CareerBuilder® estimates 40 percent of U.S. employers will hire full-time, permanent staff in 2017. How will those who are hiring find the best candidates? Perhaps at a job fair!
There are countless nationwide career fairs attracting qualified applicants. Draw the right ones to your booth by staffing it with helpful people, useful information and job fair giveaways that make sense.
Insight and value are top career-fair takeaways
A good fit
It’s no surprise a good cultural fit leads to greater job satisfaction, higher retention and better output. What’s more, a poor fit can be an expensive mistake, costing organizations between 50 percent and 60 percent of a person’s annual salary. Job fairs are an excellent place to introduce potential applicants to your organization’s culture. Imprint company values on a table runner or a retractable banner. Have your culture handbook within reach and make sure staff is well-versed in its contents. If possible, provide a URL to your handbook on a career fair giveaway—consider a pieceless puzzle to drive home the importance of a good fit.
Face time
Assessment (of both employer and applicant) begins the moment someone walks up to your booth. Make sure potential hires are able to get their questions answered about your company, open positions, work conditions, benefits and more. Provide ways for applicants to take action, too. Don’t just collect resumes—have someone there to prescreen or even interview potential candidates. Send the most desirable candidates off with some recruiting swag, such as a USB business card they can refer to for further information. With this, not only will applicants have your contact info on hand, but you can also include an entire file of next-step information.
Keep the conversation going
If you can’t meet with all your applicants face to face, collect contact details to touch base at a later date. Text is becoming an increasingly popular way to communicate with applicants. In fact, 41 percent of employers will schedule interviews via text in 2017. If an applicant isn’t a good fit at the time, but may be at a later date, offer to push notifications on job openings via text. Imprint job fair giveaways, like stylus snap bracelets or smartphone wallet/stand combos, with a short code applicants can use to get hiring updates.
If you’re part of the 40 percent of employers who are looking to hire in 2017, look no further than your job fair. Make it a success with the right staff, the right information and the right job fair giveaway. Happy hiring!