The dynamics of attracting the brightest minds from campus and event recruiting is a constantly changing landscape.
According to NACE’s Fall 2021 quick poll, 61% of 218 responses that year said their business would hold a separate virtual career event. Long after the Pandemic, virtual and in-person recruitment events have become a vital talent source for businesses of all sizes.
As the race for top talent heats up, it’s not just an option but a must to fine-tune your campus recruiting strategy. This guide serves as your guidebook in this swiftly changing terrain, offering insights and strategies to keep your team ahead, attract the right candidates, and elevate your campus recruiting efforts.
1. CAMPUS RECRUITING STRATEGY: PREPARATION PHASE
ESTABLISH CAREER FAIR GOALS
Your campus recruitment journey begins when you identify and engage with students or recent graduates, bringing them into your talent pool from colleges or universities. Whether you’re recruiting virtually or in person, it’s crucial to set clear goals early on. Work with each department within your business to understand your hiring needs and align your goals with your talent acquisition strategy.
Ask yourself:
- What specific talent does your business need?
- Which skills are essential for the positions you’re hiring for?
- How can you enhance your brand among student groups?
EVALUATE CAMPUS RELATIONSHIPS
When building relationships with on-campus organizations and career centers, be intentional. Consider the return on investment (ROI) of your partnerships, as your time and resources are valuable. Identify schools with programs that align with your talent needs and promptly establish contact with career centers. Use recruiting software like Rakuna’s Recruiting CRM to track your university partnerships and gain insights that help you make informed decisions and optimize your campus recruiting strategy.
CHOOSE BUSINESS REPRESENTATIVES WISELY
Remember, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Make it count by selecting representatives who align with your hiring goals. To make this campus recruiting strategy work, ensure they are knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and have a vested interest in engaging with candidates. If possible, leverage an alumni program for added impact.
PROMOTE YOUR CAREER FAIR PRESENCE
Enhance your pre-registration efforts with campus recruiting solutions. Utilize social media to share helpful information and sign-up links. Dedicate a section on your careers site for interested applicants to register and upload their resumes, and don’t forget to advertise your booth on the fair’s site before the event.
Quick Tip:
Remember to enable the sharing option and make them highly visible on any content you post online. As the internet connects students across multiple social media sites, a single share can help your content reach numerous potential candidates. Don’t miss this chance to expand your talent pool and add to your recruitment process.
PRODUCE ENGAGING PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
Craft compelling promotional materials that offer unique insights not easily found online. Tailor materials for different roles and collaborate with your marketing team for effective creation. Consider having both physical and digital versions, reducing paper usage, and showcasing your company as innovative and thoughtful.
Students are becoming more active in seeking out information about their prospective employers. They can easily access information about your company via your company website, social media, and third-party review sites. Make the most out of career events by sharing information that candidates cannot find online.
For example, If you are hiring for marketing positions, tailor materials to demonstrate an entry-level marketing professional’s career path at your company. For sales roles, present the proudest achievements your sales team has reached or challenging campaigns your sales team has excellently completed.
MAKE PLANS FOR CAREER FAIR LOGISTICS
Feeling overwhelmed with all the materials needed for your career events? Start by planning and implementing a recruitment schedule across your team. Monitor event shipments closely and use campus recruitment solutions for easy management. Communicate a detailed timeline to your team for smooth execution.
PROVIDE BUSINESS ATTENDEES TRAINING
Chaos always arrives on the first day of a recruiting event, so training your business attendees is a must. Allocate enough time before the event to communicate your job fair goals and the metrics you hope to achieve. To make this campus recruiting strategy work, equip your team with knowledge of recruiting applications and consider practicing sessions or mock-up fairs for familiarity with technology.
TAKE POST CAREER FAIR COMMUNICATION PLAN INTO CONSIDERATION
Think ahead of your competitors by crafting a detailed post-event communication plan so that you can save your time waiting to follow up with candidates after the job fair. Career expos offer hundreds of talented students opportunities to interact with your brand, learn about the company, and make in-person connections.
