Kevin W. Grossman, host of the CandE Shop Talk podcast, recently welcomed Dale Stelter, Director of Business Development at Career Fair Plus, to join the Talent Board’s ongoing conversation about elevating the candidate experience.
You’re invited to keep reading this abridged version or listen to the original interview.
Talent Board (TB): Dale, welcome, and thanks so much for joining me on the Candy Shop Talk podcast. Tell us about yourself and Career Fair Plus.
I have the privilege of guiding our event hosts representing school districts, university career centers, non-profit organizations, and corporations through our platform as they decide which features they need for each planned event. They can customize and elevate the candidate experience with 1:1 reserved meetings, unlimited group sessions, employer branding features, lead collection tools, and deep ROI insights.
TB: Yes, I'm curious about the marketing and hiring challenges you’re helping CF+ customers overcome. But first, will you share some historical perspectives on transitioning from facilitating in-person to virtual events? What role did COVID play in this shift?
Teaching, healthcare, and pharmaceutical are extremely competitive hiring sectors, even two years after COVID began. Which goes to the other part of your question, how is CF+ helping event hosts and recruiters with marketing and hiring challenges?
TB: Right, let’s talk about getting past those frustrations.
mon. Rapid turnover and steep competition for limited talent made speed to hire crucial. Offering a
flexible platform with which employers can integrate early interview stages into hiring events saves time and stress. They can also adjust our software to engage candidates for hourly and/or salary positions. Our marketing guides, email templates, sample social media posts, and best practice tips & tricks simplify promotional activities, too.
TB: We hear that a lot at the Talent Board, too. Speed to hire matters, especially in highly competitive markets. I am curious to know, though, what else differentiates Career Fair Plus from other software platforms helping companies run recruiting events, promote jobs, and hire folks?
Career Fair Plus was founded by four former recruiters with strong software engineering skills. So, ten years later, their expertise is a robust enterprise recruiting platform, and CF+ is getting all kinds of user compliments about our software that makes sense.
Another differentiator is that we built software to support single-employer events based on customer feedback and feature requests. We weren’t just guessing when we designed our platform; we knew–and we’re always asking–how do recruiters want to connect with candidates?
TB: So, CF+ is automatically following trends? No avatars, 3D meeting rooms, or next-world events?
And I’ll add one more thing setting us apart from the competition, which goes back to my first example. Having evolved from in-person to virtual events, we understand how the candidate experience differs at each type of program. So, we keep the software flexible; customers use it for successful in-person, online, and hybrid events.
United Airlines is a perfect example. They need a platform that moves between different types of events to recruit and hire positions ranging from customer-facing hourly staff to remote management.
TB: That’s a lot of significant differentiators; thanks for the detailed explanations. You mentioned hybrid events. Are you finding that more of your customers are doing more hybrid programs these days?
TB: Absolutely! And speaking about what’s best for candidates, let’s talk more about engaging them during the recruiting process. Look, the unfortunate recruiting reality is that most applicants don’t get the job. But, as long as they’re competing–until they get a “no, thank you” they want to clear communication, engagement, and feedback. So, how does Career Fair Plus differentiate regarding candidate engagement?
Also, the Great Resignation revealed a realignment of candidate values. They’re shortlisting potential employers based on the company’s work environments, how they develop personal & professional relationships and knowing the recruiters.
Recruiters can share deeper, more relevant information about a company and the available positions. The little blurb inside a job posting is gone. Instead, recruiters can share corporate identities, visions, benefits information, and the type of candidate they seek. Employers can also showcase videos to connect personally before, during, and after the event, which maintains engagement throughout the hiring process.
TB: All of our candidate experience data supports the importance of ongoing engagement and communication. As we wind down here today, share a little about how the Career Fair Plus platform helps customers measure the success of their recruiting events. What kinds of data and analytics are you providing so that they know this is working? How do they know they're pushing the needle in the right direction at the end of the day? What do they see in their CF+ dashboard?
As for upcoming enhancements, our Direct Chat and Lead Collection for campus recruiting events features will release soon. And we’re excited about our initial work getting API to directly feed it into ATS systems.
TB: Thanks for that great peak behind the Career Fair Plus curtain. And also, thanks so much for being on the CandE Shop Talk podcast. I really enjoyed our conversation, and I’m looking forward to meeting you in person someday soon. We appreciate Career Fair Plus supporting the candidate experience and being one of our valuable sponsors.
TB: I like ending on a more personal note since we all talk so much about our work. What do you like to do outside of helping
TB: Wow, that's wonderful. Thanks for sharing that. My family rescued a pug terrier mix named Jenny from a shelter that takes in dogs from older people that can't take care of them anymore.
To our audience, thank you for listening to another episode of The CandE Shop Talk podcast. For more information about The Talent Board, our candidate experience awards, and benchmark research visit, thetalent board.org.
Career Fair Plus is an enterprise recruiting platform for hosting virtual, in-person, and hybrid career fairs and recruiting events.
Talent Board and the Candidate Experience Awards focus on the elevation and promotion of a quality candidate experience with industry benchmarks that highlight accountability, fairness, and business impact.