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Struggling to attract top talent? Relying solely on job postings and advertisements will no longer cut it. After all, a staggering 79% of job seekers look at an employer's reputation before applying for a job. In other words, the details you typically include in a job description—compensation, benefits, and job responsibilities—aren’t the sole determinants of whether a top potential candidate will send in their application. You must be perceived as a great employer, too.
This is where recruiting events can help you. More than just a great way to expedite the hiring process, recruiting events provide great opportunity to boost your company’s employer brand. Think about it. Recruiting events help you communicate to top talent what you’re all about. If you consistently run successful recruiting events, you'll leave a lasting impression on potential hires who share your values. What's more, they're much more exciting than getting a message from a recruiter from LinkedIn!
The result? Even if they don’t fill any open positions there and then, they'll be more likely to apply if they come across your company in the future.
Looking for recruiting event ideas to attract top talent? Here are some suggestions to boost your recruitment marketing efforts:
Participating in recruiting events allows companies to engage with potential candidates face-to-face, showcase their company culture, and create a memorable impression. It also provides an opportunity to network, build relationships, and attract top talent who are actively seeking new opportunities.
Topping our list of recruiting events ideas is the hackathon. This is an event that gathers the best minds–usually tech professionals—so they can come up with solutions to a problem or identify opportunities. The team or participant with the winning proposal usually gets a prize at the end.
Hackathons can be held solely for employees within the company or can be open to the public. If the goal is to attract top talent, the hackathon must allow participants from outside the company. Zappos, Rocket Software, and chipmaker company ASML (see below) are companies that have organized external hackathons for this purpose.
Why are hackathons such a powerful strategy? They provide benefits to both the participant and the event planner, usually the potential employer. These events usually last for days, and participants get to network with professionals and potential employers, enhancing their skills throughout.
The organizer can evaluate the skills of potential candidates in person, and have an idea of who the qualified candidates are for the company. Around 78% of companies believe hackathons are one effective way to evaluate an individual’s problem-solving and technical skills. To reinforce this, a whopping 40% of participants are hired within six months after the event.
However, to ensure the success of this recruiting event ide, you need to have a plan. Follow the 6 steps below to ensure a strategic approach to your external hackathon:
Make sure you start planning three to six months before the scheduled start of your hackathon. You want to give yourself ample time to make adjustments if something unexpected (like your venue suddenly isn’t available on the days of your event) comes up. This way, you can ensure a seamless recruiting event and impress talented job seekers.
It may seem understated, but this is another one of the best recruiting events ideas out there. A casual game night can help you know the top talent you can fill your pipeline with on a personal level. Such an event easily attracts top talent for many reasons, too. It’s one of the most fun events and it’s informal. Then there’s the fact that it portrays your company as an organization that values work-life balance. 61% of workers wouldn’t accept a job that disrupts this critical equilibrium.
Remember, you don’t need to exert that much effort to host a casual game night. A casual game night is just that, casual. All you need for a successful event (apart from your attendees) is a venue, some snacks and drinks, and your games (assuming you prefer an in-person event). Mind you, the games don’t necessarily have to cost a fortune. And if you plan a virtual event, the overall cost is probably even lower.
Whether virtual or in-person, what are some games you can play on casual game nights? The sky’s the limit, really, but here are some suggestions:
Don’t just invite anyone to casual game night. Remember, your goal is to attract top talent and eventually recruit. So, don’t send invites to customer support personnel if the aim is to hire graphic designers.
You can have more than one group of professionals attending one casual game night. If your company is looking for graphic designers and writers, you don’t need to organize two game nights for each group. Just limit the total number of invited people to ensure they fit in the venue. If you’re planning a virtual recruiting event instead, the number of people you invite will depend on how many people your video conferencing software can handle. Don’t forget to get your potential employees’ contact numbers for your HR department’s future use.
It’s true the first two recruiting events ideas I mentioned are technically also networking events. After all, company representatives and prospective candidates also build relationships in hackathons and casual game nights. However, this recruitment event idea is different since the event's aim is solely to network for potential recruitment. There are no games to play or projects to complete. Think company reps and potential candidates wearing their respective IDs and just talking to each other. Something like the image below:
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During a networking event, attendees introduce themselves to each other, ask questions, and then share contact details to continue the networking efforts. A digital business card can come in handy during such events. Unlike physical cards, there is no limitation on the number of cards you can carry. Here’s a review of the best available digital business cards. The e-business cards have a two-way contact-sharing feature making the entire process seamless. They go beyond just promoting brands; they help people easily stay in touch after events. For job seekers, it's a convenient way to share resumes with company reps
To ensure each person gets the chance to engage with all of the other attendees, you may include a time limit for each interaction (much like speed dating). But, if you opt for this option, you have to make sure all the company’s reps leave a lasting impression on every candidate in that limited time. So, ensure they dress appropriately and communicate well.
You can hire an emcee to provide prompts and ensure there’s no awkward silence between parties during an interaction.
Job fairs–also called career fairs—are events where job seekers meet potential employers to, hopefully, land a job. For companies, these recruiting events are excellent opportunities for showcasing their employer brand and getting the best talent.
Career fairs can be held in person or virtually. In-person, they can be held in schools, local event venues, and community centers. As virtual events, they can be hosted through video conferencing or social platforms.