Therefore, make the most out of career events by planning ahead to leave every fair with a high-quality talent pipeline. Simple gestures of thoughtfulness can yield unexpected results: Send personalized emails to every candidate you have met, thank them for visiting your booth, and put in nice words to encourage them to schedule an interview. With an event repository, campus recruiting software can make this process much easier.
Quick Tip:
If a candidate is not ready to process further with you, remember to include them in your talent hub to keep them engaged until they are ready to secure a position in your company.
2. MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS FOR YOUR CAMPUS RECRUITING STRATEGY
BUILD RELATIONSHIPS WITH POTENTIAL COLLEGE STUDENTS THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA
UK millennials spend 8.5 hours consuming content across all their devices, with Generation Z spending 10.6 hours.
Connecting with students is all about meeting them where they are – and nowadays, that’s on social media.
Find out what’s happening in their communities and areas, and search for information that will impact their decisions for the future. If you want to appeal to prospective graduates, you have to be active in places where they spend most of their time – it’s just as simple as that.
By being active in the online spaces where students spend most of their time, you can give them a direct look into your company life and address any questions or concerns they might have. This engagement is not just about showcasing your company culture but also about building a pipeline of potential talent.
Quick Tip:
To make this campus recruiting strategy work, encourage your leads to connect with like-minded students, sharing insights into their career paths and goals. Your social media strategy should brand your organization as an excellent place for young professionals to learn and grow.
Every post or action on your social accounts conveys something about your company’s culture, so consider what messages you would like to communicate to your talent pool.
CREATE CONTENT THAT IS USEFUL FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS FOR CAREER ORIENTATION
Always enable graduates to envision their career path at your company. Craft a unique message that resonates with young professionals’ desires for meaningful work, career development, and work/life balance.
Check out how PwC Singapore is applying this campus recruiting strategy:
Consider leveraging your young professionals or alumni to share positive and compelling stories about their experiences and careers at your organization. Let them tell positive and compelling stories about their experiences and careers at your organization.
Quick Tip:
To make this campus recruiting strategy work, allow students to job shadow and experience your company’s daily operations, providing them with a deeper understanding of the job and the work environment.
MAKE YOUR CONTENT FINDABLE AND MOBILE-FRIENDLY
Generate mobile-friendly campus recruiting content. Your team can start by creating content that is accessible on mobile devices, as that’s the tool the young generation uses to find positions.
In 2018, Glassdoor reported at least 79% of global job-seekers were likely to use social media in the initial stage of job searching.
Imagine this number 5 to 10 years later, now that there are more job boards or social sites dedicated to job searching.
Tailor your campus recruiting content to be mobile-friendly since this is the primary tool for the younger generation. With the prevalence of job searches on social media, use search engine optimization for keywords and share content across platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
Quick Tip:
To make this campus recruiting strategy work, regularly update your content and manage your employer brand on platforms like Glassdoor. Address negative reviews and encourage employees to share positive feedback.
KEEP IN TOUCH WITH ALL PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS
“Keep in touch” is more than a slogan; it’s a tried-and-true campus recruiting strategy. Invite top candidates to various events throughout the year, ranging from personal coaching sessions to professional workshops. Stay connected with former interns, promoting their career development and paving the way for their potential future with your organization.
Don’t just focus your attention on seniors. Instead, consider all students. It’s never too early to promote branding and market your company to the next great hire, whether they will join the company in a couple of months or a year from now.
Remember: Your employer branding & campus recruiting strategy need regular reviews and revisions. Adopting new marketing strategies and increasing your on-campus presence will make your organization a memorable brand for potential students, whether they join in a few months or a year from now.
3. APPLYING TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS FOR YOUR UNIVERSITY & COLLEGE RECRUITMENT STRATEGIES
As a campus recruiter, you must keep yourself up-to-date with the ever-changing landscape, and yes, things are very much changing now. With the tech-savvy Gen Z and Gen Alpha reshaping the work world, both your campus recruiting strategy and your technical toolbox need sharpening.
ONLINE JOB BOARDS
Explore Portfolium, a leading ePortfolio network that allows students to showcase their academic work, skills, and projects to employers. This cloud-based platform offers a digital portfolio, providing a unique view of students’ abilities beyond a traditional resume. Portfolium helps recruiters improve candidate quality and reduce hiring time and costs, making it an effective online sourcing tool.
