3 Steps to Planning a Kick-Ass Recruiting Event

Have you ever fought hard to get budget for a recruiting event only to see the whole thing flop in your face? Maybe you planned everything last minute and didn’t promote it right. Maybe your venue didn’t work or you didn’t have the right attendees there. Well, that’s all about to change. I’m going to fill you in on the tools you need to plan and execute the best recruiting event you’ve ever had. Step 1: Plan ahead or fail – seriously. Okay, confession: I’m a huge procrastinator. But when it comes to events, procrastinating is the worst thing you can do. My best advice is to plan ahead. But how do you find the motivation? Here are things I take into consideration months before an event:

• Start ASAP! Create a timeline with dates and plan out your budget. Don’t wait until the morning of, or night before to gather your supplies and staff. This will stress you out and means you won’t have time to mingle and enjoy yourself on the day of.
• Tap into employees and key stakeholders at your company early. Make sure everyone knows your event is happening, why it’s happening, and what they can contribute to make it successful.
• Create calendar invites. Send them to everyone at your company, encouraging employees to invite people in their networks!

Step 2: Become a logistical master. Logistics are the meat of your event. Figure out everything you need to get done ahead of time and write it out in a list. As someone who spends her life planning webinars and events, I always include the following on my checklist:

1. Venue and theme. Where am I going to hold this event? Am I recruiting engineers? Maybe I’ll do it a fun bar with games. Or what about sales pros? I’ll make sure I have drinks, swag and other sales people for them to mingle with.
2. What date and time will work best? Is this going to be a lunch event or will I do a late-night networking party? Find a time that will work best for your audience and pick the event length you think your audience will enjoy. Be wary of making it either too long or too short.
3. Directions. Make sure the people you’re inviting know how to get to your venue, including specific directions, available public transportation and parking. If your event is being held in a conference room within a larger venue, make that clear.
4. Check-in and giveaways. Day of, it’s crucial to know where your check-in tables will be and where promotional swag will be displayed. Think through how you’ll be greeting people when they arrive at your event and what you want them to take with them when they leave.
5. Cost. What is the total cost of the venue, swag, drinks, food, AV system, transportation, collateral prints, signage, prizes and nametags? List out everything you can possibly think of that has a dollar amount tied to it.
6. Signage and collateral. Figure out the overall look and feel of your event. That includes making sure signage and collateral are branded appropriately and sync with each other. Keep in mind that key materials may need to be approved by your graphics or marketing teams!
7. Event staff. Assign each of your volunteers tasks, such as greeters, stockers, recruiters, minglers, etc. Let them know what they need to wear on the day of. Then, arrive early for your event and greet your volunteers. Make sure someone is tasked to greet every person as they arrive to make them feel welcome. Schedule enough company representatives to mingle and chat with potential job candidates that show up at your booth, table or space.
8. Social Plan. Most successful events have a strong social strategy in place, whether that’s an event hashtag, someone live tweeting the day of or a live Twitter feed being broadcast in the room. Assign someone on your team to owning the social strategy for the day of.
9. Contact Info. Create a show plan that includes everyone’s contact info. It’s also helpful to provide attendees with speaker’s Twitter handles or follow-up contact information.

Step 3: Get people there and always follow up. Promoting your event and making sure potential candidates show up is extremely important. That is why planning ahead is key so you have time to get onto potential candidates’ schedules. Logistics may be the meat, but promotions are the bun – you can’t have one without the other! Here are tried-and-true tips to ensure you get a full crowd:

• Promote your event internally. Some of your best advocates are your employees. Plus, who doesn’t like an employee referral! Promote your event internally and make sure your colleagues invite their friends, roommates and former co-workers.
• Send outbound emails. Email the contacts in your CRM, ATS or whatever database you use. If you’re looking for a specific skill set or type of person, make sure you have messaging that reflects that. Also, let employees know what and whom you’re looking for so they invite the right candidates.
• Use a registration tool. I recommend using Eventbrite or another event registration tool to gather registrants. Remember to send reminders to people that sign up! You can’t stress basics like time and location too much or too often.
• Follow up after the event. Create a check-in list at the door so you know exactly who came (and didn’t). My best practice is to follow up with everyone, regardless of if you want to hire them or not. It never hurts to keep these people in your database for future positions!

Some final advice: Remember that most attendees won’t notice if something goes wrong, so try not to stress over little things or SNAFUs. Instead focus your efforts and attention on making sure everyone feels welcome at the event and comes away with a positive sense of your culture and employer brand. As I noted, even if you don’t end up hiring every last attendee, this approach can pay talent acquisition dividends down the road. Finally, don’t forget to enjoy yourself! Mingle and network with great candidates. And, once the day winds down, take in the success, knowing you’ve pulled off a seriously kick-ass event.