2020 has come with challenges for nearly every individual and organization but hiring international teachers this year has proven to be especially difficult. This problem has resulted in a large percentage of schools partaking in virtual job fairs to find qualified teachers without meeting with every single candidate in-person.
Why virtual job fairs are so popular
When the COVID – 19 pandemic hit, many schools across the world were forced to close, and their foreign teachers were sent home. Many of the schools that remained open converted to virtual learning models, and in-person hiring events were canceled for safety reasons.
Even before the pandemic, schools were starting to explore virtual hiring options, but interest has increased rapidly since March when it became a necessity. Many schools have found success in this new and unprecedented way of hiring, seeing it as an opportunity instead of a setback. Here are the top five benefits of hiring teachers via virtual job fairs as opposed to the traditional in-person method of interviewing and hiring.
1. Hiring teachers virtually is more cost-effective than through in-person fairs
One of the main reasons that virtual recruitment fairs are so popular in the education community is the sheer amount of cost savings for schools. A few ways your school will save money by attending a virtual job fair to find teachers:
- Airfare to fly to the location of the event
- Hotel costs and expenses for school employees
If you are like other international schools, you have already budgeted to attend a hiring event. Why not stretch this budget further by using it to attend additional cost-effective job fairs? This way, you get more great hires with less of an investment in terms of both capital and time.
2. The virtual hiring process is similar to the traditional one, but it is more efficient
Registering your school for a virtual hiring event comes with some minimal platform training, but the interview and hiring processes stay the same.
Many virtual job fairs have the same flow as in-person job fairs. Like in-person fairs, teachers will have the opportunity to interact with school leadership attendees, view school information, and attend multiple interviews.
A positive difference that your school will experience during an online hiring event is that you will be connected with more qualified teachers due to the lack of location, time, and monetary barriers for candidates. As a result, you may have to ask 2-3 more extra employees to assist you with interviewing to keep up with the increased demand.
3. Untapped virtual marketing opportunities
By attending a virtual job fair, your school will have more opportunities to market through your virtual booths and by conducting webinars throughout the event. This can help spread awareness of your brand to teachers who may not know you exist yet.
For example, when Teaching Nomad hosts virtual hiring events, we ask schools to upload relevant pictures, videos, brochures, and other marketing documents to their booth. During the event, schools also have the opportunity to conduct webinars, host personal meet and greets, and hold Q&A sessions! These things help generate interest in each school’s brand, allowing them to get a higher number of interested and qualified teachers to sign up for interviews.
4. Speak with more candidates than ever during a virtual job fair
Teachers from all over the world are choosing to attend virtual job fairs because of the lack of barriers needed to do so. With virtual hiring events, there are no travel costs, it is less of a time commitment, and there is no registration fee, allowing more people than ever to participate.
With in-person hiring events, you are limited to a small pool of candidates who were able to come to that specific fair. What about the teachers who were unable to attend? For example, a qualified teaching couple with children may want to attend an in-person job fair, but they cannot find a babysitter which means you never get to meet those qualified teachers.
Virtual job fairs are much more flexible in terms of the time commitment for schools as well as candidates, and those great teachers that may not have been able to make an in-person event will surely sign up for a timeslot during the virtual event.
Additionally, just like in-person job fairs, teachers are likely to still go through a screening process before signing up for the event, which saves you a lot of time. For example, at Teaching Nomad’s hiring events (in-person and virtual), teachers must go through an intensive screening process with one of our recruiters, upload required documents (teaching license, passport, etc.), plus provide us with 2-3 verified references. This allows your school to have all the information about the candidate up front with no surprises, and this can lead to more on the spot offers!
5. Virtual job fairs are efficient
Online job fairs have a way of streamlining many of the tasks that you must do to prepare for and wrap up from in-person job fairs. Online platforms allow you to quickly compile all the resumes that you collect, and you can process those instantly. On top of that, virtual job fairs are built to maximize the number of interactions that you will get with high-quality candidates. By using real-time software to manage your schedule, you will never have unplanned downtime, allowing you to find and speak with the highest number of candidates possible!
Start hiring teachers via virtual job fairs today!
In a year where everything is unpredictable, international recruitment is changing rapidly, but by being adaptable and open to change, you can come out on top. Virtual job fairs are an integral component of a modern recruitment strategy. Speak with us today if you would like more information about our virtual hiring events.
