How Faith Technologies Boosted Employer Branding with a vFairs-Powered Virtual Career Fair

Faith Technologies is a national leader in electrical planning, engineering, design, and installation with locations operating in nine states of the US. With more than 2,300 employees, Faith Technologies is one of the largest privately held electrical contractors in the country. Faith Tech wanted to host a virtual career fair, for the first time ever, to overcome the challenges of in-person events like low attendance, disruption of workflow, limited mediums, and high expense.

Highlights

vFairs was able to design a customized event platform for them that was accessible globally even from mobile devices. The highlighted features of the platform included live webinars, social media plugins, and resource vault functionality. Faith Technologies also enjoyed event marketing consultation to boost event attendance from vFairs experts. 60% of event registrants attended the event with each booth averaging almost 80 visits. vFairs was successful in delivering an outstanding event with a brilliant event engagement score. 

The Challenge

Despite being an enterprise with over 45 years of industry experience, the culture at Faith Technology continues to be anything but old-school. The company embraces innovation at every viable opportunity and helms its employees as the driving force behind its ongoing success. However, reaching its existing employee strength of 2,300 was a tricky task for them since it emphasized building a team that was excited about learning, growth, and taking accountability. The rapidly growing business also mandated a robust talent pipeline that could furnish top candidates as soon as a vacancy came up.

Having previously resorted to in-person hiring events hosted at their office and off-site locations, the HR team at Faith Tech consistently experienced the same underlying problems. Jenny Berndt, Senior Marketing Specialist at Faith Tech explains,

“The challenge we faced with holding traditional career events included low attendance. Due to jobseeker’s busy schedules, it was hard for them to attend in-person events during the day.” 

After repeatedly exhausting hefty Employer Branding budgets at conventional career fairs with dismal job-seeker turnout resulting in low event ROI, Faith Tech knew that some major changes were in order. It was time to go virtual.

The Solution

During their search for a virtual event platform that could help them host their first virtual career fair, the team learned about vFairs. About the platform selection, Jenny says: 

“When we first learned about virtual events, we were immediately intrigued and wanted to learn more. Faith Technologies is an innovative company and is always seeking ways to do things differently. vFairs offered the best features out there which is why we chose them as our partners”.

During various meetings and product demo sessions, it became strikingly clear to Jenny how vFairs would not only solve their most critical event concerns but rather exceed on the event’s defined goals. Here’s how vFairs eradicated each concern:

Globally Accessible Virtual Landscape 

vFairs provided a virtual landscape that was accessible from across the globe. By removing the geographical constraints that plague physical events, the virtual career fair allowed Faith Technologies to reach a global job-seeker base. This enabled them to attract top-quality talent with diverse backgrounds and skill sets. 

On-the-Go Mobile Functionality

Since the event could be accessed from any mobile screen, it further helped in reaching job-seekers who were on tight schedules or on the go. By removing all barriers to entry, the event attendance was catapulted beyond expectations.

Customized Event Platform

Faith Tech wanted its first virtual career fair to mimic its physical events in layout and engagement. By providing a bespoke solution, vFairs delivered on this through an array of branded virtual desks, booths, auditoriums, and halls that informed visitors about the company, its culture, and its rich Employee Value Proposition.

Resource Vault for Effective Information-Sharing

vFairs also catered to the event’s running theme of being an informative experience for visitors regarding Faith Technologies, its services, and plans. To ensure maximum impact in disseminating all this information, the event was equipped with a Video Vault and Resource Center.

It contained company videos, department FAQs, documents on Apprenticeship Programs along with many other interesting articles written by their content team. Special care was taken that the content was compelling, easy to absorb, and even easier to store for later consumption in a personalized visitor Swag Bag.

“They really went above and beyond to ensure our event was set up just the way we wanted it, and within a quick turnaround. The virtual event was not only a convenient experience for job seekers, but it was also informational as we were able to load a variety of videos and documents into the online event for easy reading access,” says Jenny Berndt, Senior Marketing Specialist, Faith Technologies.

Fully Engaged Attendees 

The event fully leveraged the Webinar platform to skyrocket two-way interactions and boost audience engagement. The Live Webinar covering their Apprenticeship Program was particularly popular among attendees owing to the popularity of its topic and the ability of the speaker to answer audience queries instantaneously and initiate interesting discussions. Other pre-recorded sessions on Company Benefits and Career Growth Paths were very well received as well.

Easy-to-Navigate Virtual Booths

The virtual booths were very popular during the event, each averaging a whopping 80 visitors over the course of the day-long career fair. Each booth catered to the specific department that had open vacancies and navigating within a specific booth to reach its current opening, resource materials, and videos was made easy through navigation tabs. Each booth was equipped with its own chat which enabled job-seekers to quickly reach out to the booth representatives and get answers in real time.

Networking Opportunities

A chat forum was also added to enable group conversation and act as a quick notice board for all event-related activities. The event also provided social media plugins to reroute visitors to Faith Technologies’ social media platforms.

The vFairs team ensured that the event was just as engaging and convenient to use for the people at Faith Technologies and Jenny seconds this, 

“The event was a user-friendly way for job seekers throughout the nation to learn about careers at Faith Technologies. It was also convenient for our team members as they were able to multi-task throughout the day while making themselves available to answer questions that attendees had.”

The Results

Faith Technologies’ results from its first virtual career fair using the vFairs platform were highly positive, with attendance surpassing expectations. Anecdotal feedback centered on vFairs’ ease of use and the excellence of the content provided by Faith Technologies. Alongside the massive utility of the webinar platform and the engaging discussions that were made possible through the chat forum, Faith Technologies noted many other positives:

• It took vFairs a few weeks to set up the dynamic event that would otherwise take months, had Faith Technologies gone for a conventional event.
• The event attendance was “substantial”, according to vFairs analytics and team Faith Tech.
• The event saw 60% registrant-to-attendee conversion.
• Consultation with vFairs professionals helped Faith Technologies streamline its external event marketing plans leading to enhanced event awareness and a larger event turnout.
• There were 390+ recorded booth visits and each booth averaged 80 visits during the course of the event.

Faith Technologies has a robust series of future events planned and they intend to use the vFairs platform to carry them out. Regarding their overall event experience, Jenny says, 

“Our overall experience working with vFairs was phenomenal. They were helpful from the very beginning with the set-up process all the way to the actual event day and post-event. They provided detailed instructions throughout and offered quick and thorough replies to any questions we had which is why we will continue to leverage this platform for our national recruitment efforts.”