Career fairs can be set up by a third party like a government office or a university. In this case, the organizer invites companies to set up their booth (virtual or physical, depending on the nature of the event) during the fair. Career Education and the Meadville-Western Crawford County Chamber of Commerce in Pennsylvania, for instance, co-host a job fair like the one below every year:
That doesn’t mean the company itself can’t organize the job fair. The good thing about setting everything up yourself is that you have control over the venue (whether physical or virtual), the time, and other important variables. You get to decide, too, whether or not you’ll invite other companies to register for your event.
As with the other recruiting event ideas on this list, though, you need a plan to successfully host a job fair for the company. For this, follow these steps:
Determine what kind of job fair you want. Do you want a virtual session or an in-person event? Do you want a job fair with other companies participating or do you prefer one only for your company?
Ask yourself, too, whether you want a job fair for university students, recent graduates, or professionals. If your answer is the last one, what types of professionals are you targeting? This will depend on your company’s job vacancies.
If you have the budget, you can also put out advertisements in your local newspapers, TV channels, and radio. This applies if your event will be held in a physical venue.
On the day of your job fair, make sure there’s staff on hand to assist your attendees. You want a seamless and successful event to make top talent interested in your company. If your event was a disaster, don’t expect many people to line up for jobs in your company, whether now or in the future.
Next up on our list of the best recruiting events ideas is the panel discussion. These involve a group of experts discussing a topic before an audience. Think of them as information sessions that can be done in-person or virtually.
Panel discussions allow you to interact with individuals who can fill your talent pipeline in your niche. They also help establish your company’s authority in your field. For job seekers, that’s a plus. For example, take a software engineer choosing between a job at Google and a startup. They're more likely to choose Google because it’s the tech expert.
But for your panel discussions to be successful, you need a topic that resonates. The topic should depend on the types of talent you’re looking for. Are you looking for developers? Then a panel discussion on API development like this one by Hubspot is a good option:
If you’re looking for email marketers, then a panel discussion on email marketing trends, for instance, is a better alternative.
You want to get the right speakers for your recruiting event, too. Remember, at the end of it all, you want prospective employees to perceive you as an expert. You can’t do that if the speakers you chose to represent your company aren’t knowledgeable and can’t articulate their thoughts properly. Make sure your current employees embody your company values as well.
The speakers in your panel don’t have to be all from your company, by the way. Like Hubspot above, you can give other companies the chance to share their insights as well. With these viewpoints from other sources, you can also ensure a richer and more holistic discussion.
This is one of the most cost-effective recruiting event ideas you can implement. After all, to host a training session, you only need a trainer, a few training materials, and a venue. These can either be held at your office (if in-person) or video conferencing software (if virtual). Plus, it’s pretty easy to get top talent for potential recruitment to attend. A whopping 78% of respondents surveyed by Workplace Intelligence said they’re concerned they lack the skills to succeed in their field. That’s a lot of people who are likely to attend educational events such as training sessions.
But what should you train prospective candidates on? That depends on the types of talent you’re looking for. If you’re looking to fill your talent pipeline with programmers, then a crash course on the newest programming language like Kotlin is your best bet. If you’re looking for writers, you can train them on how to write a news article, for example.
Once you’ve chosen your topic, pick your trainer from your pool of current employees. Don’t hire someone from outside the company. The whole purpose of the event is to showcase your expertise to impress potential employees enough for them to consider you. You can’t do that if you hire someone else to enhance their skills.
Interactive workshops present a unique opportunity to engage directly with top candidates in an educational setting. These sessions can be held as part of a larger recruiting event or career fair, and they offer a hands-on, interactive way to connect potential hires with the realities of working in your field. The setup for these workshops can be simple—a room in your office, an open house, or even a virtual platform via tools like Eventcube.
For example, if you're seeking to fill open roles in AI, hosting a workshop on AI best practices or the latest industry trends can draw in applicants from a range of backgrounds, including those transitioning from areas like high school or early college programs looking for internship opportunities. This type of event serves as the perfect opportunity not only to educate but to showcase your company as an industry leader committed to inclusion and the professional growth of its team.
Moreover, organizing these workshops over a weekend retreat could enhance the appeal, giving potential recruits a dynamic wat to explore career opportunities within your company, interact with current employees, and get a feel for your company culture.
Recruiting events hit two birds with one stone. They help you with hiring new employees and promoting your employer brand. So, even if you don’t get to hire someone on the spot, you leave a lasting impression on your event attendees with the same values. The result? They're more likely to choose you when they need a job.
With this article, you learned six recruiting event ideas for your company. Organize a hackathon, host a casual game night, hold a networking event, or set up a job fair. To establish your authority in your field, you can also organize panel discussions and hold training sessions.
You don’t need to do all of these at once. Just experiment and see which ones yield the best results for you. Whichever recruiting events ideas you retain from this list, expect those many talented individuals knocking on your door for the chance to work with you.
User-friendly, affordable, and customer-focused, Eventcube is an all-in-one events platform that can be tailored to your company's specific needs. This platform streamlines the entire event management process, from seamless ticketing and attendee tracking to lasting engagement. Eventcube's bespoke solutions are ideal for companies looking to organize large-scale recruitment drives with precision and ease. To see how Eventcube can transform your event recruiter strategy, request a free demo today.
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