiring processes. This means that you need to know exactly:
Also if you have open positions that you’re promoting, make sure you either have a clear understanding of those roles or that the hiring manager is a panelist or a host.
For recruiting events, you either want people to fill out an application, take a skills-based test, or sign up for another interview. With Livestorm, you can add a link and have it appear on the screen with the CTA button feature. If you’re using a different platform, you can share the link through the chat.
Livestorm lets you access your complete meeting analytics as soon as you end the event. Use this functionality to
You can contact the most engaged participants directly from the platform. For example, you could reach out to the people who clicked on the CTA link but didn’t file an application. Wait at least 24-48 hours to do it because they might be updating their resume and you don’t want to be invasive. Plus, tailor each email with a fact about them using their answers to give it a personal touch.
All you truly need to host a virtual recruiting event is a computer with an integrated camera and microphone, internet access, and a subscription or license to a virtual event platform. However, there are a few tools that’ll make your virtual event even more dynamic.
First up, you need a virtual event platform, like Livestorm, that comes with built-in promotional features to help you plan and share your event. Here’s what else you need:
You can use a video conferencing platform like Livestorm, Zoom, or Google Meet to host virtual recruiting events. Look for one that includes:
A good virtual hiring event will result in increased application numbers and actual hires. These targets are adaptable depending on the size and profile of your organization. You can also use analytics dashboards in your virtual event software to help you track other virtual event metrics such as:
Virtual recruiting events are the perfect way to connect with a wide pool of potential applicants without losing the human touch. Whether you’re hosting a career fair, an informational session, panel interviews, or webinars, you need to:
All you need to do is choose a strong virtual event platform and start planning. If you’re a virtual event beginner, try well-rounded virtual event software like Livestorm that integrates seamlessly with your existing tools like Slack, Zapier, and Hubspot. You can also use Livestorm features like automatic email reminders and calendar syncing to help automate your workflows.
Finally, to get the most out of virtual recruiting, you need to focus on engagement. Compelling events inspire action and leave a lasting impression. When your candidate pool is engaged, you’ll raise your organization’s profile and have the pick of top talent.
Some examples of virtual hiring events include
The different types of virtual recruiting events that you can find are
You should name your virtual recruiting event thinking about the target audience and the type of session. For example, if you’re hiring for one specific organization, you should name it in the title of your event (e.g. Livestorm Info Session). But, if you’re hiring specific people for a range of employers, then put the emphasis on the candidate type (e.g. Graduate Software Engineer Careers Fair).
To recruit talent virtually you need to:
Virtual recruiting is here to stay, at least for corporations. Most businesses have a virtual recruiting process that involves candidates applying through a link and filling out an online application. It’s very rare to find corporations that accept printed resumes in the building lobby.
That said, small businesses and local shops may only advertise locally and are likely to accept resumes submitted in person. For example, baristas, waiters, and cleaners are far less likely to encounter virtual recruiting.
Benefits of virtual recruiting events include: