Recruiting top talent should be an ongoing cycle for your business. After all, you need people in order to keep growing. Sure, you can accomplish a lot with the staff you have, but you will eventually reach capacity. The last thing you want is for your staff to become too overloaded. This not only leads to employee burnout, but also causes fulfillment issues for the client.

Unhappy employees and unhappy clients means big trouble for your business.

The best solution to this is to create an ongoing process of recruiting. Job & internship fairs are great events for face-to-face interaction; they can also be a great opportunity to network with other businesses outside of your industry. You never know where you’ll run into top talent. And, if they happen to show up in the pool of hopefuls, you want to make sure you’re there to connect with them.

Getting to the job fair is one thing, but once you’re there, standing out is an entirely different situation. You’re going to be in a huge room, packed table-to-table with other employers, possibly even competitors. If you want as much foot traffic to your table as possible, much like your ecommerce site, you need to grab attention and offer something valuable.

Here are just a few best practices and tips to stand out from the crowd:

1. Complete your company listing & description.

Most job fairs have a listing online as well as a printed listing that’s handed out to students. To ensure the right applicants can find you and to stand out among other companies, make sure you complete your company listing & description. This will oftentimes be your first impression for potential talent, so make sure you spend some time crafting a description that not only grabs their attention, but represents the culture of your company as well. You want to make sure you spend your time talking to the right people and crafting the right skills – a complete listing with a well-written description will start you off on the right foot.

2. Don’t limit yourself to one major.

You never know where your talent will be. Sure, there will be certain majors that, at least on paper, are better-suited to your desired skills; however, you may just find the person with the skills and passion you want is in a completely different major. Don’t be afraid to branch out. You never know who you might find if you do, or who you might miss if you don’t.

3. Don’t be afraid to make the first move.

Students will wander by your table as they move through the job fair, a lot of them may even wander around a looking little lost – don’t be afraid to be the one to reach out and break the ice. If you really want to talk to a certain major, like engineering, simply asking, “Engineering?” will help start a conversation. Two things happen at this point, they say yes and you start talking to them, or they say no and you continue the conversation to find out what major they are. Either way, it gets the conversation started and you now have had a chance to chat up exceptional talent you otherwise would have missed.

4. Make your table easy-to-find.

When it comes to attracting attention, you’ll be competing with a lot of other employers. You’ll be packed table-to-table and you want to make sure students walking by will take notice and the students looking for you can find you easily. Branded tablecloths can make your table stand out a little bit more. If you have a banner stand as well, that’s even better. If you don’t have a tri-fold taking up space on your table, try putting your banner stand on top of your table with your other materials surrounding it; with the added height, your banner stand becomes a beacon for your brand.

5. Swag it up.

People love swag. Free stuff is a great way to draw attendees to your table, especially college students. They’ve been conditioned to show up to events for free t-shirts, water bottles, lanyards, etc. So, if you’re doing a job fair where most of the attendees are college students, branded swag is a supplemental material worth bringing along. When it comes to branded materials, you have a lot of options, like:

  • Pens or pen/stylus hybrids
  • Magnets
  • Stickers/decals
  • Keychains/lanyards
  • Water bottles
  • Frisbees
  • T-shirts
  • And more!

If you can think of it, you’ll be able to find a way to brand it. So, it’s just a matter of finding what sort of swag fits your company culture and bringing it along to your events. T-shirts, if designed for anyone to wear, are a great way to get some free advertising as well. In theory, anyone who takes a t-shirt is willing to wear it and, when they do, it’s free advertising for your company.

For your next job fair, think of it as you would a marketing campaign. Think about your objective and your target audience, then figure out what you need to do to get the traffic to your table and convert (in this case, start a conversation with potential talent). Implement these tips to stand out, grab attention, and make your table the central hub for your next employee.