For years, educational institutions have trusted in-person open-house events. It attracted a good number of admission applicants. But it came with its share of hurdles, hubbub, hassle and expenses. Fortunately, post-pandemic, we have come to realize the shortcomings of in-person open houses. Which, as a result, guided us towards exploring the potential of virtual open houses. The world soon recognized that virtual student recruitment is the futuristic approach to global hiring. It certainly benefits prospective students, educational institutions and event organizers alike.
In this text, we will discuss the main reasons as to why virtual recruitment events beat physical open houses. Mainly, it is a talent acquisition practice happening over the internet. Wondering how? Let us explore how student hiring has proved far more beneficial through virtual recruitment events instead of physical open houses.
Limitations with Hosting Physical Open House
Just as physical human interaction serves many good purposes, it also has many limitations. Without a doubt, physical events nearly cost a fortune. It is considered an extravaganza approach to student recruitment. For instance, venue rentals, travelling, stationary, machinery and resource allocation. Likewise, physical events do not promise a large audience as it costs remote audiences their travelling and accommodation. Therefore, it limits your educational institute to only impress the local community.
Altogether, we have listed a few cons of organizing physical open houses:
- Minimal attendee turnout
- Costs time and money
- Long-term set-up process
- Time-taking physical interactions
- Mismanaged event statistical reports
- Harmful impacts of carbon footprint
- Contributes to deadly global warming
Learn more: Why virtual events are better than physical events.
Reasons to Host Virtual Student Recruitment Events
Virtual Student Hiring: Virtual recruitment is the process of hiring students online without the need for physical gatherings. Partnering with a virtual events platform, educational institutions easily set up a virtual open house that welcomes one and all. It is a great opportunity for remote applicants to familiarize themselves with campus life, interact with recruiters, and learn about offered programs. Virtual platforms also allow you to easily join in the hiring event from the comfort of your couch without the need to fly, travel, or show up.
Yet, certain questions occupy our minds when it comes to hosting virtual open houses. Like, Why a virtual open house is better than the physical one? What makes virtual open houses the most effective approach to student hiring? Why must we turn to host virtual recruitment events?
Below are the answers to your reservations. So dig in and learn about the marvels of virtual events.
Surpasses All Barriers
Contrary to physical open houses, a virtual recruitment event saves one from travelling down to a campus building. Students can easily attend the open house event from anywhere in the world. Basically, the platform welcomes a global student base instead of hosting a limited number of local applicants. Crossing the boundaries and binaries, virtual student recruitment helps educational recruiters fill vacant university seats quickly and efficiently.
A virtual open house maximizes its reach by surpassing all barriers. The live human interaction is replaced with online one-on-one interviews. All you have to do is to bring international applicants to a single platform and receive thousands of applications at once. Similarly, students easily log into the event and connect with their dream institute over the Internet.
Immersive Candidate Experience
Virtual platforms do not let you miss much compared to an in-person event. Interestingly, the platform becomes a virtual replica of the actual campus building. For instance, it displays 3D animated entrances, reception, halls, lobbies, corridors, auditoriums, meeting rooms, classrooms, cafeterias and more. With a walk mode, the attendees easily move about the space interacting with the environment. Also, the virtual booths installed in the halls are represented by actual university faculty. So, the moving animated avatars give an impression of a life-like open house experience.
Navigational buttons: The navigational buttons on the screen guide attendees towards their desired locations. For instance, if the person wishes to go to hall 3, the guided buttons at the reception booths easily take one to their destination.
Campus Tour: Students attending the virtual open house come with the hopes of familiarizing themselves with your institute. For that matter, the virtual platform allows you to create a complete virtual tour of your college facilities and campus life. For instance, a virtual tour is a guided video that communicates directly with the viewer. It shows its best picture in the form of an introduction to campus facilities, hostel life, cafeteria, parking lot, sports complex, libraries, labs, offices, classrooms and more. This turns the odds in your favour as the student is well-familiarized with your campus without having to physically visit. Thus, a campus tour is the best approach to securing maximum student applications.
Resource Vault: Prospective students also have access to a resource vault. It has all the necessary information, guides and prospectus details—for instance, academic program guides, co-curricular guides, college yearbooks, student interviews and more. On top, the resource material is downloadable for later access at any time.
Offers Automated Recruitment Process
Remember how physical open houses involved extensive paperwork with student applications? From registration forms to program applications, each student submitted piles of paper. So putting behind the tiring and expensive methods, virtual recruitment tools comes into practice. Here, the students easily create a student profile and submit all their confidential information. Each program booth accepts online student applications.
Later, the recruiters easily access student profiles by typing in the name of each candidate and going over the applications at once. On top, the matching technology helps recruiters filter the most qualified applicants for the academic programs and confirm their seats accordingly. We now have learned that automation of the recruitment process beats the tiring hiring process of the physical open house.
Facilitates Quick Online Engagement
How would you engage an online audience? Basically, a virtual recruitment event allows recruiters to easily connect with prospective students. Be it students, parents or guardians, the live chat tools allow recruiters to engage in live discussions. They attend to their queries and educate them about possible career opportunities. Once all their reservations are clarified, it multiplies the chance for you to win that particular student. Remember, it all comes down to how warmly you welcome, attend, and engage with prospective students. Also, there’s a text, audio or video chat option available to interact with the candidate.
The physical open house is a hassle in itself as it is difficult to attend to each candidate in a timely manner. Whereas a virtual open house allows candidates to schedule meetings with the faculty and interact with them upon their availability. Isn’t it amazing that online interaction tools make human networking and engagement seem so easy? If you are still wondering how virtual interaction tops physical one, then here are some more takeaways:
- Live Q/A sessions are held to attend to queries collectively
- Recorded, live, or on-demand webinar sessions are hosted to educate students on available academic programs
- Live event alerts and notifications are used to push attendees towards benefitting most from the open house activities
- Keynote speaker sessions are also scheduled where the prominent alumni address the audience and guide them towards the best career choices
Check out: A complete guide to virtual open houses for universities and colleges.
Real-time Event Reporting
Just as the carbon footprint determines the success of your physical open house, a virtual open house gives you an accurate online attendee count. (which obviously tops ten times more than the raw footfall). While we are on the topic, we must credit the live metrics of virtual open houses. It offers real-time reports on student attendance, booth activity, live interactions, webinar views, and application counts.
Live activity statistics are recorded as per
- Online attendees
- Online exhibitors
- Active Booths
- Chat logs
Finally, the event reports help gauge the overall event progress and measure the ROIs of your successful virtual student recruitment event.
Learn more on how to plan the best student recruitment event.
Final Thoughts
By all means, virtual recruitment events beat physical open houses. It is a unique experience for the audience as well as beneficial for the recruiters. Virtual open houses are certainly better than in-person ones as it:
- Allows you to access international student applicants
- Ensures global representation for your educational institute
- Helps build candidate pipelines
- Creates innovative and immersive experiences for audiences
- Facilitates environment-friendly virtual event hosting
If you would like to explore your options for a virtual open house, then connect with Virtual Days to host your next remarkable student recruitment event.
