Virtual recruiting events have become one of the best tools for employers to engage job seekers and hire right-fit candidates. To ensure a virtual recruiting event is successful, organizations have to track key metrics to understand event outcomes and improve ROI. Depending on the type of recruiting event (for example career fairs may be different than a group info session or networking event), the KPIs may be different. But in general, these eight metrics should be considered to create a data-driven strategy and improve future recruiting events.
Number of Attendees
Tracking the number of attendees tells how well you marketed your event. High attendance rates prove that your marketing efforts were a success. If your attendance was low, be sure to evaluate why your marketing strategies were ineffective. Consider implementing an easy online registration, posting registration links on your website, sending mass email and text messaging, and advertisements on social media.
Return Event Attendees
Once you figure out your total number of attendees, calculate the number of attendees that have been to one of your events in the past. Audience retention is often a good sign that they’re supporters of your brand and are dedicated to becoming a part of your team.
Engagement Rates
Track the number of visits to each booth or recruiter, one-on-one conversations, questions asked, and chat channel traffic. Event participation will tell you how actively engaged your audience was and if you were able to capture their attention. Also track the number of clicks per tab to see what your audience was most interested in.
Length of Online Attendance
This is another method to measure your audience retention. The longer your attendees stayed, the more they enjoyed your event and the more lasting benefits they were able to obtain. It’s important to track the timing of leaves to determine at which points your audience lost interest and decided to go offline. If the majority of your audience left at the same point, you’ll know what piece of your event was ineffective and how to better fit to their expectations in the future.
Hiring Event Conversion
Calculating your hiring event conversion is a simple tactic to understand how effective your recruiting event was. Take the number of candidates hired from the event and divide that number by the total number of attendees.
Hiring Event Sources
Determine where most of your recent hires were sourced from. Was it a networking event, career fair, information session, or some other type of meeting? This will help you track the success of each event and determine which you should invest in more heavily in the future and which tactics to avoid so you’re not wasting money on events that don’t secure new hires.
Offer Acceptance Rates
Once you’ve finished your event and evaluated all qualified candidates, you send out your job offers in hopes that they’re equally as passionate about you, as you are about them. If multiple of these candidates turn down your offer, it’s likely that your proposal just wasn’t as strong as the competitions. To truly evaluate what went wrong, inquire why your offer was rejected. Were they offered more money somewhere else, is the position just not right for them, or were they simply not in a place to accept a job at the time? When you’re speaking with candidates throughout the event, be sure to attract those that are passionate about your organization and serious about joining your team. Don’t forget that the goal of your recruiting event is to hire right-fit candidates that will become long-term employees that add value to your business.
Feedback Scores
Post-event surveys are simple and insightful methods to evaluate the success of your event. Send a survey through email to all attendees to receive their valuable feedback. Include questions using a score rating from 1-10 as well as a few open-ended questions so candidates can provide additional comments. This will tell you which areas your audience enjoyed and which areas need to be improved in the future.
Measuring and monitoring these key metrics will ensure your virtual recruiting events are successful and effective every time. Tracking your ROI will help optimize your event performance and improve hiring results in the future. Please contact us if there is anything we can do to help you get the most out of your next recruiting event.