Top Recruitment Event Ideas To Attract The Brightest Talents In Your Industry

Recruiting the right people for your company can be challenging, but you can attract all the bright talents with innovative recruitment event ideas. Recruitment events can help build meaningful relationships with employers even after the event ends. 

It works great for both the employer and employees. Employers get to bring impressive talents to the company, whereas candidates get to learn about various opportunities and make meaningful connections.

So, if you’re looking to attract the brightest talents, you must make the right arrangements and plan engaging activities. 

Here are ideas to help you plan an impactful event and share compelling recruitment event ideas. 

A. What is a recruitment event?

A recruitment event is a marketing strategy directed toward building and fostering relationships with candidates in a more personal way. These events help candidates find work opportunities, expand their horizons, and give incredible networking practice.

Some of the primary goals of organizing a recruitment event are:

• Attracting potential candidates who possess the skills and qualifications required for the job.
• Showcasing company culture, values, and employer brand to prospective candidates.
• Facilitating networking with candidates, industry professionals, and potential future hires.
• Collecting resumes and applications from candidates, evaluating and screening them.

B. How to plan a recruitment event?

Your company size and hiring needs will determine the scale of your recruitment event. Below is a general guide to accommodate the wide range of needs and variations for different events based on timelines around the event.

1. 12 months before the event: Plan and structure

If you intend to host a series of recruitment events throughout the year, it’s crucial to start securing venues early. Structure your events and plan for the full year, especially if you’re hosting at popular locations in a large city.

To find the right venue for, you need to determine:

• Recruitment goals
• Budget
• Target audience
• Number of attendees you want to attend

2. Six months before the event: Determine your logistics

Six months is enough for the prep if you plan to host only one recruitment event. This is the best time to determine the high-level logistics, including:

• Target candidate personas
• Sponsors or collaborators
• Topic or idea that will guide the event
• Venue of the event
• Assigning roles to your team
• The decor of the venue
• Demos and activities

3. Five months before the event: Create a checklist

Once your goals, venue, and logistics are set, it’s time to create a project timeline and a checklist to ensure everything runs smoothly.

Some things to consider:

• Adding extra services to make the event immersive and memorable
• Sourcing speakers, performers, or any other artist you’d like to have at the event
• Documentation-hiring a photographer, videographer, or someone to live stream on social media during the event

4. 3 months before the event: launch the marketing campaign

A well-crafted recruitment marketing campaign will help you target the right candidates and attract quality attendees. 

Here are some ways to do it:

i. Social media

• Create attractive posts announcing the recruitment event
• Use appropriate hashtags to increase visibility
• Share sneak peeks of what attendees can expect
• Collaborate with influencers to promote your event
• Encourage followers to share and spread the word

ii. Email marketing

• Send personalized invitations to your email subscribers highlighting the benefits of attending the event
• Include a call-to-action encouraging the recipients to register

iii. Flyers and posters

• Design attractive flyers and posters to display in high-traffic areas
• Use simple language and make the details easy to read 
• Highlight the key features
• Use vibrant colors and compelling visuals to grab attention

iv. Website

• Create a dedicated mobile landing page for registration
• Provide detailed information about the agenda, speakers, and registration process

5. 1 month before the event: send invites and finalize the details

One month before the event, you should shift focus on inviting attendees. Send out invites personally for a small event with 10-50 attendees. For a large event with 100+ attendees, you may want to keep the event open to the public.

Here are some additional details to look into:

• Set up a floor plan for the venue
• Arrange a ticketing and registration system to enable seamless registration for the attendees.
• Gather volunteers from your organization to help run the event smoothly. Have one volunteer for every 10 attendees.
• Finalize your catering, food, and beverage packages 
• Ensure all your essential equipment, like microphones and speakers, works perfectly. 

6. 72-48 hours before the event: Send out reminders

About 48 to 72 hours before the event, send reminder emails with all the critical event information. 

Here are some things to include:

• CTA for people who are yet to register for the event
• Clear directions on different ways to get to the event
• List of items to bring, such as resumes, cover letters, or documentation

7. Day of the event: Buckle up

The day is finally here. Relax, ensure all team members know their roles, and proceed calmly.

Keep these things in mind:

• Ensure the food has arrived and is all setup
• Arrange your tables, seating, or areas for activities
• Ensure all the sound and electrical equipment are checked and ready to go
• Huddle with volunteers about 90 minutes before the event starts to assign roles
• Make sure the registration table is set up with name tags, handouts, and anything else attendees might need
• Clean the venue, clear away trash, and check that waste bins have been emptied

8. After the event: follow up

After winding up, send a follow-up email thanking candidates for attending. Depending on the event's purpose, let them know the next steps of the recruitment process (how to apply, learn more, etc.)

