Be the Career Connector: Host a Virtual Job Fair
Lots of people in your association’s community are looking for jobs right now. They’ve been laid off or taken an unsustainable pay cut. They’re feeling uneasy about job security or their company’s future.
When economic disruption hits an industry, it presents an opportunity for your association to deliver valuable services to members and others in your professional community. Right now, a virtual job fair would help job seekers connect with employers and industry recruiters.
Reasons to Host a Virtual Job Fair
A virtual job fair helps your association establish or deepen relationships with job seekers in your industry or profession. They’ll remember you as the organization that helped them find their new job. You’ll strengthen member loyalty and create new ties with non-members.
Industry employers will appreciate your efforts too. Companies aren’t hosting or attending traditional job fairs like they usually do. Large corporations may have the technology to host their own job fairs, but that type of investment is out of reach for most businesses. When participating employers combine their promotional efforts with yours, the job fair will attract more people than any company could on their own and at a more affordable cost.
Job seekers attend the fair for free. However, employers pay for their virtual booths or meeting rooms at the job fair—and your association generates non-dues revenue.
Marketing Your Virtual Job Fair
You can’t plan a job fair and expect companies and job-seekers to automatically show up. You need to build prospect lists of employers and job seekers and start engaging with them well in advance of the fair. You want to “warm up” these leads so when you announce the virtual job fair, there’s no hesitation about participating.
Establish Relationships With Employers and Recruiters
Your first task is to get contact information for HR teams and industry recruiters. Make sure they know about your job board and other association resources of interest to HR and training teams. Let industry recruiters know about upcoming networking events and other ways to develop relationships with members.
Start selling employer booths or meeting rooms well before promoting the job fair to job seekers. You will need a critical mass of employers to attract a good number of job seekers.
Sell the benefits of participating in your virtual job fair versus doing it themselves. For example, they’ll have access to a large pool of talent at a reduced cost. The Society for Human Resource Management pointed out another benefit: “Virtual events can be a strategic engagement tool even for companies not hiring right now. It’s important to keep presence in the market, letting potential candidates know you’re still out there.”
Become a Resource for Job Seekers
Position your association as an indispensable resource for job seekers by offering job-hunting resources in your career center—resources that attract and hold their attention. Besides promoting your job board, get the word out about other career resources, such as:
- Advice on resumes, interviewing, networking, and other job-seeking skills
- Webinars on in-demand skills and emerging trends
- Networking meetups
- Career services such as resume reviews and coaching sessions
Don’t limit your career center promotions to your member newsletters. Take advantage of social media advertising, social media promotions, search engine advertising, and industry media advertising.
Once you have sufficient number of employers committed, start promoting your job fair on all these digital channels and in targeted emails to your prospect list. Include the list of participating employers.
Focus on attracting a diverse mix of attendees. Reach out to BIPOC organizations, military and veterans groups, and affiliated professional organizations. Employers will appreciate the exposure to a diverse pool of talent.
Preparing Participants for Your Virtual Job Fair
Give employers a tour of the virtual platform and offer onboarding meetings to ensure they feel comfortable. Make suggestions for their booth content strategy, for example, branding, videos, and downloadable information.
When job seekers register, send them a link to a virtual swag bag—a webpage with downloadable tips and information, such as:
- Expo hall map showing the location of all employers and other activities
- Schedule of job fair events
- Advice on resumes, interviewing, and elevator speeches
Tell registrants how to prepare for the fair, for example, how to complete their profile, upload their resume to your career center, and make appointments, if available.
Virtual Job Fair Activities
During the fair, job seekers visit employer virtual booths for one-on-one chats. You could give them the option to schedule appointments, show up on a first-come/first-serve basis, or use a mix of methods. For Engage, our user conference, attendees scheduled appointments to meet MemberSuite staff during Office Hours in The Echo’s business lounge.
Staff an information desk during the fair so you can help people navigate the venue, answer questions, and direct them to association resources. Give employers a dedicated concierge.
Give people something to do while they wait for appointments. Host networking lounges where they can hang out and meet others. Schedule topical discussions on the hour. Offer 20-minute educational sessions on job-hunting tips, hot industry topics, in-demand skills, and workforce trends.
Arrange mini-coaching sessions for job seekers who sign up in advance. These discounted sessions are a good way for coaches to get new client leads.
After the Virtual Job Fair
Offer a special membership deal for job fair participants. If you don’t already have a membership tier for members in transition, consider putting one in place. Or you could provide attendees with a discount code for professional development programs.
Collect testimonials from employers who found new hires at the fair and from job seekers who found new jobs. Job seekers may not be able to afford membership while they’re still unemployed, but if you continue to provide them with helpful resources after the fair, you will make a lasting impression.
Come take a tour of The Echo, our virtual events solution, that provides plenty of booths, meeting rooms and other spaces to host a virtual job fair along with education sessions, private meetings, and networking activities.