10 Tips for Running a Successful NHS Recruitment Event
At Just R, we are an expert team built to meet the employee attraction, engagement and retention needs of the NHS. We have worked NHS organisations across the UK to support them in delivering successful recruitment events. Read below for our guide to run a brilliant NHS recruitment event.
To hold a successful event you must first think about your objectives – what do you want candidates to do? What do you want them to know? Use these goals to create clear direction to set your event up for success. Before you even set the date of your event, you must consider all of the steps required to achieve your specific recruitment goals.
See below our 10 tips for running a successful event.
1. Goal setting: Set the objective for the event and be specific.
For example ‘we will offer positions to 20% more candidates than last year, they will be excited to join us and as close as possible to 100% of them will join us on qualifying’.
Make sure the goals are clearly communicated and understood amongst your teams. It is essential that you have buy-in from multiple stakeholders to achieve success.
2. Get your team on board: Who do you want to attend from your organisation? Find out their availability and ensure it matches with the event date. Make sure you are involving people who will engage, inspire and provide the most positive experience possible for potential candidates!
3. Save the date: Promote it as soon as possible! From experience, we have found the optimum time required to promote a recruitment event is 6-8 weeks. You must plan in advance, ideally with a schedule of several events pre-planned across the year.
4. Establish a clear plan: Ask questions such as:
- Will you have a speaker or speakers? If so, what will they say? Will they need AV?
- Will there be interviews on the day? If so, who will take part in panels?
- Will you have stands for departments? If so, who will man them? Do they need equipment?
- What’s in it for the attendees? How can you ensure they have a good experience?
- What are the next steps for attendees and how will you keep them updated post event?
- What do you want attendees to feel? How will you ensure this happens?
5. Advertise: Communicate with candidates through as many channels as possible to promote the event, such as:
- High impact, creative social media campaigns. These have been proven time and time again to be effective at driving event attendance.
- University relationships. A flyer style advert to share with university and partner organisations is a great way to attract students.
- Get staff involved. Make sure staff share the social media campaign to create awareness and drive outreach to their friends and family.
- Posters and banners on site. This is another simple way to drive awareness at a relatively low cost.
- Use ticketing services such as eventbrite. You can simply create an event, with tickets and time slots for interviews. This adds a level of commitment for the candidate to turn up – they have a ticket!
- Shout about your USPs! If you have a new hospital build in progress, state of the art technology or cutting edge research taking part within your organisation make sure candidates are aware. This could be through signage and literature on display or simply key messages which your team have prepared.
6. Pre-event screening: Ensure you have some way of managing registrations. It is no good to host a nurse recruitment event in which 50 HCSW candidates arrive, leaving you unable to fill the necessary vacancies and teams disengaged. A simple pre-event application form is a great way to do this, enabling you to maximise applicant conversion and speed up the recruitment process.
7. Have slick processes: Your event is a representation of your organisation, it should run like clockwork. Remember, every attendee is looking to put their career in your hands and could also be attending an event at your closest competitor. You must stand out.
8. Have a clear follow up process: At Just R we cannot count the number of times in which candidates have contacted us following Trust recruitment events, the reason being that they have been offered positions but no one from the Trust has followed up with them. You must be clear about the next steps and you must follow up with candidates when they expect it, otherwise doubt on their decision will set in.
9. Put the candidate first: Make it uber clear where they are to go – hospital sites are confusing! If possible, remove barriers by offering free car parking; foolproof signage; and ensure staff on site are aware the event is taking place – so if a lost candidate asks for help they won’t be met with a blank stare…
10. Create a positive environment: Finally, once you have put in the prep work, make sure you all have fun. A positive culture is what candidates will buy into more than anything else.
Ensure you are attracting today to inspire the future of healthcare.
