Next Thursday, March 24^th, Plan A will be having a job fair. We have had quite a few job fairs since I started working at Plan A, but they were located in Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie and at the local colleges. This is the first job fair that we will be hosting in Sudbury! We’re pretty confident in saying that when we do job fairs, we know what we’re doing. There are a few things that are standard at all job fairs, even though each job fair may be different. Today I am briefly going to talk about a few things that must be put in place to ensure that you have a great turnout to your job fair, and that the job fair itself is successful!

• Advertise as much as possible.

We have ads for our Job Fair advertisements all over Facebook, we have posters posted at the employment centers and at all of the post secondary institutions. We are also working on getting a radio ad to get even more publicity! The nice thing about publicity is, even though they may not be able to make it to the event, you are still getting your name out there. If they see the poster and are interested, they will get into contact with you!

• Have enough space.

There is nothing worse than trying to get multiple people to come to an event, only to have to tell them to wait outside because there isn’t enough room inside. For our job fairs, we always book something like a board room or conference room. This ensures that, even though the interviewers may not have time to meet with candidates right away, they have somewhere to sit to have coffee or water, and wait for someone to be available.

• Have refreshments available.

For the job fair next Thursday, we have paid extra to have coffee provided by the hosting site, the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce. It takes that worry away from us and it seems much more welcoming to the guests when they arrive. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy, simply having a few pots of coffee and some ice water will do.

• Take the easy route.

As I just mentioned, we have the Chamber providing the coffee and water for us. We could’ve done that ourselves, but it would’ve been extra work for us. If you market and advertise correctly, job fairs can be very busy. You don’t want to have to worry about whether or not the guests have coffee or water. Leave that up to someone else if possible. If there are any other services that your job fair location offers, look into them and see if they are feasible. If they are, it is worth the cost to save yourself the headache.

• Bring enough supplies.

We are not exactly sure how many people will show up to the job fair next week! As I said, we haven’t done a job fair in the area as of yet, except for at the College. We are going to make sure that we have more than enough questionnaires for RNs, RPNs, PSWs and students. We are also going to make sure that we have enough business cards, pens, swag etc. (If you plan on bringing swag, bring more than enough. You wouldn’t want some candidates to leave with a gift while others leave empty-handed. If you aren’t sure how much you should bring, don’t bring any at all). Running out of supplies makes you look ill-prepared and it also makes the day much more stressful.

• Have enough people.

Even though there are only three employees in the Recruitment department, there are going to be five of us attending the job fair. If someone in your organization has a quiet day and is able to help out, bring them along with you. If it’s quiet they can head back to the office, if not they can help out. As I said, you don’t want people showing up only to find out that they have to sit and wait because you didn’t bring enough people to go through the questionnaires with them. It’s also wise to have a greeter. It’s nice to have someone standing at the door or the main entrance directing people where to go. It makes a difference when you have a friendly face at the entrance to greet them and make them feel welcome as they come in. Remember: these people could be your future employees, or that’s what you’re hoping anyways, so making sure that they have a great first impression of your organization is key. You don’t want them walking away thinking, “I’m not so sure I would want to work for them”. You want them to walk away thinking, “I hope to hear from them soon”.