Virtual events have become a norm of daily life in a COVID-impacted world. According to a 2020 Forbes article , global virtual events usage has gone up to 1000% since the outbreak of the Covid-19 Pandemic. With this article, we aim to inspire you to incorporate the best ideas into your virtual event and make them worth every moment. Below, we recommend 10 virtual event ideas to differentiate your events from competitors’ and attract potential hires.
Virtual event idea 01: Live sessions & streams
To make such a big impression on prospective talents, recruiters had better follow how marketers catch on to emerging trends. We mean embracing the facility of live sessions and streams to capture the job seekers’ attention.
In professional recruitment, the use of Facebook as a candidate pool is all too common. For example, with Facebook Live, one can livestream his/her event to any group of interest. It is not difficult to find groups dedicated to specific topics on Facebook. With careful curation of live content on Facebook Live, a business can create a steady stream of candidates. Web2Present - a global leader in webinar production and promotion frequently hosts live webinars sessions on Facebook Live to attract viewers to their campaigns.
Each time you stream on Facebook is a chance to redirect viewers’ attention to your recruiting efforts. A livestream of a day at the office can provide a view into your business culture and environment.
Virtual event idea 02: Hackathons and Innovation Challenges
Who doesn’t love a little friendly competition? Prime candidates particularly value the opportunity to prove their qualities and ‘wow’ employers beyond their resumes. Hackathons and innovation challenges require developers to create something out of this world. Hence, it is a great way to see how candidates collaborate to unravel real-world problems and attract top talent to partake in the challenge with job offers.
Regardless of the role, there is a wide range of hiring competition events directed at bringing out the best talent. Let’s take Unilever Future Leaders’ League (UFLL) as a successful model. It is a Global Case Competition organized by Unilever since 2013, now present in more than 90 countries. This 2020, Unilever Future Leaders League returns with the theme “Leap to the future,” held entirely online and inspired by the Hackathon model.
Virtual event idea 03: Nano-influencer marketing strategy
Among the main out-of-the-box methods to recruit Generation Z job seekers is utilizing nano-influencers having between 1000 and 5000 followers on social media. Nano-influencers enjoying authentic lives have established intimate and fascinating connections with their audience. Hence, they have a higher interaction rate with Gen Z undergraduates.
This tactic is fantastic if you’re looking to achieve a bigger talent pool with fewer social recruiting resources. Recruiters should involve nano influencers in improving engagement in your recruiting events. For example, speakers can give a teaser to the sessions associated with your recruitment campaign or clarify why your company values align with themselves.
Dove is a beautiful example of a brand that succeeds in utilizing nano influencers’ power. Dove actively supports bloggers with a small audience and shares their photos and reviews to their recruitment page. Dove decided to collaborate with a spectrum of trusted nano-influencers who reach a more diverse audience to attract more viewers. Those recommendations then encouraged thousands of individuals to apply for inspiration.
Virtual event idea 04: Webinars
Video conference and webinar platforms allow thousands of users to attend a virtual event and offer other highlights like private gatherings or integration with social media platforms. Besides, there are also great features such as virtual hand-raising and a live chat box where attendees can raise questions.
For instance, AWSome Day Online Conference is a virtual training event that discovers the core AWS services for networking. Their experts will explain features, share practical cases and answer your questions personally. Most webinar creation tools or websites will let you create a sign-up form where participants can fill in their contact details. Depending on your recruiting criteria, each form filled is another potential hire. A savvy recruiting team will not pass by the chance to contact these attendees to fill opening positions.
In most cases, webinars may be a far better option for recruiters or company employees to share real-life experiences. To diversify your approaches, you could hold a webinar about your company’s policies on helping exceptional employees or your initiatives to uplift women in their career path. A few video conferencing platforms to contemplate are Cisco Webex Meetings, Google Hangouts, Skype, etc.
Virtual event idea 05: Online workshops
Everyone needs perpetual online training at every stage of their employment, regardless of their experience level or position. Therefore, it cannot deny that online workshops are the art of knowledge transfer through the internet.
For instance, many universities have come up with an answer towards recruitment during the pandemic by utilizing virtual workshops. Throughout the virtual and interactive recruiting workshops, career seekers can contemplate their options, showcase their skills and prepare for the virtual interview. Plus, they can also get a chance to meet employers hiring now through Virtual Career Workshops.
