Expanding Talent Pools with Roadshow Events

Guide

Your Talent Pool
Maintaining and Expanding
Using Roadshow Events
Flexibility of Roadshows
Planning

The talent shortage is one of the major recruiting issues faced by companies today.

According to a recent survey by leading staffing firm Manpower Group, the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated things and brought shortages to levels not seen for 15 years.

Almost 70% of companies are currently having trouble filling in open positions, with the biggest problems being recorded in logistics, manufacturing, marketing, and IT.

In light of these numbers, employers can’t allow encounters with interesting candidates to go to waste. It’s vital to expand your talent pool and minimize the need for a full and often stressful recruitment process.

Let’s explore how corporate roadshows can be a great talent pool expansion tool in these competitive times.

What is a Talent Pool and Why is It So Important to Have One?

Let’s say you’re looking for some new home furniture and, after visiting 10 stores, you finally find the fancy sofa or elegant bookshelf you were looking for.

Wouldn’t it be wise to write down which of the other 9 stores sell items that caught your attention? It would surely save you a lot of time and energy when you’re shopping for furniture again.

This is exactly the idea behind a talent pool. This database of potential future employees and collaborators includes workers who are not currently employed by your organization, who have shown interest in the past and whose skills and experience may be needed sooner or later.

A talent pool can comprise those who have applied for a job at your company before but were not hired because that position had already been filled or because you weren’t looking for workers with that specific set of skills at that specific time.

It can also include people who haven’t applied yet but have already shown some form of interest in your organization or industry, as well as former employees (yes, they do return sometimes).

Maintaining and Expanding Your Talent Pool is as Crucial as Having One

If you are serious about managing your talent pool successfully, it’s not enough to write down a list of interesting candidates.

It’s essential to keep potential workers interested in joining your organization in the future. You also need to make sure that your database is regularly updated to take into account changes in both your recruiting needs and each candidate’s work and education history.

Effective talent pool management requires finding engaging ways to keep potential candidates up to date with the latest company news and development, as well as which positions are currently open.

Candidates should get acquainted with your employer brand and get a feel of what it means to work for your organization. Once they join, the new work environment will feel more familiar, and the adaptation process will be much smoother.

It’s also a great idea to keep candidates interested by sending them relevant and personalized content. This means adjusting such content to the current level of skills and experience of each candidate, as well as knowing which communication channel is more likely to reach each potential worker more effectively.

Finally, updating and expanding your talent pool with enough frequency is an essential step for vibrant companies that want to feel the pulse of the current job market and make sure no opportunity is missed.

Roadshow Events: Your Ace in the Hole for Talent Pool Expansion

Traditional ways to expand a company’s talent pool include hiring third-party recruiting companies, regularly scouting platforms like LinkedIn for interesting profiles, attending university campus recruiting events, and paying for ads on search engine and social media channels.

Each of these methods has its pros and cons but relying exclusively on them could prevent you from reaching certain demographics and types of candidates. That’s when more innovative pool expansion tactics come into play.

As opposed to one-time events, roadshow events roll out over a longer period, possibly lasting several months, and allow organizations to reach an audience that is the same time larger and more representative.

For example, a regional airline may organize a series of events for aspiring cabin crew personnel in various smaller airports across the West Coast while a national airline will probably host events in America’s major city airports.

Roadshow Events Using Event Production in Los Angeles

For the same reason, a global airline interested in expanding its talent pool of international flight attendants will be more interested in organizing an airport recruitment roadshow that starts in LAX and ends in London’s Heathrow via Toronto, New York, Madrid, and Paris.

This type of event will allow each type of airline to get in touch with a pool of candidates that is both larger than the one they would find at a one-time airport event and more representative than the one you would find at a generic one-time business event for the airline industry.

After all, what better place to find a large pool of experienced regional flight attendants than the small airports where they walk through every day? And where do international crew members spend most of their working time on the ground if not international terminals?

The Unbeaten Flexibility of Roadshow Events

In contrast to one-time events, roadshow events are extremely flexible because they bring the event to the potential candidates and let them decide how much time they want to spend networking, rather than “forcing them” to drive to a particular location and to free a bigger chunk of their schedule.

Another benefit of a roadshow is that they allow you to gain precious insights on whether certain characteristics of the workforce tend to change from location to location as well as understand how differently your brand is perceived across different territories.

You may end up learning that your bank is the most sought-after employer by regional credit analysts in San Diego but only the third one in Orange County, where a local competitor may have developed a better reputation among job seekers. This information can prove crucial when diversifying your marketing communications mix across locations.

Roadshows also allow you to adjust the event’s atmosphere and visual appeal to your target audience.

For instance, if you are looking to expand your talent pool of biking instructors, a series of events set in open-air and countryside locations may attract more potential candidates than a formal event where people show up in suits and ties.

Depending on the type of talents you’re seeking and the networking environment you are trying to create, roadshows can be organized as a series of educational events, Q&A panels, or interactive experiences.

With Great Roadshow Event Planning Comes Great Success

When it comes to roadshow events, the preparation stage is vital, and choosing an event expert with a proven track record of successful events can make all the difference.

Success depends on numerous factors, from determining whether a roadshow is the right type of event for your company and goals to selecting the right locations based on demographics and feasibility to the right choice of content, themes, and speakers.

It’s important that these decisions are based on reliable data on your target candidates and recruiting goals, as well as a careful analysis of how your previous events have performed and what can be learned from them.

Finally, an experienced roadshow events partner will help you set the right promotion strategy, by making sure that you choose the most effective communication channels and send the right messages to your target audience.

Now that our engines are on, it’s time for the trip to start!

Expanding Talent Pools with Roadshow Events

Guide

What is a Talent Pool and Why is It So Important to Have One?

Maintaining and Expanding Your Talent Pool is as Crucial as Having One

Roadshow Events: Your Ace in the Hole for Talent Pool Expansion

The Unbeaten Flexibility of Roadshow Events

With Great Roadshow Event Planning Comes Great Success

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