02/16/2016  //  By deanna kane //  Hiring Events
[socialwrap][socialicon name=”linkedin”][socialicon name=”twitter”][/socialwrap]Attending diversity conferences can result in significant returns, or can drain your recruiting budget and resources, depending on your preparation strategy. Follow these steps to ensure your company’s presence at the diversity conferences you attend result in the highest ROI.

1. Gather historical information

Audit the results of past diversity conferences your company has attended, including the number of qualified candidates per event, the number of interviews secured, how many offers were made, total offers accepted, and what happened to the candidates you met with during previous years.<

2. Set conference goals

Use this historical data to set your new 2016 conference strategy goals and individual conference goals, and create a tactical plan to accomplish each goal. Identify the resources you need to help you execute these tactics.

3. Streamline your candidate experience

If you’re still collecting paper resumes and entering candidate data on spreadsheets, invest in the tools to help you retire this manual process. Implement recruitment software to measure diversity conference ROI and to maximize your company’s presence. If you are looking for leadership’s buy-in on purchasing recruitment software, use our talent acquisition software buy-in guide to help articulate your business case. Once implemented, hold a lunch and learn session prior to each diversity event, so the recruitment team is well-versed on the software they will use at each event.

4. Event tactics

Imagine leaving hiring events with no stacks of resumes to review, and with all post-conference interviews scheduled. Implement recruitment software to allow candidates to upload their resumes on the spot, and to self-schedule interviews on-site. While there will always be challenges with Wi-Fi at events, ensure your recruitment software offers offline access. With offline mode, you’ll be able to continue gathering candidate data, while other recruiting teams will be scrambling to put together an alternative option.

5. Post-event strategy

Once you return back to work post-event, what are your next steps? If you don’t have any plans to reach out to those candidates you aren’t immediately moving forward with, you are missing out on crucial opportunities to build your talent pipeline. Create a candidate communication strategy to ensure your talent pipeline stays informed informed, engaged and excited about your company. Find out the top ways to keep candidates engaged with by following a candidate communication checklist.

Are you looking to take your diversity conference presence to the next level? Download our Talent Acquisition Software Buy-In Guide.