Enter the Virtual Job Fair

Wouldn’t it be cool if you didn’t have to send recruiters across the country to set up and host job fairs? The planning and expense alone is enough to make any company throw in the towel. There is a way – a very cool way – the virtual job fair.

Within the last year, virtual job fairs have become popular with businesses, says Don Best, director of marketing for Unisfair, a company that powers the world’s virtual events. The benefits to these virtual fairs are immediately evident if you have a globally dispersed salesforce and you need to recruit.

"If you have to recruit and fill positions in regionally or geographically dispersed areas, this is a major cost saver," says Best. "Say, you have to recruit in six Southern states; the cost per recruiting session would be about $50,000 at each place. For that price, you can pull off one virtual fair and recruit in six states at once. That’s a key advantage. You can even recruit internationally by sitting at your desk."

A virtual job fair with Unisfair works just like a "real life" job fair held at a convention or expo center with exhibitor booths, resource centers, keynote presenters, panel discussions, a lounge for networking, and interaction between corporate recruiters and job seekers. Employers can even customize their booths with a video or audio greeting, make company presentations available online, and list job opportunities that are easily searchable by job seekers.

"Everything that happens at a real job fair happens at a virtual job fair except the physical handshake," explains Best. "For example, attendees can ‘walk’ into the fair and attend a presentation about what it’s like to work at the company, company benefits, or even moderated Q & As. Attendees can enter the exhibit floor and ‘visit’ booths. Companies can set up booths according to job functions, regions, or any other category – it’s up to the company’s HR department. The attendees can access any type of information that companies want them to access including documents, literature, and job postings. Companies can do live portions of events and on demand portions. They can even invite applicants into their booths to interact with recruiters who are ‘staffing’ the booth."

How it works: The booth staff has a console to view and a bell sounds when someone enters the booth. The staff can then immediately view the candidate’s credentials (whatever the candidate listed on their registration such as present position, resumes, etc.). Recruiters can choose to engage the job seeker in chat or they can sit back and wait for the job seeker to chat with them. Everything the job seeker is doing is tracked –(the information is recorded and allows companies to access information) – what the job seeker did, what questions they asked, their resume, where they visited, jobs that they reviewed, and information that they downloaded – things the average company couldn’t obtain at a physical job fair.

"We often get questioned about human interaction,"says Best. "It is important, but if you are processing hundreds or even thousands at a show, you will narrow it down and that’s when you want the human physical contact. You aren’t going to hire anyone on the spot at a job fair. You can talk with thousands and then set up in-person interviews with the top 100 or less candidates. Another upside is that candidates can look for jobs without anyone ‘seeing them’ so employers will be able to meet with many more passive candidates (people who are currently employed).

"There are a lot of things online that are called virtual career fairs, but they are more two-dimensional," warns Best. "Unisfair replicates the three-dimensional fair while collecting data on attendees. We have the right technology, which makes it much easier for people to participate than some other virtual fairs. We only require participants to register, and then they can go anywhere they want with just a click of their mouse. Accessibility and ease is what we offer. We want people to come in, get their information, and move on with their lives."

Virtual fairs probably won’t replace in-person career fairs anytime soon, especially when it comes to recruiting a small number of people at a local level, but they are very cost effective for companies that need to recruit countrywide or globally.

For more information, visit www.unisfair.com.