TRADITIONAL CAREER FAIRS AND CAMPUS RECRUITING
Job fairs and on-campus events are the fundamentals of any campus recruiting strategy, so of course, you want to hit with maximum effectiveness. Despite significant setbacks from the Pandemic, campus recruiting and job fairs are still some of the best talent pools.
Out of 296 responses, 44% of recruiters of Nace report said they will most likely recruit through both virtual and in-person career fairs.
At Rakuna, we have developed a targeted solution to the classical challenges of campus and career fair recruiting. Most recruiters are no strangers to bloated paper trails, loss of candidate data, and stacks of clipboards after each job fair or recruiting event, which can be translated as a waste of time and reduced productivity.
To help you overcome this nightmare, we provide a mobile solution for the campus recruiters to capture and evaluate candidates’ credentials in person and a dashboard for the HR team to enhance the follow-up process and connect with young talent.
Unlike check-in solutions, our solution allows recruiters to fully engage with their candidates while collecting information to create a detailed profile of their leads. Imagine having a central online hub to manage your early-career talent pipeline. No more losing your top candidates in a spreadsheet or pile of paper resumes in your filing cabinets or even the recycling bin.
From filtering candidates by specific criteria, sending out bulk messages for follow-up, and setting up seamless collaboration between members – you can have it all done in one place using our platform. That is the kind of next-generation campus recruiting solution!
VIRTUAL CAREER FAIR
Besides traditional recruiting events, a virtual job expos is also an effective solution to hiring the best college students if you want to cast a wider net at a lower cost. To quote vFair’s calculation of how much a 3-day physical event would cost you:
“With a physical event, costs keep shooting up with every additional day that you add. If venue rentals cost around $0.14 per gross square foot per day, the rental cost incurred for each additional day for a 60,000 sq ft hall will be $8,400.”
Cost Analysis: Virtual Career Fair vs Physical Career Fair – vFairs
When it comes to virtual job fairs, you can join broad-based virtual job fairs hosted by Monster, CareerBuilder, and similar organizations or create your own. If you are keen on having your virtual fair instead, Brazen is worth your attention.
Brazen’s cloud-based platform for virtual job fairs and networking sessions allows companies to hold online events easily. The technology enables timed, one-on-one interactions via web chat in which job applicants and recruiters can get to know each other without ever leaving their homes or offices.
It is crucial to ensure that the platform utilized for a virtual career fair adheres to established privacy policies. This step is essential in alleviating concerns regarding potential data breaches and maintaining candidates’ trust.
DIGITAL INTERVIEW PLATFORM
In-person campus recruiting can be resource-intensive, making digital interview platforms a valuable asset. HireVue, a pioneer in this area, offers both asynchronous and synchronous video interviews with features like predictive analytics. This allows recruiters to assess more candidates in less time while ensuring a personalized and positive candidate experience.
4. CAMPUS RECRUITING STRATEGY: PARTNERSHIP WITH COLLEGE CAREER SERVICES
Below, we highlight the best 10 pieces of advice suggested by Career Services Professionals for working more efficiently and harmoniously with university career services and getting the right candidates for the job!
SUPPORT CAREER SERVICES TO PREPARE STUDENTS FOR JOB SEARCHING & APPLICATION PROCESS
Universities offer invaluable career services to guide students in their professional journey. Collaborate by providing resume reviews and mock interviews and participating in career events. Propose topics like salary negotiation to engage students and create a cooperative campaign that not only promotes your brand but also leaves a positive impression on both students and the university.
BRING ALUMNI OR PEERS AS THE COMPANY’S AMBASSADORS
Elevate your organization’s image by inviting alumni or peers to be ambassadors. Their fresh perspective on the college-to-career transition makes them approachable and relatable. Recent alumni, whether part of the recruiting team or not, can be highly effective ambassadors.
OFFER OFFICE TOURS TO STUDENT GROUPS
Surveys suggest that top-performing students are increasingly interested in long-term career prospects within a company. Consequently, career services offices have reported demand for more focus on company culture, advancement opportunities, and work-life balance. Offering office tours to student groups to present a complete portrayal of the workplace – including trade-offs – is a precious and important part of drawing and retaining prospective future employees.
