The Future of Campus Recruiting

Without on-campus networking events, “recruiting” in the age of social distancing is far from easy—both for the students seeking opportunities and for the companies who need to manage and cultivate their talent pipeline. While COVID-19 continues to present unprecedented challenges for talent acquisition teams across the globe, technology and new products allow for different and often more effective ways of sourcing and interviewing candidates.

Through video chats, advanced candidate/employee matching, and mobile-friendly interfaces, new technologies are replacing travel to campuses, mediocre job fairs, and many other ways companies have traditionally hired college students.

While we may not know exactly what the future holds, one thing is for sure: the campus recruiting methods of yesterday won’t fuel the pipeline needs of tomorrow. A virtual approach to pipeline management that emphasizes relationship-based hiring is necessary.

The Traditional Career Fair Reimagined

Now more than ever it’s time to reimagine the traditional career and job fairs. Enter virtual career fairs. The format of a virtual career fair is fairly simple. Employers make themselves available in pre-determined windows and prospects are invited to sign-up for sessions with the employers of their choice. All communication is facilitated through the platform, usually through a video service or teleconferencing. The benefits?

• For job seekers, virtual career fairs offer a seamless way to network and interact with potential employers for career advice, insights about the company, or to learn more about a role within the company.
• Employers, on the other hand gain access to a broader pool of potential candidates. Using interactive features such as video conferencing, live chat, smart matching and more, brands can exponentially expand the number and the types of candidates they interact with.
• Virtual career fairs make it easy for both parties to connect seamlessly and at a time most convenient for them.

The Three Main Advantages of Virtual Career Fairs 

There are many advantages a virtual career fair has over traditional recruiting methods. Here are the top three advantages companies have reported:

• In a virtual career fair setting, participants get the opportunity to dramatically increase the number of people they connect with and quality time spent with each person.
• A virtual career fair offers a more scalable approach for recruiting teams to engage with passive and active candidates.
• A virtual hiring platform allows companies to access global talent and recruit people from different parts of the country, especially those from underrepresented groups.

Not All Virtual Recruiting Platforms are Created Equal

Some virtual recruiting platforms boast a candidate forward approach via interactive features like webinar broadcasting capabilities, text-based chats, and personalized email campaigns. These are important features but they fail to deliver on a truly interactive approach to recruiting. Such features can be one-sided, and can fail to promote meaningful engagement between prospects and the brand. Features such as live video, advanced matching, and post-session feedback surveys from both employees and candidates all provide more meaningful ways for talent to form relationships with a brand and the people behind it.

92% of employers believe they have a “brand problem” when it comes to their recruiting efforts, yet most virtual recruiting tools also fall flat on delivering on improving employer branding. A potential reason for this shortcoming is because they fail to authentically leverage a brand’s greatest culture ambassadors: its employees. Job seekers rank current employees as the #1 trusted source for information about a company, so virtual recruiting platforms that ignore a company’s most fruitful asset miss the mark on a winning candidate experience and successful employer branding.

How Turazo is Paving the Way 

Turazo provides technology designed to optimize the remote hiring process. With Turazo, companies provide candidates with unprecedented access to an employer’s culture and environment. Current employees can use Turazo to have one-on-one virtual conversations with candidates through a reverse interviewing approach that gives them the unique opportunity to explore a company and its culture, year-round, and at enterprise scale. Hearing these stories directly from employees builds candidates’ trust. An employer’s brand becomes more than just a concept—it becomes a lived reality. Turazo’s virtual recruiting platform offers a more strategic way for hiring teams to move beyond the seasonal hiring process and alternatively, to proactively engage with talent even when a position is not currently open.

For years, Turazo has been trusted by top brands like AT&T, Xerox, Dolby and Under Armour to help their talent acquisition teams to effectively attract and hire early talent. With Turazo, Under Armour is reaching over 10 times more candidates than traditional methods. 

In light of COVID-19, Turazo launched Online Career Fair, a free resource for learners and professionals to connect 1-on-1 for career advice. Participation does not require that you currently have open roles or are hiring. Itʼs about helping college students and young professionals understand what itʼs like to be a part of your organization and how to navigate building a career. Learn more here.

Despite the continued challenges presented by COVID-19, there are great opportunities to scale and improve campus recruiting in 2021.Take advantage of these new tools to successfully scale your recruiting efforts and deepen relationships with early talent.