Personalised online events are a fast-evolving recruitment format. Insight from insiders will help you ensure flawless interaction and productive meetings. This is essential both for the impression you will leave on prospective applicants and for getting to know them.
Replicate the face-to-face experience
Admissions teams certainly feel at home at in-person recruitment events, as they are part of a recruiter’s professional routine. However, the online environment and the various event platforms are very much a new experience, especially when it comes to real-time, fully interactive online One-to-One events. Technology use often leads to stage fright in otherwise confident and experienced professionals. As usual, the solution is preparation and practice.
Improving the recruiter’s experience is already a beaten path for Advent Group. We are proud of our superb client satisfaction, steadily over 85%, and our culture of innovation, learning, and improvement. A leader in personalised MBA and Master’s recruitment events for 16 years now and the founder of the One-to-One format, we started our online events back in 2016. Shortly after, we developed a fully interactive in-house platform to replicate in-person recruitment communication and host diverse formats and event features.
Ace any online recruitment event with these essential tips. Although some are common sense, failing to follow them can compromise your online event performance.
Get comfortable with the platform
“Prepare, practise, and get used to the format.” Isn’t this the advice we give prospective applicants before they sit a test or show up for the admissions interview? Now it is time for us to practise what we preach.
It is critical to get familiar with the event platform. Once the event starts, you will have to adhere to a strict schedule and engage in dynamic interaction. So, having to figure out how the platform works would disrupt your meeting.
It is best to ask the event organiser for some personal training with simulated meetings several days before the event. Make sure to also explore the back-up options that they provide, as well as the level of live customer support you can rely on. This is the best way to get to know your virtual meeting venue and feel comfortable during the event so that you can focus entirely on recruitment.
Explore all features
Online events offer more than just chat and video calls. Explore all the platform’s features to impress prospective applicants in real-time. Make sure you can easily navigate between video calls and chats, and are ready to share a presentation, campus pictures and career success stats from your screen. Publish an informative and impressive school profile on the platform and engage the audience during a webinar-format school presentation or a panel discussion.
All of these features will be at your fingertips. Prepare in advance to use all of them with ease.
Set up and test your equipment
Before the event, make sure you simulate the real event experience with the actual internet connection and devices you will be using on the event day. The correct type of device, optimum settings, and the best-performing version of the software are all critical. Check out the technical and system requirements for the best user experience well in advance and make sure you adhere to them. Prepare an alternative device to have at your side, and test it. Also, ensure you have a backup internet connection that is sufficiently stable to support a video meeting.
Engage candidates for the rendezvous
Take some time to go through the candidate profiles as soon as you have access to them. Take advantage of the communication tools integrated into the platform to engage your top candidates in the upcoming rendezvous. Before the day of the event, reach out to present yourself, the school, and the programme. This will help build rapport, and will also encourage candidates to prepare for the meeting.
Get last-minute market updates
Fine-tune your expectations and message. Agility is essential in these dynamic times. Take advantage of the event organiser’s insight into the market dynamics and latest trends. Inquire about recent changes on the market, shifts in candidates’ preferences on study destinations and learning formats, and changes in candidate behaviour in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Focus on the interaction
Even when recruitment takes place online, this is still human-to-human interaction. Prospective students always appreciate engaging communication and support from schools, especially at times of disruption.
Therefore, it is important to be understanding of any technical difficulties candidates may have. Online recruitment events are usually supported by big teams of facilitators and IT specialists, but you could also find yourself in the position of providing ad hoc support or advice to a candidate.
At the present time, online recruitment events are an essential part of your recruitment toolbox, and they are very likely here to stay. Invest in preparation, get comfortable in this environment, and the results may exceed your expectations.