SHOWCASE YOUR CULTURE AND DIVERSITY
Move beyond company websites and print materials when introducing your culture to students. Hands-on introductions are a more effective campus recruiting strategy. Demonstrating diversity and a welcoming environment during company events makes a lasting impression. A diverse and inclusive culture is a gradual process, but a targeted and well-planned recruitment strategy is a crucial starting point.
Whether launching or rebooting your diversity recruiting programs, consider implementing these 10 tactics to create a successful diversity campus recruiting program at your organization.
HOST OR SPONSOR STUDENT EVENTS
Engage with university career services through various events, from presentations to job shadowing days. To get the most out of this campus recruiting strategy, listen to feedback and continuously update your presentations to avoid recycling the same content. Provide unique insights that students can’t easily find online, offering a deeper understanding of positions and company dynamics.
FOLLOW UP WITH STUDENTS
Foster positive relationships by being responsive and attentive to students throughout the recruiting process. Silence from employers, especially after initial responses or interviews, can be frustrating for students and challenging for career services. Focus on cultivating a strong on-campus employer brand by consistently engaging with students, offering them valuable workplace experiences, and utilizing eRecruiting tools for seamless communication.
Remember, a successful campus recruiting strategy involves building and maintaining connections. Your commitment to providing a great candidate experience and staying engaged with students over time will contribute significantly to your on-campus employer brand.
5. OTHER INNOVATIVE COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY RECRUITMENT STRATEGIES
| CLASSROOM SESSIONS OR LUNCHES | Do you recruit from one or more universities on a campus? Consider holding an informational session in the classroom with the dean or a professor there. While these are compelling ways to get undivided attention from your grads, you can also pack a one-two punch by doing one before or after a career fair. |
| ONLINE COMMUNITIES | Students are eager and willing to learn as much as possible about their new industry. Give them a leg up by creating an online community that publishes reports, industry trends, FAQs about jobs in the industry, and even an online learning curriculum that will prepare them for jobs in your organization. |
| HACKATHONS AND CONTESTS | Work with the career center to create a hackathon (these aren’t just for computer geeks anymore) in any industry or support one in your space that’s already planned! Either way, it’s a fun and less formal way to get to know students. |
| INTERVIEWS | Once again, the career center and your recruitment event software can be your best friends in creating time outside the traditional job fair times to simply conduct interviews. Have an interview day with those you met at a career fair, or work with professors and alumni associations to fill up a day with pre-selected applicants. The career center can also direct students your way. |
| TEAM HIRING | If the university you want to recruit from is near your home base, consider in-person events like being a judge on a panel, helping to assess and grade student portfolios, getting involved or supporting sporting and fine arts events and participating in semester-long projects as a “client.” |
| TECH-ENABLED INTERVIEWS | Don’t have the budget to travel everywhere for events? Try video interviewing and screening. This method is an efficient and easy way to see many prospects in a limited time. |
| BE A RESOURCE | If the university you want to recruit from is near your home base, consider in-person events like being a judge on a panel, helping to assess and grade student portfolios, getting involved or supporting sporting and fine arts events, and participating in semester-long projects as a “client.” |
6. THE BEST CAMPUS RECRUITING SOFTWARE PICKED FOR YOU – RAKUNA
Rakuna is a total recruiting platform that helps employers and recruiters redefine how top employers recruit young people. The Rakuna Solution Suite includes the simplest mobile app, Rakuna Recruit, and an applicant relationship management dashboard, Rakuna Recruit Dashboard. We are how companies hire millennials.
What Are Some Features of Rakuna Mobile Recruiting App?
- Fully engaging experience: Leave an impression on your student candidates with paperless technology. Get rid of conversing and connecting with them manually.
- Instant and easy data access: Our intuitive design requires no user training. Make your fair experiences fun and easy with Rakuna’s intuitive app.
- Professional and streamlined solution: Make a connection with college students and impress your colleagues with a paper-free, eco-friendly smartphone app.
