“How do we bridge the gap between today’s government workforce policies and practices and what they should be in the future? And, how do we compete with the private sector when it comes to recruiting and developing a strong HR team?”

These questions, on the minds of most federal human resources executives and leaders, may not have the doom-and-gloom answers we’re used to hearing.

One of the tools leveling the playing field is virtual job fairs.

A virtual job fair is actually just what it sounds like. It’s a job fair hosted online. However, these job fairs can many times exceed the recruiting results and cost less than the more traditional and physical job fair. Historically, job fairs have been an in-person, physical event. But like everything around us, events have evolved, and online virtual events are becoming a part of every large organizations’ communication strategy. Today, people interact, consume, and share information differently with a multitude of devices, formats, and channels. Brands must shift the way they are using technology to engage these audiences and drive results.

Most importantly, as HR professionals we must change our thinking and go to where the candidates are and communicate with them the way they want to communicate. Not the other way around.

Recently, the American Society for Public Administrators interviewed several Chief Human Capital Officers and other key HR leaders.

Four of the eight key findings federal HR leaders need to follow in order to succeed at their job:

• A nimble, modern system to recruit and hire a diverse and productive 21st-century workforce.
• The ability to attract, fairly compensate, reward, motivate, and retain the right people with the right skills.
• HR professionals with the ability to think and manage strategically, and be true business partners.
• Technology and processes that streamline operations and produce the data and results needed to manage effectively.

It was also agreed that federal HR leaders efforts to build a high performing workforce are being held back by long-standing, systemic, and other dysfunctional practices and policies. The study goes on to cite a major obstacle — outdated hiring systems.

The good news for federal HR leaders, stretched to do more with less, is that technology can be used to effectively address their needs.

Virtual job fairs reduce the barrier to entry for applicants. The Obama administration has made it a goal to make the application process more applicant-friendly. Virtual job fairs can be attended live but also on demand. A virtual job fair can run for several days, 24 hours a day, and be a vital recruiting tool. Recent studies have shown that mobile attendance is skyrocketing. 68 percent of all virtual events are accessed by a mobile device.

Do more with less. A virtual job fair allows recruiters to educate prospects with rich media content that can be used over and over. For example, a hiring manager might fill a fair booth with a video describing both the organization and the job they are trying to fill. This allows the prospect, and hundreds of others, to watch the video in an environment where they feel safe. The prospect can then decide if this is the right opportunity and move to the next stage in the process, or look for a better fit. This is akin to automating portions of the hiring process in order to save valuable time and budget.

HR metrics are also cited as a critical component to being successful. Virtual job fairs include robust reporting tools that allow insight into nearly every action and interaction of virtual job fair attendees. Download reports and metrics on visits to a booth, downloads on company information, how long videos are watched, and more.

Virtual job fairs give hosts the opportunity to create an experience filled with content targeted towards its audience. Presentation and document views are all tracked giving the host insights into the content their attendees are most interested in. Gamification elements, such as trivia and badging, can boost retention and drive interactivity.

These elements are both attractive to the job seeker as well as the hiring manager.

The American Society for Public Administrators survey sums up the challenges and opportunities this way:

“As the federal HR executives candidly described in these interviews, making government a true employer of choice over the long term will require new ways to look at how to attract, develop and retain talent. In other words, new ways to bridge the gap between what is, and what should be.”

Virtual job fairs for federal HR leaders are the first step in the right direction.

Marc Gutman is the chief events officer at Lighthouse Conferencing.

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