What are Virtual Career Fairs?
One of the shared goals of both companies and job seekers is to effectively search for and find work. The search for innovative ways to facilitate this process is the current trend, not only in Human Resource departments but for everyone who’s trying to find their special spot in the workforce.
Nowadays, the most common way to find a job is by looking on the internet. In some cases, this attempt can be frustrating due to out-of-date job offers and poorly explained announcements. To top things off, digital job searching completely loses the socialization factor, eliminating the communication capacity that is so important for this type of process.
With the aim of finding an innovative, fast, and efficient meeting point that connects people in a more direct way, virtual career fairs were born. They have become the preferred platform for employers and candidates to establish contact. In fact, the advantages of this type of fair are so competitive over other options that more and more companies, organizations, employment agencies, and universities are adapting to this modality as opposed to other career fair events.
The main reason for this paradigm shift is that with a Virtual Career Fair, everyone wins: employers have an economical, fast, and efficient way to find potential employees, while job seekers have the ability to meet employers and submit their resumes directly, without any interferences or the need to travel.
In short, Virtual Career Fairs provides an online platform in which all the protagonists can connect in a virtual environment that eliminates the restrictions of the physical environment. Therefore, the main goal is to maximize results while minimizing time and costs. This objective is achieved through an extensive list of advantages that the Virtual Environment modality presents over traditional face-to-face events.
Top 5 Benefits of Virtual Career Fairs:
1. Cost reduction
2. Increased visitor attendance
Thanks to the fact that job seekers can access the event online from any computer or smartphone, greater participation is encouraged, as they can attend live from any location and with a wide range of timetables.
In addition, these virtual fairs make it possible to reach candidates who are not actively seeking employment because they are working elsewhere. Companies will therefore not find their resume on a job portal, bringing new “passive job seekers” into the equation.
3. Improving recruitment efficiency
The platforms behind Virtual Career Fairs have numerous tools to facilitate pre-selection tasks. Employers are thus able to filter candidates according to their predefined criteria, which saves them loads of time. Simultaneously, job seekers will gain more visibility to the types of jobs they’re seeking.
4. Easier and more agile exchange of information
Thanks to the possibility of easily and virtually sharing media, companies will be able to show their candidates corporate videos, photo galleries, brochures and FAQs. In this way, applicants will have all their questions related to the company’s services and its business culture answered in the click of a mouse.
5. Measurable results
The possibility of having access in real-time to all the data relating to visitors to the virtual fair provides exhibitors with measurable and precise information on ROI, which will allow them to study and improve the quality of present and future events.
Applicants will also have a record of all their activities at the virtual job fair: where they presented their CVs, companies with which they have maintained contact, or online seminars they have attended.
What does a virtual career fair need to be perfect?
Although the possibilities offered by this type of job fair are innumerable, it is always necessary to go one step further. Research and innovation must go hand in hand to ensure that these online meetings are truly platforms that will not only guarantee effective recruitment but also a stimulating experience within a virtual world for its participants. And if in the process you manage to surprise the candidates, even better.
This is the philosophy of Virtway, a 3D Virtual Environment that adds significant value to any virtual 3D event at a distance, not only to virtual career fairs but also to online meetings, interactive workshops, virtual congresses, networking, training events, and team building activities.
This is because the alternatives it offers are infinite but above all creative and innovative. For example, in order to achieve a powerful brand image that attracts attention and surprises visitors, companies can equip their stands or virtual information points with interactive 3D avatars that simulate those responsible for the company.
These types of innovative actions must go hand in hand with other essential alternatives, in order to achieve a perfect fair. For example, if you are holding a webinar or webcast, it should include the option of live questions and answers. In fact, online conferences attract and retain audiences from around the world through their speeches, allowing the speaker and attendees to interact and network.
It is also important that candidates at a virtual job fair benefit from the incorporation of audio, video, and chat applications, making it possible to easily reach recruiters with their doubts. They can have their answer on the spot and even take part in interviews in real-time.
Innovate or cease to exist.
This must be the attitude that guides the course of companies and their business models if they do not want to be left behind in a society that is increasingly globalized and marked by the virtual era. Traditional standards of professional development must be put in the past in order to give way to new business profiles that know how to take full advantage of all the opportunities offered by technology and its applications in the virtual world.
