Conversational recruitment with online virtual job fairs

Conversational recruiting is a technique to attract, screen and engage with candidates in a real-time setting to avoid unnecessary delays, cold interactions and one-dimensional dialogues.

User attention span online is dropping, and the window to build relationships gets smaller by the day. That’s why conversational recruiting is proving key to building up your hiring momentum, while also delivering a brilliant candidate experience.  

And what better way to execute this during the pandemic than to hold a virtual fair? With virtual fairs, you can interact with job seekers in real time without lags like emails. Through using audio, video and text-based chat options, you can pursue your prospects on the spot. And with virtual fairs you can extend beyond one-on-one conversations to include mass messaging on chat groups to further amplify messaging.

Benefits for virtual fairs

Here are some of the best practices worth keeping in mind for your virtual fair, if you want to put your conversational recruitment skills to the test online:

• Accommodate for real-time inquiries: Holding a virtual fair means you could end up with a lot of people visiting - who have a lot of questions. Ensure you have plenty of staff on hand the day of the event so that they can speak with everyone, and no opportunities are missed! Leaving them to hang around means you could lost out on top talent. The human-to-human touchpoint should be serving significant value by delivering information to candidates about vacancies, application processes, hiring timelines, etc without cumbersome delays, or worse- no responsiveness at all. Great examples of businesses acing this practice are the ones making use of real-time chatbots with the entire hiring process structured around their needs.
• Prioritise two-way engagement: Put your prospects at ease and make room for a feedback loop. Ask them about their fields of interest, ambitions, location, experience and it could give you some insights on opportunities you could suggest naturally. Good flow of conversation? Why not step away from the chat room and start a video call to get to know more? They are much more likely to engage with you if they are comfortable chatting with you.
• Box off registration there and then: When you’re recruiting, the time it takes to go back and forth is frustrating. Ask your candidates the questions you have during the event to ensure they are the right fit for you - this will make the rest of the process smoother for you, and them - noone’s time is wasted.
• Shortlist top staff quickly: The luxury of a virtual event means you have the opportunity to pick some great talent from a large amount of people, and you get to chat with there and then - all in one day. This saves a lot of time at your desk doing all the legwork too - and at a cost effective rate in comparison to a physical event.
• Continue your recruitment methods: It's certainly a difficult time right now, but if you had your heart set on running a career fair, you could get a virtual event set up for as soon as you are ready to begin recruiting again, or sooner - instead of waiting around for the right time. A quick set up allows you to have conversations with multiple professionals faster, and more efficiently - so you have no excuse not to put your conversational recruiting skills to the test. 

With all the technology available at your disposal, attracting and engaging with candidates is easy, fast, and best of all, provides a boost to your employer brand.

Use 2020 to become a recruitment powerhouse using a virtual career fair- put your prospects at the center of the conversation and start to grow your talent pool now.