Leveraging local community events to build your talent pipeline

Local community events hosted by your organisation are an exciting opportunity to build your talent pipeline. As opposed to careers fairs or snooze-worthy networking events, engaging community events should be focused on skill-sharing, empowering individuals, and building meaningful relationships. 

The word “events” when speaking about talent attraction usually conjures up images of a careers fair or networking get-togethers, but this is a common misconception. Local community events hosted by your organisation can be creative and fun if you make your goals about fostering relationships and sharing skills and knowledge.

Anna Sang reporting for Bizzabo states: “Recruiting events are valuable because they provide a type of face-to-face interaction that can foster new relationships in ways that just can’t be achieved online. New, creative recruitment strategies include hosting events that can directly test the skills of the candidate as well as boost your brand awareness in an eye-catching way.

“The attendees who come to your event are extremely engaged and passionate about your industry, why else would they be there? You have the perfect opportunity to talk to your ideal target audience.”

In a recent interview, Todd Raphael from ERE speaks with Elena Valentine about how her organisation, Skill Scout, harnesses the power of events to build their talent pipeline.

Todd begins by explaining how careers fairs typically produce low ROI in delivering successful hires, as opposed to other methods such as employee referrals. Local community events, however, are different.

In a tight labour market, organisations are increasingly leveraging events to build their talent pipeline by using them to brand themselves as experts and thought leaders in their industry. These events are not focused on their organisations specifically.

Valentine shared how Skill Scout achieved success through hosting intimate monthly events and larger quarterly events, creating the opportunity for people in the industry to come together and connect.

Their quarterly events typically have a larger budget and include a keynote speaker or showcase a screening of a member’s work. Monthly meet-ups are less structured and provide more opportunity for networking and connection, with opportunities to gain feedback from attendees on certain products. They have successfully hired people from these events.

For organisations considering hosting an event, Valentine suggests the following.

Location, location, location!

Make your events as accessible as possible. For example, if your organisation is based on the outskirts of town, this might not be the most convenient place for people to travel to. Hosting an event somewhere central, for example at a local coffee shop close to public transport could mean the difference to a successful or poorly-attended event.

Events are long-term opportunities to build communities

Instead of hosting one-off events, consider running an ongoing series of events to maintain contact with people and build your brand. Some people might not be able to attend your first event, but may be able to attend others.

Valentine advises organisations “not to see them as events, but to see them as building a community. It’s a bit of a long-term game. It builds the expectation there will be more events like this. That’s what we see has the best ROI. Instead of just connecting once, you can connect several times.”

Don’t make events organisation-centric

The focus of your event shouldn’t be about making people learn about your organisation. For example, instead of talking about your sales company, host an event about women in sales, bringing in knowledgeable speakers who will help attendees improve their skills.

“It’s coming together to celebrate your industry and to authentically build the skills of these other women whether they work with us or not.”

Maintain the mindset: “how can we help our target demographic become better in their careers?”

Use online spaces to supplement in-person events

Some organisations host online events; however, in-person events are far more effective facilitating meaningful connections. They are more intimate, and there is more anticipation for people to come together.

“Online we see as supplemental to continue the connections you made in person, or to promote your next event to a larger group.”

You can start with online groups to promote your events and allow these avenues to grow into other opportunities and continue conversations.

If hosting an event is challenging to begin with, perhaps consider sponsoring one.

Be inspired by examples of recruiting events, some of which include hackathons, competitions, expos, conferences, and weekend retreats. Spotify hosted “Diversify”, a hackathon designed to attract an equal number of females to males. (Also, a great way to directly test potential candidates’ skills.) LEGO hosts “Brick Factor” where competitors are tasked with completing building challenges.

The opportunities and ideas are endless, so get creative! Prioritise delivering value and building lasting connections with people.

Local community events are an excellent strategy to successfully build positive brand awareness, increase credibility and authority in your field, empower people through sharing knowledge, grow your talent pipeline, and win you successful hires.

Source

To build their talent pipelines and employer brands, companies are hosting local events

Todd Raphael

ERE

10 outstanding recruiting event examples

Anna Sang

Bizzabo