You can also email those who missed the event with a recap and information they may still want. If you handed out business cards or talked with specific candidates, ensure to follow up with personalized emails to get them into your talent pipeline.

C. Recruitment event ideas

To help you identify talent and provide you with a positive experience, here’s a list of innovative recruitment event ideas to try:

1. Hands-on learning workshop

Skill-building workshops provide important insight into your candidate while showing your long-term investment in professional development. Introduce interview tips and tricks or set up a mock interview to make notes of the candidate’s body language and communication skills.

2. DEI (Diversity, equity, and inclusion) panels

DEI panels allow candidates from underrepresented backgrounds to get additional insight into their experience in the company. One of the best ways to do this is to invite junior employees and senior leaders of similar backgrounds to discuss their career paths. Ask the participants to submit their questions in advance for a more personal and productive conversation. 

3. Fun with trivia

You can go for in-person or virtual trivia to help candidates familiarize themselves with your company values, product offerings, and even senior leadership in a fun, interactive way. 

Some examples:

• When was your company founded?
• How many employees work in your headquarters?
• What is your CEO's favorite book?

4. Open-house recruiting events

The key idea of open house recruitment events is to bring candidates into your office space with an open house. This is a great way to provide candidates with a unique insight into your office and help them better understand what it will be like working at your company.

5. Job fair 

Job fairs are an excellent way to utilize the resources and networks of other industry leaders to attract top talent in one platform. Additionally, you don’t have to plan and execute the entire thing. It can also be challenging to stand out among a sea of employees.

Here are a few tips to make sure you shine:

• Provide plenty of printed resources for candidates to continue their research after the event
• Offer business cards to give candidates a clear point of contact to reach out to if they want more information
• Make the interaction casual and conversational with a quick and fun activity, like a prize wheel or game
• Handout free stuff with your brand logos, like t-shirts, snacks, gadgets, or experiences, so that people feel connected even after the event is over

6. Panel and conference recruitment events

Hosting panels can establish you as an industry leader, where you can talk about niche topics to attract candidates with experience or interest in your field. These events can feature a conversation topic ranging from industry trends to company-specific knowledge. 

7. School campus recruitment events 

School campuses can be a great one-stop shop for entry-level roles or internships. This is how you can do it:

• Host a lecture to shed light on your industry and company
• Create an environment allowing students to casually meet with employees to chat and ask questions
• Host mock interviews to help students prepare for real interviews with mock interviews on campus

8. Re-internship recruitment events

Re-internship recruitment events are aimed at recruiting individuals who are seeking re-entry into the workforce after a period of absence. This is a good opportunity to help individuals such as career returners, stay-at-home parents, or individuals who have left their jobs for several years to return to their careers. Through these events individuals can network, learn about the company, and get the opportunity to connect with hiring managers or recruiters. 

9. Recruitment events for competitor layoffs

If a company is downsizing, that's bad news for everyone involved, but you could turn this to your advantage. You can partner with such companies to host informational or recruitment sessions. This is a great way to grab potential talents and help them move on with a career change. 

10. Competition-based recruiting events

Competitions are fun ways to identify top candidates. Participants get the opportunity to prove their skills and impress employers. Whatever the role, nothing could be more exciting than a couple of friendly competitions to bring out the best talent.

11. Lunch and learn sessions

Organizing a lunch and learn session beyond your current employees can help you identify smart candidates. These could be casual sessions where you ask candidates to join your team for lunch, including a brief seminar about your organization's opportunities.

You can start your presentation by summarizing employer brand content. These programs can help participants get a clearer picture of what it’s like to work at your company. You can even sponsor a luncheon in public or other easily accessible areas like hotels or conference halls.

12. Presentation with experts

Inviting experts to your event can help the candidates get deep insights into industry trends, challenges, and opportunities. Choose a topic that can help the audience determine if the organization is a good fit for them. These could be offering insights into company best practices, company values, mission, and new strategies. Also, consider including breaks to let everyone engage informally and learn their opinions.

13. Hackathon hiring events

Hackathons are competitions primarily organized for developers, who may otherwise be difficult to hire. These events require the target developers to either create something or solve a problem. This can be a great opportunity to see how candidates collaborate within a team to solve real-world problems.

D. Recruit top talents with Ticket Generator

If you’re on a hiring spree, this list of recruitment event ideas will help you reach desirable candidates in your local area or even internationally with virtual recruitment events.

With Ticket Generator, you can streamline your entire registration process and make the most out of your recruitment event. From registration to post-event analytics, Ticket Generator ensures you successfully plan, execute, and analyze all events.

Sign up now!