As technology becomes more embedded into our everyday lives, companies that power these innovative products and services are thriving. But the growing skills gap in the technology and software industries makes finding talent to fuel that growth a challenge for talent acquisition leaders — nearly ⅔ of HR leaders say there is a skills gap at their company, up from significantly from previous years.

To combat those gaps, technology companies are investing in workforce training and recruitment. In an already tight labor market, the competition for in-demand technical talent can be fierce — especially on campus. Some major companies like Google and Microsoft have retired college degree requirements in favor of more hands-on experience, hoping to widen their applicant pool. 

Ultimately, leading tech brands are turning to key recruiting events to stand out to candidates. These high-powered talent acquisition teams invest heavily in their presence at career fairs, both on campus and at large diversity conferences like Grace Hopper. But these events not only cost thousands (or more) to participate, they also require hours of staff time to plan, execute and follow-up with the large number of candidates they meet. 

At Yello, our team works with hundreds of leading brands — including approximately 100 of the Fortune 500, as well as fast-growing technology companies and startups. While every company is different, these are the most common pain points when it comes to recruiting for tech companies.

1. Attracting high-potential tech talent is challenging in a crowded field.

At high-stakes recruitment events, your brand’s presence at the event itself can be a make-or-break factor in attracting the right candidates to your booth. Get a leg up on the competition by promoting your employer brand to attendees before the event — building buzz around your booth and ensuring top candidates know what you have to offer.

Solution: Pre-Event Registration & Marketing

Proactively showcase your brand with recruitment event marketing tools — including event promotion, pre-registration and personalized communications and follow-up.

  • Events board & pre-registration pages
  • Email and text campaigns
  • Automated event reminders
  • Personalized communication

A global, fast-growing technology company with a workforce of 1,500+ launched a campus recruiting strategy with Yello — ultimately increasing student applications from 3,000 to 50,000 in 18 months.

2. Difficulties capturing and managing thousands of candidates at large campus and diversity events. 

When technology companies visit students on-campus or attend massive diversity recruiting conferences, they walk away with thousands of paper resumes. It’s a struggle just to sort through and share top candidates with hiring managers — not to mention ensuring nobody gets lost in the shuffle.

Solution: Digital Event Check-In

Eliminate paper resumes with a mobile-friendly check-in portal to capture candidate data — then empower staff to review, evaluate and follow-up in real time.

  • Digital resume and candidate profile capture 
  • Evaluate candidates in mobile recruiting app
  • Instantly advance candidates to next steps
  • Personalized candidate follow-up

One of the largest software companies in the world uses Yello’s digital event check-in to empower candidates to “skip the line” — ensuring talent doesn’t get missed and all candidate information is captured accurately, without the lengthy lines.

3. Sending post-event communications at scale, while creating a personalized candidate experience.

After being on their feet all day at career fairs and diversity conferences, recruiters are faced with hours and hours of candidate follow-up. Between sorting candidates into next steps and crafting personalized messages for each attendee, event wrap-up can take more time than any other part of the recruiting process.

Solution: Simplified Recruitment CRM

Build stronger candidate relationships without the manual work — supported by personalized touchpoints and customizable tags and folders to keep all candidates, actions and engagements organized.

  • Centralized, transparent candidate profiles
  • Actionable dashboards
  • Notes and activity logging
  • Personalized emails and SMS communications

“Tools that solve so many recruiting issues”

“I love the end-to-end solutions they provide, the high level of customer service. We no longer take paper resumes and now follow-up with candidates post-event to add digital resumes… If you are looking for an end-to-end campaign management and candidate management tool, this is for you.”

Cindy L. | Director, University Recruiting and Programs

4. Manual interview scheduling and other administrative tasks eat up valuable recruiter time.

Whether the next step for candidates is an on-campus interview, virtual interview or next-day diversity event interview, interview scheduling is a huge administrative burden for talent acquisition teams. Without automation tools built for recruitment events, finding time on everyone’s calendar can take hours — on top of endless back-and-forth communications.

Solution: Interview Scheduling Software

Stay ahead of the competition at career fairs and high-volume hiring events — accelerate your process with an on-the-spot interview scheduling app that integrates with events management. 

  • Candidate self-scheduling
  • Automated text confirmations
  • Invitation management and RSVPs
  • Post-event actions and follow-up

One of the largest software companies in the world saved more than $2 million with Yello’s interview scheduling due to increased staff efficiency.

Bottom Line: Recruiting Results

Scalability, a strong employer brand and efficient recruitment events are key to hiring top talent for technology and software companies.

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