Another practical example is Manpower Group Vietnam , with a series of workshops named “Employer Centric” last October. They gave over 200 students in the seminar a multi-dimensional inside view into the Manpower Group by hosting educational sessions on employers’ culture and career development opportunities in today’s unprecedented world.
Virtual event idea 06: Online career fair
The hustle and bustle of traditional career fairs fall to the wayside with a recent innovation: virtual career fairs . Virtual career fairs allow busy job seekers to induce down to what truly matters: meeting recruiters to discuss open positions. Attendees can chat with recruiters from participating companies, study career opportunities, and may have the prospect for an on-the-spot job interview.
Vietnam Virtual Fair - This is the first organization in Vietnam to take charge of hosting online events. The company’s primary product is VOCF, a virtual career fair specializing in providing the youth with career orientation from reputed companies all around Vietnam.
The UK Career Fair - One of The United Kingdom’s leading providers of recruitment events. Since March 6th, 2020, which is the day they held their last in-person event since the pandemic outbreak, the UK Career Fair has been hard at work connecting recruiters and candidates through multiple virtual events.
Virtual event idea 07: Professional development events
Let’s give some thought to the last time you participated during a professional development activity. What words come to mind? Perhaps “thought-provoking, “enlightening,” or possibly even “valuable”?
In sharp contrast to conventional events, virtual professional development events are born to facilitate integrating theories into practice. Now that virtual event technology has become more accessible, professional development events can establish connections between potential talent pools and recruiters anywhere, anytime, without breaking a sweat.
So why should professional development events be a part of your recruiting strategy? According to a Harvard Business Review research article , employees usually believe in their ability for further growth if they are currently in the progress of developing their skills. This is where professional development events come in. You can use these events to increase employees’ retention rates. With curated marketing and digital word-of-mouth, your business can differentiate from other competitors as a place that offers the chance and the support to grow.
Virtual event idea 08: Virtual info sessions
Attendees should be able to access an extensive collection of helpful sound bites in a virtual info session. Providing a virtual office tour showing candidates what a day in your company looks like can be an example. Besides, hosting panel discussions via live Q&A and AMA (Ask Me Anything) with current employees from across the organization in different fields and locations gives candidates a pleasant and well-rounded view.
It is highly recommended that you collaborate closely with hiring managers to understand their challenges and effectively communicate open roles to prospective candidates. The method of conducting online info sessions also can include providing post-recruitment events.
For example, users can insert interactive elements and graphics into their Facebook Live using LiveReacting . This has proven to be an effective method because it allows users to focus on potential hires’ interested topics.
Virtual event idea 09: Virtual product launch
Another creative approach to virtual recruiting events is utilizing the product launch programs. You can take advantage of launching products and offering a discount or special gift with purchase to candidates. This approach is an innovative way to draw in more talents in your field. They can experience your product quality and ask for information directly.
A few times a year, Apple , the tech giant, invites special guests, bloggers, and press to witness the launch of their new products. These events are massive crowd-pullers. They are streamed on the Internet so that the public can catch a glimpse of the new product.
This combination between product launch and recruitment can make your company outstanding compared with other recruiters. Since you can make an official announcement about your company, promote a new product or service, or anything else that your audience can find exciting. It can be both time and cost-saving for your next recruiting campaign.
Virtual event idea 10: Candidate Sourcing Platform
With the support of candidate sourcing platforms, you can reach out to undiscovered talent pipelines and cultivate a much more lucrative resource for the future workforce. If you already have a chosen sourcing platform, keep in mind that most platforms offer more than just a resume database.
You might have heard of Indeed - a job listing that has been active since 2004. The site records at least 250 million individuals per year. Using the Indeed website as a candidate database, The Indeed Hiring Platform can support your campaign through task automation, conduct interviews using the Indeed video interview technology. Everything you ever need to pull off a successful campaign, neatly packed in a single platform.
Conclusion
After considering these 10 virtual event ideas, recruiters can research which platform can help them deploy the ideas. We hope that you have enjoyed our list of ideas for your online recruitment and gained valuable insights into the future of digital recruiting technologies.
Images used in this post: Freepik
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