Virtual career fairs are a great opportunity for career centers to reach more employers and students than possible through in-person events. Therefore, they’re also a great way to connect more job seekers to more jobs. But these virtual events also allow career centers to become profit centers and generate additional revenue by offering employers additional benefits at an additional cost. Here are seven add-on offerings that create an effective hiring event for employers and create a more profitable opportunity for career centers.
Charge for Employer Booths
Most colleges, universities, professional associations and regional workforce development organizations already charge employers for booths, but if you don’t, you should. It’s a valuable service and one the most effective ways to find and evaluate talent. Career fairs should also charge employers based on the number of booths they have. For example, each employer could be allocated one booth for a flat base fee and each additional booth should cost extra. Larger organizations with multiple open positions, departments or subsidiaries will likely require more than a smaller organization. One booth could be also used for information and Q&A sessions while another booth could be used for one-on-one conversations or interviews.
Charge per Employer Attendee
Employers should be allocated a specific number of attendees per booth at which they’ll pay a flat base. Any additional attendees including executives, alumni, or recruiters should be an additional cost. Employers can make the decision of how many employers to bring based on their hiring goals. If they plan to talk to a large number of students, they may need more attendees to keep up with the traffic flow and will therefore pay more to the career fair host. GradLeaders makes it easy to not only charge for booth but also charge per attendee and offer additional services for customizable fees.
Charge for Advertisements
Give employers the opportunity to pay for advertisements and sponsored messages. Many employers will be willing to pay an additional cost to ensure their attendance rates are high at the event. Career centers can send out emails and texts on behalf of the organization to get students excited to speak with them at the event and drive traffic to their booth. Employers should also have the option for additional branding at the event and sponsored ads on the schools’ website and social media sites. With GradLeaders, you can even send broadcast messages in-app to all participants during the event.
Charge for Event Surveys
Career centers can send out pre- and post-event surveys on behalf of employers to receive non-biased feedback. Pre-event surveys can evaluate how well a student knows the company and how interested they are in their open opportunities plus offer valuable insights to the employer prior to the event. Post-event surveys can evaluate how engaging employers were at the event, how much students were able to retain, and how interested they are after speaking with them at the event. GradLeaders make it really easy to survey event registrants and specific booth attendees before, during or after an event.
Charge for Data
GradLeaders also makes it easy for employers to create resume books of candidates they interact with at the event. But career centers have unlimited reporting and analytics tools available as well. Give employers the option to pay for the additional data collected from the career fair. Many employers are likely to pay for the information provided to get a better understanding of their employment brand and event ROI. The data collected can tell employers how many visitors they had at their booth, specific demographic or job seeker profile data, how long each attendee stayed, the number of return booth attendees, and their overall engagement rates.
Charge for Post-Event Mini Sessions
Schools should also offer employers the chance to host office hours, info sessions, or other single company events with target job seekers after the event. This would be a chance for employers to meet with their top candidates in a more secluded environment where they don’t have to compete with other companies. GradLeaders also offers highly-customizable tools for companies to host their own dedicated events the way they want to.
Charge for Exclusive Sponsorship Packages
Bundle these offerings, plus additional benefits, into employer sponsorship packages and create tiers (i.e. Silver, Gold, Platinum) that you can charge premiums for during the virtual career fair registration process. You can even limit these sponsorship options to a specific number of sponsors per tier to create FOMO. Sponsors should get additional benefits and exposure you can only get by being a sponsor (i.e. logo on job-seeker dashboard, premium placement in marketing, exclusive mentions during the event, dedicated timeslots, etc.).
Offering these additional employer benefits will help career centers increase their revenue to the point that the event pays for itself and then some. For example, if your virtual career fair allows for 50 employers and you charge $250 per booth, you’re already making $12,500 just on your employer flat base fee and cost per booth. By offering these additional services, schools and other host organizations can generate enough revenue beyond the cost of the event and that profit can be put towards office tools and supplies.
Need help? We’d love to share other best practices we’ve heard from our partners and help you make your next virtual career fair a revenue generator. Contact us today!