With the Rakuna Mobile Recruiting app, recruiters can capture prospective candidates’ information instantly at the point of contact, utilize a customized evaluation form to gather additional data, and rate candidates immediately as the conversation with candidates happens. Unlike check-in solutions, Rakuna Recruit allows recruiters to be 100% engaging with candidates while collecting required information at their fingertips.
How Rakuna Recruit Dashboard Benefits Your College Recruiting Strategy?
- Making your game plan: Reach an agreement with your teams on common goals, forms, and questions that all candidates can get access to during the job fair. The dashboard helps to track time, staff, and attendees in advance.
- Engaging top talents: Connect with applicants and utilize standard forms to get rid of the administrative side and discuss career options, goals, and ideas with your prospective leads.
- Beat the competition: Get a headstart on other businesses by using the information made immediately available at your fingertips. Scroll through resumes and follow up with your favorite candidates.
With Rakuna Recruit Metrics Dashboard, recruiters can dive deep into metrics reports, design evaluation forms, collaborate with hiring managers and recruiting teams, and customize automated follow-up emails to candidates to improve candidate relationship management.
7. SUCCESSFUL HIRING EVENT IDEAS FOR YOUR CAMPUS RECRUITING STRATEGY
AMAZON JOBS DAY
In August 2017, Amazon orchestrated the largest recruiting event in the US that year, drawing over 20,000 applicants. The event catered to the growing demand in Amazon’s “fulfillment network,” offering enticing benefits like tuition pre-payment and comprehensive medical benefits for full-time positions. With locations spanning across the nation, Amazon provided guided facility tours and conducted interviews in outdoor tents.
FORD DAYS
Ford Motor Company embraced the idea of hosting on-campus car shows, a unique approach that resonates well with college students. Events like “Ford Days” have been successfully held at renowned universities such as MIT, UC Berkeley, and UC Michigan. Activities include a car display, interactions with Ford team members, and enlightening lectures by company representatives. Ford Days offers students an immersive experience, showcasing the company’s offerings and job opportunities directly on their campuses.
IBM – DEVELOPER WEEK
DeveloperWeek attracted more than 8,000 attendees when taking place in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Austin. It is one of the world’s largest developer exposition and technology conference series. IBM is just among many companies joining the Hiring Mixer at the event to connect with the most talented in the pool of candidates participating in the conference. The week-long event includes multiple developer conferences, a hackathon, and the hiring mixer.
L’ORÉAL – WEEKEND RETREAT
Every year, L’Oréal hosts “Taste of L’Oréal” – an internship recruitment program to offer around 100 undergraduates and graduates the chance to learn what it is like to work at the company. The event invites students to New York City for presentations from presidents of different Divisions, an in-depth orientation, and to work on a case study. Students can also learn more about career choices and have an opportunity to interview in person for a position.
SPOTIFY – DIVERSIFY
Hackathon events usually attract many programmers, developers, and coders, which is predictably often male-dominated. Some events have a 15/85 female-to-male ratio. Seeing this, Spotify exerted its influence to promote a change. In 2015, Spotify hosted a hackathon named “Diversify” to attract 50/50 female and male participants.
Spotify has worked hard to market this event beyond the usual Facebook hacker groups utilizing word-of-mouth. Though coding a product was the critical aspect of the event, there were also lectures and workshops to distance itself from a traditional hackathon. The company pulled in a 43% female and 57% male participant ratio, unprecedented at any tech event at this time.
Conclusion
Congratulations on delving into this comprehensive campus recruiting strategy & guide!
Armed with strategies ranging from meticulous event preparation to innovative hiring tips, you are well-equipped to navigate the dynamic landscape of attracting candidates from events and career fairs.
When you and your recruitment team are on the field, consider the transformative impact of technology solutions. Here’s where Rakuna’s Recruitment Software steps in as your ultimate ally
Ready to Experience the Future of Campus Recruitment?
Join us for a FREE DEMO to see how Rakuna’s Recruitment Software can streamline your campus hiring efforts. Experience how our solutions align perfectly with the strategies outlined in this guide to help you identify and secure the most suitable candidates for your organization.
To learn more, BOOK A DEMO HERE or contact sales@rakuna.co.
