Canadian HR Reporter

www.hrreporter.com 13 invested a lot in diversifying their workforce, but maybe that message hasn't gotten out — this gives those companies an opportunity to showcase the great people of all kinds that work in their organization. And it makes prospects feel welcome when they say, 'Hey, there's somebody like me here, I wouldn't be alone.'" The benefits of recruiting digitally are obvious during the pandemic, but for remote students, they're a godsend, according to Kiloh. "UBC is a dual-campus environment: We have students in Vancouver and students in Kelowna and many have travelled to family homes and this is a way for them to be able to connect with this content [from] whatever time zone they're in and whatever physical location." T he vir tual environment offers an interac tive way for s tudents and employers to connect, so that both sides gain something from the experience, she says. A r e c r u i t e r f r o m R o ge r s , f o r example, was running through some of the company's first-stage interview screening approaches and he had the Win-win for both sides of equation Considering the busy lives of university students, providing a virtual way to connec t fits into their lifes tyle, says Cipollone. "With almost everybody these days, young people are over-scheduled and so, what you get is that the students who show up are not always the students that [employers] would hope to see, so it's inconvenient and it's difficult for them to get to all events they want to get to," he says. "By virtualizing it and taking the place and time element out of it, allowing the students to schedule these conversations on their own, you're much more likely to get people who are genuinely interested and really wanted to speak with you." For employers, virtual career fairs also make sense from a bottom-line perspective, with reduced costs, says Cipollone. "The other piece is that, because it's virtual, we see [employers] going from meaningful recruiting efforts on a handful of campuses, maybe two dozen, to hundreds. And for companies — especially companies that have "Students have been really appreciative of the opportunity to still connect with recruiters." Kim Kiloh, University of British Columbia students give examples of how they might respond to a typical interview question, says Kiloh. " They were able to answer that through the chat function and he was able to give feedback on some of the answers that were coming through and the themes and give advice on how to structure some of those typical interview questions such as 'Tell me about yourself,'" she says. " C e r t a i n l y, f o r s t u d e n t s a n d for recruiters, people value that opportunity to meet face to face in some way, but the technology and the platforms have been secure and pretty successful for us so far." The new norm? Virtual career fairs will grow and prosper in the future, says Barroll. " Ma ny e m p l o y e r s h a d a l r e a d y embraced some of the tools, for example, in video interviewing and in telephone screening as part of the process anyway," she says. "Now, it's going to be a much larger part of how they operate for sure. Looking forward, everyone is looking forward toward the new normal and finding digital solutions to support them in this process because we, at this point, we really don't know how long [the pandemic is] going to last." But recruiting in person will survive in a post-pandemic world, she says. "There's a great deal of benefit to be able to meet the person and to be able to interact with them, to assess them for fit, for their soft skills, for their capacity to communicate effectively and it's part of the socialization that's normal for any human interaction." CHRR

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